Three months ago, the Chemours Company settled legal challenges with state and federal governments and citizen groups over drinking water contamination. Now, neighbors of the chemical giant’s Wood County plant have proposed a class-action lawsuit alleging Chemours has polluted their homes for years.
Aimee Cross and Jason Goff live near the plant’s landfill. In a class-action complaint, they say that hazardous chemicals, including PFAS, were released from the Washington Works Plant’s nearby landfill, draining into their land and the Ohio River. They say their homes have lost value, and that they are no longer able to fully enjoy their land. They want the pollution cleaned up and to be repaid for damages to their properties.
The complaint comes after the West Virginia Rivers Coalition unsuccessfully asked the federal courts to require Chemours to immediately comply with pollution limits under the Clean Water Act.
Now residents are proposing a class-action lawsuit focused on residents’ property damage and health concerns.
PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” are chemicals that do not break down naturally and can cause a variety of ill health effects, including reproductive and hormonal issues, developmental delays in children and increased cancer risk.
In late 2025 Goff saw men in hazmat suits around the Chemours landfill, the complaint says. The sight prompted him to investigate, and through his research he discovered contamination.
Previous lawsuits offered benefits to the state of West Virginia, attorneys for Cross and Goff told Mountain State Spotlight. Now they’re hoping for a direct benefit to the people affected.
“The families who call this community home deserve to know their property is safe and that those responsible for any contamination will be held accountable,” Ben Ware, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a press release.
The complaint proposes to include all people who live, own property or use ground and surface waters near the landfill and the pathways it drains through. Cross and Goff want the alleged contamination to end, and they are seeking continued medical monitoring for themselves and all other residents similarly suffering.
A Chemours spokesperson declined to comment on the case but said the company takes environmental responsibilities seriously.
A history of pollution lawsuits
The complaint is the latest in nearly three decades of legal battles between West Virginians and Chemours, and its predecessor company, DuPont.
The West Virginia Rivers Coalition sued Chemours in December 2024 for discharging toxic pollutants from its Washington Works plant into the Ohio River at higher amounts than it was allowed to under federal law.
Last August, a federal judge ordered the company to immediately comply with its pollution permit.
In June, an appeals court overturned that order. Shortly afterward, the Trump administration, along with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, entered into a settlement mandating that the Wood County plant comply with pollution limits and spend millions of dollars on upgrades to reduce toxic discharges.
The Rivers Coalition settled with Chemours soon after.
Wood County’s PFAS battle went public in 1999 when a local farmer sued DuPont after his cattle began to die off downstream of their new landfill. The case prompted a two-decade legal battle. DuPont and Chemours in 2017 settled over 3,500 cases of health problems from various lawsuits.
Ware and David Dobson, lawyers for Cross and Goff, said that past litigation put a big focus on drinking water, while their proposed lawsuit focuses on the harm caused to humans exclusively from chemicals coming onto their land and non-consumable water sources.