The Wall Street Journal - Coastal Town Brings Mass Litigation—and an ‘Existential Threat’—to Chemical Giants
Photos by Sydney Walsh for The Wall Street Journal | Read the full story by Kris Maher and Dan Frosch
A small city of retirees and tourists 40 miles north of Palm Beach is at the forefront of one of the nation’s biggest environmental legal battles, over a class of chemicals known as PFAS. The City of Stuart, Florida is suing 3M for roughly $115 million after Stuart firefighters trained nearly once a week with what is called aqueous film-forming foam, which included PFAS in its ingredients. The firefighting foam was used from about 1990 through early 2016, seeping into the ground and water supply of the town. In the late 1970s, 3M officials realized the chemical was toxic and in the blood of the general population, according to an internal company timeline. Leading up to the Stuart trial, 3M has argued in court filings that the city is seeking “wildly inflated damages.”
