(5/21) Following recommendations from the City’s attorney Leslie Powel Thurmont has retained the law firm of Baron & Budd and Poole Law Group for the purpose of investigating legal options and remedies available to it due to the presence of "aqueous film forming foam" or "AFFF" and/or other products containing perfluoroalkyl substances ("PFAS") (including perfluorooctanoic acid ("PFOA" or "C8"), perfluorooctane sulfonate ("PFOS"), and other related compounds in the Town’s water system.
In taking this action, Thurmont joins Taneytown who in March of 2022 joined a Class Action lawsuit involving the chemicals after they were discovered to be leaching into Taneytown’s groundwater.
Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFA) is found in many manufactured products, such as firefighting foam. According to Taneytown’s City Attorney Jay Gullo, "these substances were placed in these materials by the manufacturers, and they knew at the time they were forever chemicals."
According to a press release issued by Powell, "such investigation may include the initiation of a Complaint in the Multi-District Litigation (MDL) currently pending in Charleston, South Carolina, related to this chemical.
"This action," the press release said, "is a prudent effort to proactively determine whether third parties have legal responsibility for the cost of treatment for its water system; the taxpayers and ratepayers should not bear this financial burden. The Town will continue to exhaust all efforts to protect its citizens and exercise financial prudence in the process."
Unlike Class Action lawsuits, which are filed by one or a few individuals on behalf of everyone who has suffered the same exact injury, MDL cases are filed by individuals, or towns, who have suffered similar injuries from the same product (or same type of product), the severity or expense of which may differ from person to person.
As in Class Action law suites, a settlement is reached when representatives for both plaintiffs and defendants work together to create a master settlement agreement. The MDL judge will review the agreement and then assign a settlement master, who is a neutral third-party that oversees details of the settlement and resolves points of contention between the parties. Individual plaintiffs can then choose to accept the settlement agreement or pursue their case at trial.
Taneytown has in the past been successful in recovering expenses involved in removing contaminates in ground water. Most recently Taneytown was awarded $400,000 from a class action lawsuit regarding MTBE chemicals in gasoline products that leached into and affected groundwater nationwide.
As the Environmental Protection Agency gets its hands around the issue, they will define standards of acceptable quantities of PFAs in drinking water, at which time the Thurmont may or may not have to take action.
Thurmont is likely facing unknown costs down the road, said Chief Administrative Officer Jim Humerick, because we don’t know what the final costs of new filtration systems may be. Although trace elements have been found in Thurmont’s water, there is no need for residents to boil water. Humerick stressed that "Thurmont has and will continue to meet all federal and state guidelines for safe drinking water."
