Dive Brief:
- Perdue Farms is fighting to toss out a class-action lawsuit alleging that one of its plants in Salisbury, Maryland, contaminated nearby groundwater with PFAS.
- The agribusiness recently sought again to dismiss or stay the case in the U.S. District Court of Maryland after an earlier attempt in December, citing an investigation by the state to better understand what caused the contamination and where the hot spots are.
- Perdue this month submitted a plan to address eight suspected sources of PFAS contamination at its facility that were identified in a commissioned report reviewed by the Maryland Department of Environment. The company has also conducted well testing and installed treatment systems in an effort to remedy the situation.
Dive Insight:
In a lawsuit filed October 2024, a group representing residents within a few miles of Perdue’s soybean processing plant accused the company of spraying wastewater contaminated with PFAS on crop land and forest acreage for at least 20 years, and discharging the water into a nearby stream called Peggy’s Branch.
Perdue sought to dismiss the case in late February, with attorneys saying residents “raced to the courthouse without sufficient facts” in efforts to beat the state’s investigation into PFAS.
“‘PFAS’ is not a magic word that can be invoked to open automatically the doors to federal litigation,” the food manufacturer wrote in its reply to a motion to dismiss on Feb. 28.
The Maryland Department of Environment first flagged elevated PFAS levels at Perdue’s facility in September 2023, according to the lawsuit. Residents claimed Perdue’s actions resulted in contaminated well water, exposing hundreds of people to harmful chemicals.
The residents also accused Perdue of failing to prevent or contain the contamination.
In the following months, Perdue is cooperating with state and county officials to address the issue. According to the company’s website, Perdue has conducted well water testing for PFAS at most affected properties and expanded the testing radius to include a total of 920 homes.
In addition to well water testing, Perdue has also installed systems in residents’ homes to treat the drinking water for PFAS at properties where high levels of contamination were detected. There was no cost to homeowners for the treatment systems.
Perdue is also working with Langan Engineering and Environmental Services on creating a soil and groundwater sampling plan to address PFAS hot spots at the facility. The company submitted its plan to the state on March 7.
Perdue’s goal is to complete PFAS testing and filter installations by spring 2025.
Despite spraying and discharge allegations, the company said on its website that the source of the PFAS in the groundwater has not been determined.
