Century Aluminum Hit with Class Action Lawsuit in South Carolina Over Smelter Emissions

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Century Aluminum Company faces a proposed class action over its allegedly negligent emissions of harmful aluminum oxide, or alumina dust, and other dangerous particulates into the environment near its Mount Holly aluminum smelter in South Carolina. 

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The 48-page complaint was filed by 14 Goose Creek, South Carolina residents who allege Century Aluminum’s smelter in March and April of this year began emitting “significantly greater quantities” of harmful particulates—microscopic solid particles—into the air. Then, in September, the smelter’s emissions control system malfunctioned at least four times, causing substantial amounts of alumina particulates to become suspended in the air in and around Goose Creek, the filing says. 

According to the complaint, area residents began to suffer irritation, itching, swelling, congestion, sinus problems, shortness of breath, bloody noses and headaches, among other respiratory ailments, after inhaling airborne particulates from Century Aluminum’s Mount Holly smelter. At the same time, residents’ property, including homes, cars and grills, was damaged and scratched as particulates from the air began to settle, and pets were put at risk as the particulates were deposited on lawns, the case says. 

Rather than shut down the smelter after learning its emissions control system had failed, defendants Century Aluminum and subsidiary Century Aluminum of South Carolina continued to operate the plant and disperse harmful particulates into the air, the lawsuit alleges. 

“Defendants knew or learned from examination of the emissions control system that the filter bags were failing and that accelerated scale growth in the Smelter was causing increased pressure in the emissions control system and bag failure,” the complaint charges. 

Per the case, although Century Aluminum reportedly attested that it would correct the problems that caused the emissions control system to malfunction by roughly mid-October, the company continued, and has continued, to operate the smelter knowing that the crucial safety system may break down once again. 

According to news reports, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control is investigating residents’ complaints about gritty white dust produced from the plant, which has been in operation for more than 40 years. 

In an October 2 social media post, Goose Creek Mayor Greg Habib shared that area residents are “understandably concerned” about the alumina dust emitted from the Mt. Holly facility. Habib stated that the white alumina dust, produced during the smelting process, is not supposed to leave the plant and that the retention of alumina is in fact “an important part of the plant’s ability to make more aluminum.” 

Habib added that the excess emissions may have been caused by an “unusual” failure of the facility’s baghouse and that Century Aluminum is investigating whether filters purchased from a new supplier, or “recent episodes of high pressure in the bag house,” are the culprit. 

Per a November 9 news report, the federal Environmental Protection Agency said Century Aluminum will need to get more public input before it can raise its output of pollutants, as two environmental groups have questioned the methods used by the South Carolina Department of Health and Control when the plant’s air pollution control permits were changed. 

The lawsuit looks to cover all persons who, continuously from September 3, 2023 through September 30, 2023, resided on property located at or within seven miles of a stack emitting particulate matter from the Mount Holly smelter. 

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