Burlington’s city council has decided to opt out of class action settlements with two corporations that are accused of releasing so-called “forever chemicals” into the water supply of cities and towns across the U.S.
The council issued a formal resolution on Tuesday in which declined to join these class action claims against Tyco and BSAF over their suspected roles in the proliferation of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl compounds, or PFAS, as they’re more commonly known.
These manmade chemicals, which turn up in everything from nonstick cookware to textiles, have recently become a concern for state and federal regulators due to their carcinogenic potential as well as their persistence in the natural environment. PFAS has also been a priority for officials in Burlington due, in no small part, to complaints from Pittsboro and other communities that believe the city’s sewage treatment system has served as a conduit for PFAS contamination from area industries.
In order to scrub these compounds from its wastewater emissions, the city has teamed up with a Burlington-based startup that has pioneered a new process for eliminating PFAS from water. Thanks to a $500,000 grant from the state, the city has agreed to take part in a pilot program to test the efficacy of this technology. In the meantime, the city is bracing itself for a multimillion overhaul of its treatment facilities in order to prevent PFAS and other “emerging contaminants” from entering the water supply.
Despite the city’s own struggles with PFAS, the council has decided not to join the class action against Tyco and BSAF in light of the constraints that such a move would impose on the city’s legal prerogatives. According to Tuesday’s resolution, the federal courts have bundled thousands of individual lawsuits into the proposed settlements with an eye on limiting the legal liability for the two corporations.
“The Tyco and BASF settlements include broad releases of future PFAS-related claims,” the council’s resolution goes on to assert. “It is in the public interest for the city to preserve any PFAS-related claims…against Tyco, BASF and other potential defendants until the risks and impacts of PFAS are better understood.”
The council initially reached a consensus to forgo these class action settlements during a brief closed-door discussion with the city attorney on Monday. The council spent roughly five minutes in this confab, which took place at the end of a two-hour work session that evening. The result of these deliberations was the aforementioned resolution, which the council rubberstamped a day later as part of a “consent agenda” of putatively routine or noncontroversial items of business.
