School district drops lawsuit after Lanxess donates $750,000

ERJ staff report (R&PN)

Cincinnati, Ohio -- Ohio's Three Rivers Local School District has dropped its lawsuit vs. Ineos ABS USA Corp. and Lanxess Corp. after Lanxess made a $750,000 donation to the district.

“Lanxess's donation will assist the school district in expeditiously moving forward with the district's school revitalization plan,” Three Rivers superintendent Rhonda Bohannon said in a June 1 news release.

“Despite its strong position in this case, the donation demonstrates [Lanxess's] history and commitment to the community as a good corporate citizen,” officials with Pittsburgh-based Lanxess said in the release.

The district had filed the suit in November in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court in Cincinnati, seeking unspecified damages for alleged air pollution from an ABS resin plant operating in Addyston, Ohio.

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 lawsuit.

The district-with about 2,000 students-has been unable to re-open the school, causing crowding in other schools, officials added. The district has divided some classrooms, held classes in a cafeteria and moved tutoring sessions into hallways to handle the space crunch.

Lanxess and Ineos denied liability in the case, according to the release, which came from the Cincinnati office of attorney Stanley Chesley.

Bayer Corp.-which spun off Lanxess in 2004-bought the Addyston site from Monsanto Co. in 1995. Lanxess then included the plant in a joint venture with Ineos in 2007 before Ineos became its sole owner in 2009.

Officials with the school district and with Lanxess and Ineos could not be reached for further comment.

From Rubber & Plastics News (A Crain publication)