Class Action Alleges Companies Contaminated Summerville, GA Drinking Water Supply with PFAS [UPDATE]

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The 3M Company is among the defendants in a proposed class action that aims to address what a Summerville, Georgia resident alleges is the illegal discharge of toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) into the nearby Town of Trion Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP). 

The plaintiff alleges in the 68-page lawsuit that the discharge of “sludge and biosolids” from the Town of Trion WPCP, which the case links to the operations of large textile mill Mount Vernon Mills, has contaminated the Raccoon Creek watershed, the main source of drinking water for Summerville, with toxic levels of PFAS, man-made chemicals used in a wide variety of industrial and commercial applications. Per the suit, Mount Vernon Mills uses in its manufacturing processes chemical products from co-defendants 3M Company, Daikin America, Huntsman International and Pulcra Chemicals. 

The Town of Trion, Georgia, also a co-defendant, is alleged in the case to have taken part in the discharge of toxic byproducts from Mount Vernon Mills’ operation, and an individual defendant, Ryan Dejuan Jarrett, is alleged to own property in Chattooga County on which he has allowed the town to “dump sludge containing PFAS.” The defendants’ apparent conduct is described in the complaint as “intentional, willful, wanton, reckless, and negligent,” and amounts to a “continuing public nuisance” in violation of the federal Clean Water Act, the plaintiff alleges. According to the case, the release of PFAS into the environment can have dangerous consequences: 

“There is no known environmental breakdown mechanism for many of these chemicals, and they are readily absorbed into biota and tend to bioaccumulate with repeated exposure. PFAS leach from soil to groundwater, are highly mobile and water soluble, making groundwater and surface water particularly vulnerable to contamination, and a major source of human exposure to PFAS is through ingestion of contaminated drinking water.” 

The plaintiff seeks an injunction to require Mount Vernon Mills to cease the alleged PFAS discharges into the Trion WPCP, to require Trion to stop allegedly disposing of PFAS-contaminated sludge on agricultural or other property from which the chemicals may be released into the ground- or surface water, and to require Mount Vernon Mills, Trion and Jarrett to remove PFAs-contaminated sludge from the Racoon Creek watershed and provide “an effective permanent treatment system for the Summerville water supply.”

According to the lawsuit, the chemicals used by Mount Vernon Mills, a producer of broadwoven fabrics and dyer and finisher of broadwoven cotton, polyester/cotton or cotton/nylon blends, in its manufacturing processes provide fabrics with stain and water resistance. Per the case, these chemicals end up discharged in wastewater to the Trion WPCP, the sludge from which contains high levels of PFAS that resist degradation during processing and are concentrated prior to their disposal. The sludge from the Trion WPCP, the suit says, is then dewatered and disposed of by land application at “a variety of locations throughout northern Georgia and northern Alabama,” including farm property within the Raccoon Creek watershed owned by Ryan Dejuan Jarrett, according to the lawsuit. 

Mount Vernon Mills “knew or should have known” that the PFAS would be discharged from its operations and into a wastewater treatment facility that would not remove the toxins, and that the PFAS would be released into the environment via sludge and effluent from the Trion WPCP, the lawsuit alleges. According to the complaint, 94 percent of the wastewater received by the Trion WPCP is discharged by Mount Vernon Mills. 

Ingestion of PFAS can cause physiological changes to the liver, kidneys and other vital organs, the suit says. Long term, the accumulation of PFAS in the body can also damage the immune system and, in women, accumulate in amniotic fluid, the case reads. Cancer, immunotoxicity, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis and high cholesterol can be linked to exposure to PFAS, according to the complaint. 

The lawsuit alleges the defendants have long been aware of the persistence and toxicity of PFAS yet nevertheless knowingly and intentionally sold the chemicals to Mount Vernon Mills, and “knew or should have known” they would be discharged into the Trion WPCP, where they would inevitably become concentrated in sludge and disposed of in a manner that can contaminate surface water. 

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