A federal appeals court has overturned a ruling that the Chemours Chemical Company must cease violating its water pollution permit at the company’s Washington Works plant along the Ohio River.
The decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifts a court order issued 10 months ago in a case brought by the West Virginia Rivers Coalition.
A three-judge 4th Circuit panel concluded that the lower court ruling was based on a faulty analysis of how to define “irreparable harm” from potential drinking water contamination from the plant’s discharge into the Ohio.
“A Clean Water Act violation is serious,” the opinion said. “That’s why Chemours entered an administrative consent order with the EPA. That’s also why Rivers Coalition may bring a citizen suit against Chemours. But on the record below, a preliminary injunction is a step too far. For that reason, we vacate the district court’s entry of a preliminary injunction.”
Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr., a Trump appointee, wrote the opinion. Joining in the decision were Judges Paul V. Neimeyer, an H.W. Bush appointee, and Allison Jones Rushing, a Trump appointee.
In August 2025, U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin ordered Chemours to stop violating its discharge limits for pollution, including PFAS, or “forever chemicals” into the Ohio, which supplies drinking water for more than five million people.
The 4th Circuit said that, contrary to Goodwin’s ruling, irreparable harm does not include irreparable harm to the public, but must be irreparable harm to the specific party seeking an injunction.
The appeals panel also said that Goodwin’s opinion incorrectly concluded that a “continuing violation of federal environmental law” constitutes irreparable harm, and that an “excess discharge” of forever chemicals “clearly causes irreparable harm.”
“Just as violating a permit doesn’t give rise to a presumption of irreparable harm, violating a permit cannot automatically constitute irreparable harm,” the panel’s opinion said.
Chemours said that the company is reviewing the opinion and said it has complied with Goodwin’s order since it was issued in August.
“Chemours will continue to operate its Washington Works site safely and in compliance with the discharge permit limits on which the preliminary injunction was based,” Jess Loizeaux, a Chemours spokesperson, wrote in an email. “Washington Works has worked tirelessly to reduce its PFAS discharges by increasing sampling and monitoring of process streams, improving facility housekeeping procedures, and rerouting additional process water streams through carbon abatement systems.”
The West Virginia Rivers Coalition did not comment.