A small town in upstate New York may be close to a final victory in a nearly decade-long legal battle against some of the nation’s biggest companies over the contamination of its water supply.
Corporate giant DuPont, one of the companies that produced a toxic chemical found in the water of Hoosick, a town with fewer than 7,000 people, has agreed to a $27 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit that drew the attention of celebrity environmental activist Erin Brockovich.
The matter was supposed to go to trial this week but was postponed because of progress in settlement negotiations, according to an announcement on Wednesday by lawyers for the plaintiffs.
The agreement would need preliminary approval from Judge Mae A. D’Agostino in U.S. District Court in Albany, N.Y. A period where class members can file claims would follow before the court can issue a final greenlight.
According to Hadley E. Lundback, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, there was no admission of liability by DuPont. A spokesman for the company said that he could not comment on active litigation.
“We’ve accomplished everything I set out to do,” said Michael Hickey, one of those who sued after first discovering the tainted water in 2014. “I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.”
If the settlement becomes final, it will be in addition to a 2021 agreement with three other companies, 3M, Saint-Gobain and Honeywell.
The total recovered for the town and its residents would be over $92 million after costs and legal fees.
The suit was filed in 2016 after high levels of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, were discovered in the water supply in and around the village of Hoosick Falls. The toxic chemical has been linked in some studies to an increased risk for certain kinds of cancer. The contaminate was found in the public water supply of the village and throughout some private wells of the town of Hoosick, which contains the village.
“Blood testing has now demonstrated that individuals in the community have concentrations of PFOA in their blood that is, on average, over 30 times higher than the typical American,” the lawsuit said.
PFOA was formerly used in the making of Teflon in a fabric-coating plant in Hoosick Falls. The facility was operated by Saint-Gobain and Honeywell during separate stints. 3M would sell PFOA to DuPont, which would then sell products containing it that were used in the plant.
The PFOA, part of the “forever chemicals” family, a group of chemicals that do not break down in the environment, was emitted into the air and then fell to the ground, before entering the water supply for decades.
The discovery of PFOA in Hoosick began over 10 years ago, when Mr. Hickey, now 46, realized that there had been a pattern of illnesses around town after his father, who worked at the plant, died from kidney cancer. Mr. Hickey tested water samples that showed PFOA levels hundreds of times higher than those found in typical drinking water.
Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency started to regulate forever chemicals, including PFOA, announcing that long-term exposure to high levels of PFOA in drinking water could result in adverse health effects.
This spring, a new groundwater supply about a mile outside Hoosick Falls became operational. Its construction was paid for by the past polluters and overseen by the state, which has also installed treatment systems in private wells.
In 2021, Saint-Gobain, Honeywell and 3M agreed to a $65 million settlement with the residents who took part in the suit. A judge approved it the following year. The agreement distributed over $20 million to eligible property owners and over $7 million to residents with private wells, while $22 million went toward funding a medical monitoring program.
DuPont was the final holdout. The corporation has been the subject of past class-action lawsuits involving forever chemicals, one of which included a $1 billion payout by DuPont and two other companies. The new settlement with Hoosick will provide an additional $6 million for medical monitoring, and the remainder will go toward residents for loss of property value.
Hilary Howard is a Times reporter covering how the New York City region is adapting to climate change and other environmental challenges.
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