The legal dispute between Krispy Kreme and Fairfax County over a destroyed sewer system has descended into name-calling, with the doughnut giant blasting the county’s actions as “shameful.”
The dueling lawsuits are growing more vitriolic, with each side blaming the other for the demise of pipes and sewer equipment that carried waste from Krispy Kreme’s Lorton plant.
The county, which lodged the $19 million suit against Krispy Kreme, argues that years of dumping corrosive grease, yeast and other doughnut byproducts clogged and eventually broke the system. The company, which calls the county’s charges unfounded, has filed a countersuit in response, arguing Fairfax officials operated a sewer system with “faulty design and construction.”
In a recent federal court filing, Fairfax attacks Krispy Kreme’s environmental record as bad enough to put it on the equivalent of the Clean Water Act’s “Hall of Shame list.” The doughnut maker took exception, asserting in a rebuttal that “it is the county’s conduct, not Krispy Kreme’s, that is shameful here.”
“The county’s invective is nothing new — its pleading throughout this action have been heavy on rhetoric but light on both fact and law,” the company argued in the filing.
The dispute surrounds Krispy Kreme’s facility in the Gunston Commerce Center, a southern Fairfax industrial park. Fairfax’s suit includes a $1.9 million bill for the broken sewer system, which Krispy Kreme has refused to pay.
Krispy Kreme argues that the faulty design allowed sewage to stagnate in the pipes, become acidic, and corrode the iron. Fairfax County lays the blame on “excessive quantities of highly corrosive wastes, doughnut grease and other pollutants” dumped since 2004 at the doughnut plant.
The lawsuit was first reported by The Examiner.
