2021.04.30_CCO_ChemoursPenaltyPaymentLetter

Joel M. Gross
+1 202.942.5705 Direct
[e-mail]

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP
601 Massachusetts Ave., NW | Washington, DC 20001-3743 | www.arnoldporter.com

April 30, 2021
Francisco Benzoni
Special Deputy Attorney General
North Carolina Department of Justice
PO Box 629
Raleigh, NC 27602
[e-mail]

Re: Penalty Assessments against Chemours
Dear Mr. Benzoni:
With an e-mail dated March 31, 2021, Sheila Holman, then Assistant Secretary
for the Environment, transmitted four civil penalty assessments, related to Chemours’s
activities taken under Paragraph 12 of the February 2019 Consent Order and the October
2020 Addendum. The assessments identified procedures that could be utilized if
Chemours sought to contest the assessments. Chemours has decided not to contest any of
the assessments, and to pay the referenced penalty amounts. Chemours is doing so (i) to
avoid contested proceedings with DEQ, (ii) without conceding each of the factual
allegations and legal assertions that are contained in the assessments, many of which
were disputed in Chemours’s responses to the underlying Notices of Violation, and (iii)
to enable Chemours to focus its full attention on timely and fully completing the many
tasks that it has committed to under the Consent Order and Addendum. Chemours looks
forward to DEQ’s review of the updated Outfall 003 Water Collection System Operations
and Maintenance Plan, which will be submitted next week, and the previously submitted
Soil and Material Waste Management Plan.

We noted that each of the four assessments had different provisions and timing
for payments. To ease in your review, the following is Chemours’s plan concerning the
payments:

 Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources, Bladen County LQS-2021-
003: This assessment has already been paid.
 Division of Waste Management, Complaint #IS262001: This assessment will
be paid within 60 days of March 31, 2021, as provided in the notice.
 Division of Water Resources, Case No. LV-2021-0079: This assessment will
be paid within 30 days of the receipt of the Certified Mail transmission of the
notice, as provided in the notice.

April 30, 2021
Page 2

 Consent Order, Stipulated Penalty Demand: The Consent Order does not
provide a timetable for payment of stipulated penalties (although we are aware
that DEQ had requested payment within 30 days). Chemours has begun
processing this payment and expects it to be completed within 15 days.

Please let me know if you would like to discuss any of the foregoing.

Sincerely,

Joel M. Gross

Cc: Sushma Masemore, DEQ
William F. Lane, DEQ
Todd Coomes, Chemours
Dawn Hughes, Chemours
John F. Savarese, WLRK