Rash of lawsuits intensify concerns of 3M's liabilities over PFAS chemicals
Legal, cleanup expenses from chemicals could exceed $10 billion.
By Dee DePass
Minneapolis Star Tribune (MN)
DECEMBER 23, 2019
A rash of recent lawsuits against 3M have intensified concerns that it could face massive legal and cleanup costs over a class of chemicals called PFAS.
The Maplewood-based industrial giant has already reached a historic $850 million pollution settlement with Minnesota. It settled a $35 million case with an Alabama water authority in April to treat PFAS chemicals that leaked into the Tennessee River.
More are in the pipeline. New York sued last month, after spring and summer filings by New Jersey, New Hampshire and Vermont. A shoe company that used the chemicals to waterproof its products has sued. So has a dairy farm in New Mexico that says it had to dump 15,000 gallons of cow milk each day since October 2018 because of contamination from a nearby military base that used firefighting foams that contained the chemicals.
3M has set aside an additional $235 million to cover legal claims, but some estimates of the ultimate cost exceed $10 billion.
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For the entire article, see
http://www.startribune.com/rash-of-lawsuits-intensify-concerns-of-3m-s-liabilities-over-pfas-chemicals/566423442/
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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
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