Ohio school district sues Ineos and Lanxess

By Frank Esposito (PN)

Addyston, Ohio -- An Ohio school district has filed a lawsuit against Ineos ABS USA Corp. and its majority owner, Lanxess Corp., seeking damages for alleged air pollution from an ABS resin plant operating in Addyston.

The board of education of the Three Rivers Local School District - located in the far corner of southwest Ohio - filed the suit Nov. 24 in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court in Cincinnati. The board is seeking unspecified damages from Ineos ABS and from Lanxess, which owned the plant before forming a joint venture with Ineos Group in 2007.

The district closed an elementary school located across the street from the ABS plant in 2005 after the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency reported unsafe levels of ABS feedstocks acrylonitrile and butadiene in the air near the school, officials said in the filing.

The district - with about 2,000 students - has been unable to re-open the school, causing crowding in other schools, officials added.

Officials with Ineos ABS and laxness could not be reached for comment. In a Nov. 28 Associated Press story, Lanxess spokeswoman Terri Fitzpatrick said the firm “does not believe that emissions from the facility endangered the health, safety or welfare of the public.”

No court dates have been set in the case. Bohannon declined to specify an amount that the district hopes to receive from the lawsuit.

From Plastics News (A Crain publication)

Public School Closed by Factory's Pollution report from CourtHouse News, (US - Ohio)