Dive Brief:
- Fort Worth, Texas, sued several manufacturers, including 3M and DuPont de Nemours, as well as the U.S. Department of Defense and military, for allegedly contaminating its water supplies with PFAS-laced firefighting foam, according to federal court documents filed March 10.
- City officials accused the chemical makers and users of discharging and disposing of aqueous film-forming foam since at least the 1970s, as well as failing to warn residents of PFAS’ possible harm.
- The city is seeking monetary relief for punitive damages, attorney costs and past and future damages, as well as out-of-pocket expenses.
Dive Insight:
A Texas judge ordered the lawsuit to be split, given that some chemical makers have already reached settlements that cover part of the water contamination claims, according to March 14 court filings.
“Given the challenges presented by managing a case with thirty-three individual Defendants and the high likelihood of jury confusion, the Court finds it appropriate to hold separate trials,” according to the court documents.
As a result, the judge ordered the lawsuit to split away from the U.S. government and to separate each company into its own case against the city.
Chemical manufacturers and the military have had a decades-long relationship related to AFFF.
The PFAS-laced foam was developed by 3M and the Naval Research Laboratory in the 1960s to develop a firefighting foam with fluorocarbon surface-active wetting agent, according to the company’s PFAS website. The U.S. Navy patented the foam in June 1966.
A year later, disaster struck the military branch overseas when a Naval ship off the coast of Vietnam caught fire after a fuel tank ruptured, killing 134 people and destroying 21 aircraft. As a result, the Navy ordered all ships to carry AFFF because of its ability to smother jet fuel fires.
Since then, AFFF has become one of the most infamous uses of forever chemicals at U.S. airports and military bases worldwide, used for emergency response and training exercises.
Fort Worth accused 3M and other PFAS-based foam makers, past and present, of selling AFFF to the DOD and the U.S. Air Force and Navy. The federal agency and military branches are accused of using and disposing of the foam at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth and nearby Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet Air Force Plant 4 facility, which then allegedly went into Lake Worth and the Clear Fork Trinity River, two of the city’s six surface water sources, according to the court documents.
Fort Worth owns and operates Lake Worth and it supplies drinking water to approximately 1.4 million people in the metropolitan area through an interconnected water supply and distribution system. The lake is also a site for recreational activities, according to the Visit Fort Worth website.
The military is working to find foam substitutes that work as effectively as PFAS-based AFFF, and DOD estimated it will need to remove over 2 million gallons of PFAS-laden foam from across its facilities nationwide. However, while the DOD has made progress on finding alternatives, including approving three PFAS-free products, it has struggled to find foams that can meet military specifications.
