Biden EPA limits toxic forever chemicals in drinking water for the first time

The potential liabilities for corporations are staggering.

3M brokered a deal last year to pay at least $10.3 billion to settle thousands of claims accusing the company of contaminating public water systems with its forever chemicals. DuPont and two other companies reached a $1.19 billion settlement in the same cases, filed by cities and water systems across the nation.

DuPont and 3M earlier paid nearly $2 billion combined to settle other PFAS-related lawsuits without accepting responsibility for contaminated drinking water or diseases suffered by people exposed to the chemicals. The companies have long maintained forever chemicals are not harmful at levels typically found in people.

Many water utilities will get a share of the settlements. Congress and the Biden administration also are chipping in with $21 billion that will be shared over time to upgrade treatment plants.

“When you look at what’s happening today, whether it’s in the courts, our regulatory actions, or the actions Congress has taken, I have to say it is a good day for the people in this country who have long borne the impact of pollution from these forever chemicals,” Regan said.

Government action to protect Americans from PFAS has been slow-coming, in part because chemical manufacturers kept secret what they knew about the dangers.

Documents obtained during lawsuits show top executives at Minnesota-based 3M knew as early as the 1950s about the harmful effects of forever chemicals the conglomerate pioneered after World War II. 3M didn’t begin telling the U.S. EPA what it knew about PFOA and PFOS until 1998 — more than two decades after Congress approved the nation’s first chemical safety law.

“It has taken far too long to get to this point,” said Rob Bilott, a Cincinnati lawyer who uncovered scores of the once-secret industry documents during lawsuits against DuPont in Ohio and West Virginia, “but the scientific facts and truth about the health threat posed by these man-made poisons have finally prevailed over the decades of corporate cover-ups and misinformation campaigns designed to mislead the public and to delay action to protect public health.”

____