By JOEL PHELPS | arkadelphian.com
ARKADELPHIA, Arkansas — Veolia North America d/b/a/ Elemental Environmental Solutions LLC filed suit against an El Dorado electrical services company, claiming the defendant broke a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and leaked confidential information about its hazardous waste incinerator.
The lawsuit, filed in Clark County Circuit Court on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, names ESCO Electrical Services LLC as the defendant. ESCO was an electrical subcontractor Veolia hired as part of its ongoing expansion at the Gum Springs facility. The two parties entered into a mutual NDA in October 2022, and afterward Veolia provided ESCO with confidential information about its plans, sequences, planning strategies, data, processes and commercially valuable information about a project.
A six-page complaint says ESCO broke the NDA when it revealed trade secrets to Veolia’s direct competitor. While the complaint doesn’t name the competitor, Veolia is the plaintiff in ongoing litigation against another El Dorado company, Clean Harbors Environmental Services Inc., which also treats hazardous waste.
The leaked information relates to an incineration facility Veolia is in the process of expanding. Announcing the $600 million expansion in 2022, Veolia ordered the manufacture and delivery of an Italian-built kiln, which was barged last summer to the U.S. by way of the Atlantic Ocean then hauled to Gum Springs — a feat that attracted widespread attention from residents across South Arkansas.
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The incinerator was delivered to Gum Springs in mid-May 2023; the complaint alleges that by July ESCO had revealed plans, estimates about timing, scope, and sequence of work.
The lawsuit alleges that its competitor rewarded ESCO for leaking the intel, with the reward “taking the form of future work directed to ESCO” from the competitor. Veolia claims that ESCO has and continues to perform and profit from that work, the scope of which is not outlined in the complaint.
ESCO’s recent projects include the installation of power, a motor control center, controls and lighting at Veolia’s hazardous waste treatment plant in Gum Springs, according to the company’s website. ESCO also lists similar work for Clean Harbors.
This week’s filing comes just shy of a year after an October 2023 lawsuit against Clean Harbors for conducting a drone flyover of Veolia’s property. In recent weeks criminal charges were filed in Arkadelphia against the drone operator, Stephen Garcia, for the unlawful use of an unmanned aircraft system, a Class B misdemeanor. To date there have been no documents unveiled in online court records regarding the Aug. 22 filing in Clark County District Court.
Veolia is asking for a jury trial and seeks damages for the breach, lost profits, disgorgement of profits ESCO received, and trade secret value loss. Should the case go to trial and a jury side with Veolia, jurors would likely determine the amount to award Veolia. The company says it’s also entitled to an injunction prohibiting the defendant from further breaching the NDA.
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