In June, 3M announced a $10.3 billion settlement with U.S. public water systems to resolve allegations related to water contamination. The settlement is payable over 13 years. 3M is alleged to have made or sold firefighting foams containing PFAS chemicals that have resistance to oil, heat, water, and grease. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are also known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down easily in the human body or the environment.
On July 26, a bipartisan coalition of 22 attorneys general, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, announced opposition to the proposed class-action settlement.
“PFAS can cause serious health impacts—including various forms of cancers, developmental defects, infertility, diabetes, and liver damage—and have been frequently detected in water systems nationwide. As a result, the stakes could not be higher,” Mr. Bonta said in a July 26 press release.
Mr. Bonta’s office pointed out that the proposed settlement would apply to almost every U.S. public water provider, even to those who haven’t yet filed lawsuits against 3M on the PFAS issue. “Under the proposed settlement, water providers would withdraw the hundreds of lawsuits they have filed against 3M,” the release said.
The California-led coalition warned that water providers will also “have to make their opt-out decisions without knowing how much they would actually receive and, in many cases, before knowing the extent of contamination in their water supplies and the cost of remediating it.”
The proposed settlement contains an indemnification clause that shifts liability for any public compensation from 3M to the water suppliers.
For instance, if a cancer cluster were to develop in a community affected by PFAS and it is proven that the PFAS contamination came from 3M products, the company may end up having to pay the plaintiffs. However, 3M will likely be able to seek compensation from the public water suppliers for the money it owes to victims.
“As such, the proposed settlement is worth far less than the advertised $10.5 billion to $12.5 billion,” the release said.
Mr. Bonta pointed out that the proposed settlement in its current form “does not adequately account for the pernicious damage that 3M has done in so many of our communities.”
“I have both a moral and legal obligation to voice my opposition,” he said.
PFAS Contamination in the United States
The opposition of 3M’s settlement comes as a recent study from the U.S. Geological Survey found that almost half the tap water in the United States was contaminated by “forever chemicals.”The study collected samples from 716 locations across the nation between 2016 and 2021, testing for the presence of 32 types of PFAS. On average, at least one type of PFAS was detected in about 45 percent of the samples.
Urban areas were found to be more at risk of PFAS exposure than rural regions. Forever chemicals were detected in more than 70 percent of urban areas compared with only 8 percent of rural areas. Urban exposure was found around the Great Lakes, Eastern Seaboard, Great Plains, and the Central and Southern California regions.
In March, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a draft regulation aimed at establishing a new set of nationwide standards for drinking water and limiting the levels of six PFAS chemicals.
If the proposal comes into effect, water systems will likely have to take additional steps to ensure that the six PFAS chemicals are at acceptable levels before supplying water to their customers.
“This action has the potential to prevent tens of thousands of PFAS-related illnesses and marks a major step toward safeguarding all our communities from these dangerous contaminants,” EPA administrator Michael Regan said in a statement at the time.
Multiple Lawsuits, Industry Suppression
In addition to the lawsuits brought by water providers, 3M is facing thousands of other lawsuits from people who claim to have suffered personal injury and property damage. Several U.S. states have also filed lawsuits, citing damages to natural resources such as lakes and rivers.In June, three chemical companies—DuPont de Nemours Inc., The Chemours Co., and Corteva Inc.—reached a settlement agreement of $1.18 billion to resolve complaints of polluting drinking water systems with PFAS. The firms agreed to set up a fund to compensate water providers for the contamination.
The multiple settlements are happening as a recent investigation by researchers from the University of California–San Francisco and the University of Colorado revealed that the chemical industry hid the harmful effects of forever chemicals for decades.
The chemical manufacturers are said to have known about the dangerous effects of PFAS for as long as since the 1960s. However, the information was kept away from the public until the late 1990s.
According to a statement from the study, the chemical industry “deliberately suppressed, distorted, and obfuscated evidence of PFAS harm,” with corporations withholding crucial health information from regulators and their own employees.
