MANSFIELD — The City of Mansfield is suing a litany of companies it claims is responsible for alleged contamination in the soil and water at Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport.
The 49-page complaint, listing more than 30 defendants, was filed in Richland County Common Pleas Court by outside attorneys engaged by the city in January.
No specific dollar amount is sought in the complaint, filed by a group of attorneys from Ohio, Louisiana and Washington, D.C.
Defendants include the 3M Company, Dupont, Tyco Fire Products, Johnson Controls International, Raytheon Technologies Corp. and BASF Corp.
The complaint alleges products manufactured by the companies contained PFAS, including perfluorooctanoic acid (“PFOA”) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (“PFOS”).
These “forever chemicals” were discovered in the groundwater, surface water and soil at the Ohio Air National Guard’s 179th Airlift Wing, based at the Mansfield airport.
According to the complaint, defendant companies “designed, manufactured, marketed, distributed and/or sold” products containing these chemicals dating back to the 1960s through today.
The complaint alleges these chemicals are found in products such as Teflon, Scotchguard, waterproofing compounds, stainproofing compounds, paper and cloth coatings, waxes and aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF).
“AFFF is a firefighting agent used to control and extinguish Class B fuel fires and is used at sites such as military bases, airports, petroleum refineries and fire-training centers,” according to the complaint.
“As a result of the use of (defendants’ products) for their intended purpose, PFAS have been detected in plaintiff’s property,” the complaint alleges.
After Mansfield City Council approved the plan to file a lawsuit, Assistant Law Director Christopher Brown said city water consumers can be confident their drinking water is safe.
All water sent through the city’s water system is tested and treated at Mansfield’s treatment plant, Brown noted.
Still, the companies must be held “accountable for their negligence” for manufacturing products they knew contained toxic chemicals “that could easily spread through the environment and contaminate natural resources,” Brown stated.
PFAS and related chemicals have become a target for cities around the country.
According to a story published in 2022 by Bloomberglaw.com, companies such as 3M Co., Chemguard Inc., Kidde-Fenwal Inc., National Foam Inc., and Dynax Corp. “are now being sued at roughly the same rate as DuPont, according to a Bloomberg Law analysis of more than 6,400 PFAS-related lawsuits filed in federal courts between July 2005 and March 2022.”
The lawsuit will be handled on a contingency basis, according to Brown, which means the outside law firms don’t get paid unless the city wins its lawsuit or achieves a settlement.
The 179th had a flying mission for seven decades, a task that ended in 2022. The unit is transitioning into the National Guard’s first Information Warfare (Cyber) Wing.
Brown has said AFFF can be made without PFOA, PFOS, or its precursor chemicals.
“When released into the environment, PFOA and PFOS are persistent, do not biodegrade, move readily through soil, surface water and groundwater, can bioaccumulate and bio magnify in animal tissue, including humans, fish and wildlife, and pose a significant risk to humans, animals, and the environment,” Brown said.
Brown said the outside attorneys contacted the city about the alleged contamination.
“This group of law firms represent close to 190 communities across the country dealing with the same problem,” Brown said. “(Lawyers) cited reports from the EPA and Department of Defense about contamination at the airport.”
The lawsuit could be centralized into “multidistrict litigation,” similar to lawsuits against opiate manufacturers, that would allow oversight of the cases by a single judge, according to Brown.
The EPA has said it will finalize national drinking water standards for PFAS by the fall of 2023, which would require water utilities to test for the chemicals and remove them.
In June of 2022, the agency released new draft advisory levels for the chemicals that lowered what’s considered a safe level of long-term exposure in drinking water to virtually zero.
No specific dollar amount is sought in the complaint. It does seek:
— compensatory damages for “costs and expenses related to the past, present and future investigation, sampling, testing and assessment of the extent of the … contamination” at the airport on the city’s north side.
— compensatory damages for “costs and expenses related to the past, present and future treatment, remediation and/or filtration of the … contamination.”
— compensatory damages for “costs and expenses related to the removal and disposal of the … contamination.”
— compensatory damages for “costs and expenses related to the past, present and future installation and maintenance of monitoring mechanisms to assess PFAS contamination at the airport.”
— compensatory damages for “costs and expenses related to the past, present and future monitoring of the impacts of PFAS contamination within the City of Mansfield on its citizens.”
The complaint also seeks unspecified awards for the “diminution of property value; consequential damages; punitive damages; attorneys’ fees; pre- and post-judgement interest; and other relief the court deems just, proper and equitable.”
