Horsham, Warminster and Warrington will seek millions of dollars in damages from firefighting foam manufacturers whose products they say contaminated drinking water.
The manufacturers of firefighting foam may feel a little crowded, as all three water authorities impacted by PFAS drinking water contamination in Bucks and Montgomery counties are now suing them over the issue.
Although the three suits are separate, Larry Cohan, lead Anapol Weiss attorney on the cases, said they take a similar tack.
The subject of investigation by this news organization, PFAS chemicals do not break down in the environment and quickly spread through and persist in soil and water.
The Horsham, Warrington and Warminster water authorities all previously relied on groundwater to provide drinking water to approximately 70,000 combined customers.
As the military only agreed to pay to filter wells contaminated above a safety limit recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency, the water authorities were on the hook to pay for the plans, which involved buying large quantities of water from the North Wales Water Authority.
Warminster is currently paying about $2.5 million extra a year, while Horsham is paying about $1.2 million, which it passes through to customers as an average surcharge of $73.48.
Cohan said his firm and the water authorities have not yet totaled an exact amount of alleged damages but that it will be “many millions” of dollars.
Through its investigation of the contamination, this news organization obtained several documents that showed some of the foam manufacturers discussing concerns about the firefighting foams in 2001.
At a meeting of a firefighting products industry group that year, a 3M representative said the company was shutting down its perfluorochemical department due to concern about the chemicals’ “proven persistence pervasiveness, and toxicity.” Records show representatives from Ansul, Tyco, Chemguard, and National Foam were in attendance.