The city is asking for more than $420 million in relief for damages suffered by the infiltration of these chemicals into its water supply.
FORT WORTH, Texas — Amidst a rising concern over the health risks of forever chemicals, the city of Fort Worth has filed a lawsuit against the United States, as well as several military departments and manufacturers of the chemicals.
The suit accuses these entities of releasing these forever chemicals, known officially as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — which mounting evidence shows are harmful to human health — into the city’s drinking water sources and on the city’s property. Along with the U.S., the city is also suing the Department of Defense, Department of the Air Force and the Department of the Navy. Manufacturers being sued include 3M, DuPont, and RTX Corporation, formerly known as Raytheon.
“Manufacturer Defendants knew that PFAS and related constituents present unreasonable risks to human health, water quality, and the environment,” the suit argues. “Yet they manufactured, distributed, and sold these chemicals and products containing these chemicals with inadequate warning of their toxic effects. They did so without regard to the health of the City’s residents, or the City’s property interests, both of which would foreseeably be damaged once these chemicals infiltrated the environment.”
As a result of contamination by these chemicals, the city argues that Fort Worth has incurred and will continue to incur significant costs and losses due to continued water quality testing, as well as designing and building filtration systems and responding in other ways to the contamination.
The suit argues that these companies knew the risks of these chemicals to the environment and to human health since at least the 1970s, and that a Naval Ocean Systems Center study conducted by the Navy documented that the military knew of such studies showing harmful effects of the chemicals dating back to at least 1973.
3M, the suit claims, knew as early as the 1950s that one of these forever chemicals, PFAS, bioaccumulates in humans and animals, and knew by the 1960s that PFAS persist in the environment and don’t degrade.
“Studies undertaken by 3M in the 1970s demonstrated that PFAS were even ‘more toxic than was previously believed.'” the suit reads.
The city accuses 3M in the lawsuit of engaging deliberately to influence science relating to PFAS to conduct research it could use to mount “defensive barriers to litigation.” The company reportedly provided grant money to researchers in exchange for the right to review and edit drafts of studies on PFAS, and control over whether these studies would be published at all.
The Department of Defense is accused of using and releasing Aqueous film-forming foam, AFFF, for firefighting and training at Carswell Air Force Base and Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth. This AFFF was then discharged and disposed to the environment, a significant part of which the city says ultimately discharged into Lake Worth, with other waste draining into soil and various bodies of water.
In a statement, the City of Fort Worth said it is seeking to hold these entities accountable for containing drinking water sources.
“Rather than accepting a national settlement that would have provided inadequate compensation, Fort Worth has chosen to pursue our own legal action,” the statement reads. “The city is seeking $400 million in damages, to ensure those responsible bear the cost of cleanup—not our residents.”
This isn’t the only lawsuit these manufacturers are facing, as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has also filed a lawsuit, accusing 3M and DuPont of concealing or misrepresenting the health risks of PFAS.
In February, a disaster declaration was declared in Johnson County after toxic levels of forever chemicals were found on ranch land.
