PITTSBORO — Since the Town of Pittsboro filed a lawsuit against PFAS manufacturers — 3M, DuPont de Nemours (DuPont), Chemours Company, Tyco Fire Products LP, among others — on Jan. 26, many of these companies have reached settlements. The Town of Pittsboro is still in the process of reviewing the settlement documents.
3M reached a $10.3 billion dollar settlement on June 22 which would go to different cities across the country that sued them, according to the Associated Press, and Dupont, Chemours and Corteva have settled their lawsuits on June 2 for $1.19 billion, according to Reuters.
Previous reporting by the Chatham News & Record explains the lawsuit was filed by Sher Edling LLP with Pittsboro Town Attorney Paul Messick Jr. on the town of Pittsboro’s behalf, upon approval by the town Board of Commissioners on Jan. 23.
The reporting states that legal action was taken because of the discharges of these forever chemicals into the Haw River.
“Each company listed in the suit was cited for contributing to the manufacturing, selling and distribution of PFAS, as well as knowing prior to distribution the potential harm PFAS could cause,” part of the report stated.
These chemicals take an extremely long time to disintegrate and cause various health effects, like cancer and risk of high blood pressure, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
The Town of Pittsboro had a Granular Activated Carbon filtration system at the water treatment plant to combat the water contamination.
“We regularly test water entering and exiting our water treatment plant and will continue to treat our drinking water using our Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) advanced filtration system,” Public Information Officer & Emergency Management Coordinator Colby Sawyer said.
The Legal Counsel for the Town of Pittsboro and the town have no further comment at this point.
To read previous reporting, visit: