In a complaint filed Tuesday, attorneys for the attorney general’s office alleged that companies including 3M and DuPont made products that contained dangerous chemicals known by the abbreviation PFAS — short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — and hid potential health and environmental risks from the public and government regulators.
The attorneys alleged that the PFAS — which were used in D.C. for decades, mostly by the military and at airports to fight liquid-based fires such as those from jet fuel — cause widespread contamination by traveling into surface water and through the soil. The chemicals then contaminate each level of the food chain, building up in plants, fish, wildlife and eventually humans.
The D.C. lawsuit alleges that D.C. Water has incurred “significant costs” to investigate and remediate the harms posed by PFAS contamination. The attorney general’s office said the suit was intended to make sure the manufacturers of such chemicals “and not the District or DC Water’s ratepayers — bear the full investigation and remedial costs.”“The District and its residents will be forced to deal with the adverse impacts of these ‘forever chemicals’ for years to come,” Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb said in a statement.
Representatives for 3M did not immediately respond to requests for comment on D.C.’s lawsuit. DuPont spokesman Daniel A. Turner said in a statement: “In 2019, DuPont de Nemours was established as a new multi-industrial specialty products company. DuPont de Nemours has never manufactured PFOA, PFOS or firefighting foam.