Papermills and PFAS Contamination of Land and Water Maine Class Action

Plaintiff Nathan Saunders, who lives in Fairfield, Maine, found in early 2021 that his well water was contaminated with more than 12,910 parts per trillion (ppt) of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Health Advisory Limit is 70 ppt. This class action brings suit against companies associated with a number of paper mills and one waste disposal landfill in the area.

The class for this action is all natural persons who lived or owned property in Somerset County or Kennebec County, Maine, for a period of one year or more at any time between 1967 and the present.

The long list of defendants in this case includes companies from Canada, South Africa, and Finland, as well as the US. (The full list, and their mutual connections, can be found on pages 3-9 of the complaint attached below.) They were connected to paper mills in Maine, including the Somerset, Winslow, Madison, Androsgoggin, Bucksport, and Huhtamaki Mills.

PFAS are synthetic chemicals, two of which are perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). While these chemicals have been used for many industrial purposes, the complaint says they “have unique properties that make them persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic.” PFOS and PFOA remain in soil and water for long periods of time and do not break down quickly, so that they are known as “forever chemicals.”

They can move through soil and groundwater, but they are not filtered out of water systems by normal water treatment systems. They also accumulate in the human body, the complaint says, “primarily in the serum, kidney, and liver.”

According to the complaint, they present an “increased risk in humans of cancer, including … kidney and reproductive cancers.” They “have also been linked with other physical injuries, diseases and disorders including … thyroid disease, high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, pregnancy-induced hypertension, and preeclampsia, as well as related immunological functions including decreased responsiveness to vaccines.”

The effects of these substances may not show up until a person has been exposed to them for years.

The complaint claims, “upon information and belief, the Mills have at all times specialized in producing PFAS-treated paper products.” This creates “PFAS residuals or byproducts that have been directly discharged into the surrounding groundwater and surface waters where they migrate and cause contamination.” It also results in what the complaint calls “papermill sludge, also known as biosolids, that are either sent to landfills, used as fuel, or repurposed and distributed as fertilizer.”

The complaint alleges that, “upon information and belief, in addition to directly discharging PFAS, the Defendants each: (1) disposed of PFAS-containing biosolids in landfills; (2) sold or distributed PFAS-containing biosolids for fuel or fertilizer; and (3) sprayed PFAS-containing fertilizer … throughout Somerset and Kennebec Counties…” in Maine, between 1967 and the present.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Environmental
Tags: Cancer Risk, Contaminated Water/Groundwater, Environmental Contamination, Environmental Damage, PFAS