One of our nation’s most compelling and urgent toxic tort cases continues to affect local communities. Over 100,000 citizens in Montgomery and Bucks counties remain unable to drink their own water due to contamination from PFAS, a toxic chemical used in firefighting foams. Local governments have had to seek water from outside sources, often using interconnections to water supplies free of PFAS contamination. Similar lawsuits in Pennsylvania and around the country are consolidated in a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. Despite these lawsuits and the swift action by other states to combat this water crisis, our own Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection seems paralyzed and unable to protect the commonwealth’s water supply. As toxic torts go, this may be one of the most complex and have the farthest-reaching impact as it will affect the drinking water of millions of Americans.

For decades, these toxic chemicals have been insidiously seeping into the water table surrounding the former Willow Grove Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Horsham Township and the former Naval Air Warfare Center in Warminster Township. These toxic chemicals are known as perfluorinated compounds or PFAS.  PFAS can be found in a variety of products, including aqueous film forming foam, also known as AFFF, which the military has used to suppress high intensity fires. The use of AFFF in fire training exercises and in real emergency situations has resulted in these PFAS chemicals being discharged into the environment. PFAS can also enter the water supply through manufacturing plants and landfills containing contaminated soil and products containing PFAS. The chemical is so toxic that the EPA has linked serious human health problems to exposure with water containing only several parts per trillion.