DC Sues Companies Over Pollution
By Erika Pietrzak, August 8, 2023
On July 18th, the District Attorney of Washington DC, Brian L. Schwalb, announced that the city would be suing more than 25 chemical companies for creating a “public nuisance” by polluting the city.
On July 18th, the District Attorney of Washington DC, Brian L. Schwalb, announced that the city would be suing more than 25 chemical companies for creating a “public nuisance” by polluting the city. Companies like 3M and DuPont are being sued for having dangerous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) chemicals in their products that infiltrated the city’s natural resources. 3M and DuPont have also been sued by multiple states amounting to over a billion dollars. The Office of the Attorney General claims that these companies knew the health and environmental risks of PFAS as early as the 1950s, but opted to hide the detrimental effects and continue to manufacture the chemicals in their products.
A Stanford study in 1956 found that PFAS binds to the proteins in human blood, making them last longer than other chemicals in the bloodstream. PFAS “are highly soluble in water, highly mobile, extremely persistent in the environment, and highly likely to become a persistent pollutant if released into the environment.” In 1963, 3M issued a technical manual recognizing the toxicity of certain PFAS, yet still manufactured the chemicals. In 1964, DuPont experienced a wave of sick employees after moving their manufacturing to an enclosed facility. Also in 1964, a 3M employee acknowledged in a letter that PFAS last longer in nature because they did not degrade in soils and groundwater nearly as quickly. By 1965, DuPont conducted a study that found increased liver damage and spleen size for rats exposed to PFAS. In 1975, 3M was told that scientists had found PFAS in the bloodstream of people in multiple areas surrounding their facilities. 3M scientists then found that the PFAS in the bloodstreams matched the PFAS produced by the company, but did not share this finding with anyone outside the company. 3M then found in 1976 that their workers had up to one thousand times more PFAS in their blood than normal. Once again, 3M did not share these findings with anyone outside the company. This lawsuit explicitly calls these examples out and states that the companies “had a duty to conduct their businesses, including the manufacture, distribution, sale, and promotion of AFFF Products, without directly misrepresenting or concealing the dangers of PFAS.”
PFAS, also called forever chemicals because of how long-lasting they are, have been linked to cancer, low birth rates, infertility, liver damage, and increased cholesterol. PFAS are manmade chemicals that are used in non-stick cookware, water-repellant clothing, and makeup, as well as airplanes and firefighting foam. PFAS creates “widespread contamination by traveling into surface water and through the soil, entering the groundwater.” The chemicals then contaminate every level of the food chain, including humans. Attorney General Schwalb stated that “[c]ompounding their illegal conduct, these companies for decades misled the public about the health and safety threats they knew their products posed. … The District and its residents will be forced to deal with the adverse impacts of these ‘forever chemicals’ for years to come. Through this lawsuit, we will hold polluters accountable for the damage their conduct has caused and will continue to cause.”
The lawsuit seeks to cover the costs to investigate and clean DC’s waterways, monitor PFAS levels, and treat waterways with PFAS contamination as well as aid those already affected. Though the levels of PFAS in D.C.’s waters do not surpass EPA standards, the District seeks to make sure that its people are not burdened with the costs of cleanup. It is predicted that payouts to the city and affected individuals may amount to over $200 billion. The companies must be held accountable as many of them grew significantly while polluting our waters, taking over other companies, and profiting from environmental degradation. By strategically overtaking other companies and moving PFAS liabilities to the new, underfunded, and smaller companies, the mega-corporations shielded a great number of their assets from these lawsuits.
Last year, AG Schwalb targeted Velsicol, a company that has polluted the District with chlordane for decades. Chlordane is a pesticide used to kill termites and keep homes pest-free from the 1940s through the 1980s. Like PFAS, chlordane remains for decades and persists in D.C.’s waterways today. Chlordane, in particular, is harmful in waterways since it sticks to soil and sediment, degrades slowly, does not easily dissolve in water, and accumulates easily. Chlordane has been linked to cancer, headaches, and tremors.AG Schwalb claims that Velsicol knew about this link by 1959, but continued to pollute the city with the chemical.
Chemical pollutants in DC are also a question of environmental justice as they disproportionately impact Black and Brown communities in the nation’s capital. Velsicol has been called out directly as having “a particularly harmful impact on poor and Black and Brown and senior community members, who, in particular, relied on subsistence fishing along the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers.” The Anacostia River, once vibrant and pivotal to life in the area, has been unusable for the past few decades and this lawsuit against Velsicol is one step towards reaching environmental justice goals the city has set.
With 21 of 38 miles of waterways not in compliance with water quality standards, Washington D.C. is under extreme pressure to solve the problems of pollution and they must not let their citizens be punished for the harmful, selfish actions of companies for the last several decades. Since the current efforts have not been able to rid D.C. of these pollutants, the significant money that could be won from these lawsuits may help D.C. finally fix its crucial problem. The lawsuits claim clean natural resources as a “public right” and “essential to public function.” AG Schwalb and the lawsuit asserts that the companies, “are under a continuing duty to act to correct and remediate the injuries their conduct has caused, and to warn the District, its residents, and DC Water about the human health and environmental risks posed by their AFFF Products. Each day which they fail to do so constitutes a new injury to the District, its residents, and DC Water.”This lawsuit will set a precedent in the nation’s capital–whether that be a precedent of accountability or impunity is still to be told.
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