DuPont Settles Hoosick Falls Water Case For US$ 27M
Chemical giant DuPont has agreed to a US$ 27 million settlement to resolve a longstanding lawsuit over the contamination of the water supply in Hoosick Falls, a village in upstate New York. The agreement, announced Wednesday by lawyers representing affected residents, comes nearly a decade after the class action suit was filed in 2016 and just as the case was set to go to trial in federal court.
With this latest settlement, the total recovery in the lawsuit has now surpassed US$ 90 million. The case previously saw settlements totaling over US$ 65 million from Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, Honeywell International, and 3M in 2021. DuPont was the last remaining defendant.
“This final resolution will bring meaningful additional benefits to the residents of Hoosick Falls and the Town of Hoosick,” said Stephen Schwarz, a partner at Faraci Lange LLP, the Rochester-based law firm representing the plaintiffs.
The proposed DuPont settlement also includes US$ 6 million in funding for an existing medical monitoring programme to benefit residents exposed to the contaminated water. The agreement is still subject to approval by a federal judge.
The lawsuit centres on contamination by perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a toxic “forever chemical” that was used in the manufacturing of nonstick coatings like Teflon. Residents allege that PFOA pollution originated from a Teflon fabric-coating facility operated by Saint-Gobain and Honeywell, which tainted local drinking water supplies. DuPont, which produced the Teflon materials used at the site, and 3M, the manufacturer of the PFOA supplied to DuPont, were added to the lawsuit in 2018.
PFOA has been linked to serious health risks, including kidney and testicular cancer, and was recently classified as a carcinogen. Its persistence in the environment and the human body has made it a focus of growing concern among regulators and health experts.
