A company that transports plastic pellets agreed to pay $ 1 million to settle a pollution process, almost two years after groups of rice-sized nuggets were spotted on the beaches in the Charleston area.
The suit was opened after heaps of tiny white “nurdles” surfaced on Sullivan’s Island in the summer of 2019. Plaintiffs Charleston Waterkeeper and Coastal Conservation League argued that Frontier Logistics was to blame for the spill. The Texas-based company has denied guilt.
Waterkeeper and CCL were represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, which presented the proposed agreement on Wednesday morning. The money from the deal, paid over four years, will be put into a fund to invest in water quality efforts at Charleston Harbor.
“It’s a big win for clean water,” said Andrew Wunderley of Waterkeeper. “We are happy that Frontier has taken on the role and is investing that money.”
It is one of the largest payments ever made to resolve a case of water pollution in South Carolina, although a separate lawsuit over a pipeline leak in the north of the state was closed for $ 1.5 million last year. Frontier will also pay plaintiffs’ attorney fees of $ 225,000.
Paul Heard, vice president and general counsel for Frontier, declined to comment because he had not yet received a certified copy of the agreement from the court. It was filed in federal court late Wednesday afternoon. District Judge David C. Norton will have to approve the deal, which is expected.
Frontier was the likely culprit for the plastic spill, the plaintiffs said, because of the Union Pier facility used to pack the plastic pellets spread over Charleston harbor waters. Frontier argued that the recovered nurdles could not be traced to them and has since moved its operations to a warehouse in North Charleston. The company admitted no guilt in the deal.
Frontier Logistics, a company that transports tiny plastic “nurdles”, used to use this location at the Union Pier Terminal. Andrew J. Whitaker / Team
Frontier also agreed to allow an independent auditor to inspect the site and receive suggestions on how to ensure that plastics do not escape.
“I think this agreement is an opportunity for Frontier’s facilities to be the gold standard for similar companies,” said Laura Cantral, executive director of the Coastal Conservation League.
The end of the process would also remove some potential legal risk for the Port Authority of the State of SC.
SPA operates the Port of Charleston and helped Frontier pay for initial cleaning on Sullivan’s Island. He stated that plastic exports are a potential growth area for the port, as refineries are looking for shipping options outside the Gulf of Mexico.
SPA was not a defendant in the lawsuit, but the claimants tried to obtain documents related to the agency’s leak through a discovery. SPA refused and tried to argue in court that it was not subject to this investigation because it was a state agency.
Before the agreement was reached, SPA could have been considered in contempt by Norton for not providing the documents. A conference on whether the port group should be censored was held in December, but the judge had not yet decided.
Nurdles are raw plastics that are molded into a bunch of consumer products and packaging. It’s just a form of waste that ends up in Charleston harbor – the estuary has about 7 and a half tons of plastic waste floating in it. Debris ranges from plastic grocery bags to particles that wear out of rubber tires.
“Plastic pollution is a big problem and (pellets) are a component of that,” said Cantral.
Talk to Chloe Johnson at 843-735-9985. Follow her on Twitter @_ChloeAJ.