Former Holley Employees File Federal Lawsuit

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OXFORD – A federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday morning by eight former employees who worked at the Holley Automotive Division of Colt Industries and/or BorgWarner claiming that exposure to an industrial solvent used at the plant caused cancers and other health problems.

Tuesday’s lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi and is the first of multiple suits that will represent more than 800 former employees. All have come forward with cancers and other conditions caused by exposure to trichloroethylene, or TCE, according to attorneys George Hollowell and Andrew Tominello with Hollowell Law Firm, the plaintiffs’ attorneys. Trial Lawyers for Justice will be co-counsel in the case.

The lawsuit alleges that the people and environment in Water Valley were poisoned for more than 50 years with TCE used at the plant. Eight former employees – Odester Andrews, Excell Vance, Josephine Martin, Eddie Foster, Billy Harris, Joan Berryhill, Patricia Camp and Clayfers Walton – are named as the plaintiffs in the lawsuit and suffer from cancer and other health complications stemming directly from the prolonged and continuous poisoning of the air, water and soil, according to the suit.

Hollowell said a second suit is expected to be filed next week and a third one later this summer with hundreds of former employees.

During a press conference Tuesday, Vance stated he only missed two days of work during a career that spanned over three decades at Holley Carburetor and BorgWarner.

“Over the time, a lot of sickness began to happen at BorgWarner. It got my attention that a lot of my co-workers were dying,” Vance told the Herald.

Vance also said he was diagnosed in 2020 with Multiple Myeloma.

The cancer is alleged to have been caused by 50 years of illegal and irresponsible dumping and discharge of TCE beginning in 1972 by the Holly Automotive Division of Colt Industries (later renamed Coltec and acquired by EnPro Industries), according to the lawsuit.

Defendants named in the lawsuit include Enpro Industries, Enpro Holdings, Inc., Dextrex Corporation, Italmatch SC, LLC and Italmatch DW, LLC.

BorgWarner and the current plant owner, Solero Technology, do not have environmental liability at the site and are not defendants in the lawsuit, as EnPro Industries assumed all liability when the plant was sold to BorgWarner.
Allegations in the lawsuit center on the use of a vapor degreaser manufactured by Detrex Chemical Industries, Inc. to remove oils, grease, dirt, metal shavings and other debris and contaminants that accumulated on the automotive parts during the fabrication process. The degreaser used TCE to clean the parts.

The lawsuit states that employees would place the parts into a wire basket and lower it into the degreasing unit and start the machine. The degreaser would bathe the parts in TCE liquid and vapor until fully cleaned. The Detrex degreaser was a large unit that required a substantial amount of TCE to operate and Coltec installed a 4,000 gallon storage tank for storing the unused TCE. A 1,000 gallon storage tank was also installed to hold the liquid TCE waste.

According to the lawsuit, Coltec, on at least one occasion, instructed employees to open the valve on the 1,000 gallon tank and drain the TCE waste into a ditch behind the facility.

“The very next day after that intentional discharge, a Coltec employee noted approximately 20 dead turtles in the ditch and reported it to his manager and several other co-workers,” the suit continues.

The suit alleges that Coltec also allowed the 1,000 gallon tank to overflow with TCE waste and pour down on the ground. Coltec also had its employees spray the TCE waste in the gravel parking lot and around buildings at the facility to control weeds and knock down the gravel dust. Coltec also told employees to take home as much TCE waste as they wanted to kill the weeds in their own yards.

“Coltec even gave large quantities of TCE waste to the Yalobusha County Road Department to spray on county roads and rights-of-way,” the suit states.

Coltec continued using TCE as a degreaser and solvent at the facility until January, 1987, and during a 15 year period, from 1972 to 1987, the company purchased at least 80,000 gallons of TCE. The company only responsibly disposed of approximately 5,775 gallons during that time according to the lawsuit.

“That Coltec was not concerned with disposing of its TCE waste responsibly is evident from the fact that it did not have any sort of plan or procedure in place for the responsible disposal of its TCE waste,” the suit also states.

“Instead, Coltec decided it would use Mississippi as its dumping ground for hazardous waste and save the expense of hiring a licensed chemical disposal company to dispose of its TCE Waste.”

Coltec quit using TCE as a solvent in its degreasing equipment in the late 1980s, but the volume of TCE allegedly entering into the environment created a plume of TCE emanating from the facility that covers approximately 340 acres of land, extending in a northerly direction from the plant toward Otoucalofa Creek, according to information EnPro presented to MDEQ.

In 2017, BorgWarner took steps to reduce workers’ TCE exposure with increased filtration and air purification inside the plant.

(Editor’s Note: At presstime Tuesday, this was a developing story. Updates will be posted online at yalnews.com)