USA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Matthew K. Edling, Sher Edling
environment, including water supplies. Examples include the following. (a) New Jersey v DuPon – New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced a his- toric settlement worth more than USD2 billion with 3M, Solvay and the DuPont companies, the largest environmental settlement ever by an individual state, settling claims related to discharges at four sites across New Jersey, as well as claims associated with AFFF contami- nation. (b) Minnesota v 3M – In 2018, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson announced a USD850 million settlement with 3M Company for PFAS contamination in Twin Cities’ suburbs. The contamination was the result of the chemicals leaching into the groundwater from landfills where they had been dumped. (c) Texas v 3M and DuPont – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against 3M Company and the DuPont companies, alleging that “Defendants have engaged in deceptive trade practices by failing to disclose health risks and environmental harms associated with their products, and representing and/or imply- ing their products were ‘safe’ in a false, decep- tive, or misleading manner, in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices–Consumer Protection Act.” Products specifically men- tioned include Teflon, Scotchgard and Stain- master. (d) Maryland v W.L. Gore & Associates – Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown filed a lawsuit against W.L. Gore & Associates, manufacturer of the GORE-TEX waterproof fabric, for know- ingly releasing PFOA into the environment in violation of the federal Comprehensive Environ- mental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and state law. (e) Michigan v Tribar Technologies – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit against Tribar Technologies, Inc and Adept Plastics Finishing, Inc alleging that the two auto supply companies illegally discharged contami- nated water, which reached and contaminated Michigan waters, resulting in repeated viola- tions of the water and air pollution standards of Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environ-
mental Protection Act. Contaminants at issue include perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and hexavalent chromium. (f) New Mexico v Air Force – New Mexico’s Department of the Environment and Depart- ment of Justice have sued the United States Air Force in multiple forums to require the Air Force to stop discharging PFAS into the environment and to require meaningful efforts to remediate past discharges. The Department notes that: “The Air Force has spent years con- testing the Environment Department’s author- ity as opposed to any meaningful cleanup of the toxic PFAS contamination in local drinking water sources that serve both residents and dairy farmers.” The emergence of 1,4-dioxane, and 1,4-dioxane litigation 1,4-Dioxane has been widely used since the 1950s as a component in, or by-product of, certain industrial and commercial products. In the United States, there have been two principal sources of the 1,4-dioxane groundwater contamination now emerging in hotspots across the country: chlorinated solvent stabilisation and ethoxylated surfactants. • Solvent stabilisation – The Dow Chemical Compa- ny and Vulcan Materials Company used 1,4-diox- ane as a stabiliser for chlorinated solvents, primari- ly 1,1,1-trichloroethane (TCA), until the 1990s. PPG also formulated TCA with 1,4-dioxane for a short period. 1,4-Dioxane itself was primarily manu- factured by the Dow Chemical Company, Ferro Corporation, and Union Carbide (since merged with Dow). • Ethoxylated surfactants – 1,4-Dioxane is gener- ated as a by-product of ethoxylated surfactants and thus occurs as an impurity in certain consumer products, such as detergents, soaps, laundry pre- soaks, automotive antifreezes, and shampoos. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers 1,4-dioxane as “likely to be carcinogenic to humans”, and similar conclusions have been reached by the US Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
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