Johnson Controls Settling PFAS Lawsuit for $17.5 Million
The company will pay a group of Peshtigo families that filed a class action lawsuit.
Johnson Controls. Photo by Dave Reid.
Johnson Controls has agreed to pay $17.5 million to families living in a portion of the Town of Peshtigo in Marinette County who were exposed to PFAS chemicals from the company’s firefighting foam training site in the area.
The class-action settlement was announced Tuesday. It’s part of a group about 500 cases that have been consolidated in federal court in North Carolina relating to contamination from and exposure to firefighting foams containing PFAS, the abbreviation for per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances.
The Town of Peshtigo case involves people who live or used to live in an area just south of the city of Marinette and bordering a Tyco Fire Products training facility, one of the largest PFAS contamination sites in the state, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Plaintiffs in the lawsuit charge that runoff from firefighting foam used at the training site contaminated wells in the area with PFAS chemicals. Tyco is now part of Johnson Controls.
The settlement covers an area about three square miles with nearly 300 homes, accounting for up to about 1,200 residents, according to an estimate in the settlement filing. To qualify for a share of the settlement, residents or former residents have to have lived for at least a year in the designated area between Jan. 1, 1965 and Dec. 31, 2020.
The $17.5 million settlement amount covers property damage, exposure and personal injury claims. The company, which does not admit fault in the settlement, says the figure doesn’t include the cost of providing bottled water, treatment systems and a connection to municipal water supplies to replace the well water, which Johnson Controls and Tyco are funding separately.
Reprinted with permission of Wisconsin Examiner.
More about the PFAS Problem
- Wisconsin Supreme Court Hears Challenge to State Authority in PFAS Case - Danielle Kaeding - Jan 14th, 2025
- Legislature Will Try Again On Regulating Forever Chemical Contamination - Danielle Kaeding - Jan 3rd, 2025
- EPA Adds Nine Additional PFAS to the Toxics Release Inventory - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Jan 3rd, 2025
- Coalition of 30 Groups Calls for $953 Million Funding For Safe Drinking Water - Danielle Kaeding - Dec 24th, 2024
- Insurers Add PFAS Exclusions to Liability Policies - Danielle Kaeding - Dec 21st, 2024
- EPA Releases Draft Health-Based Recommendations for PFAS Levels in Bodies of Water - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Dec 19th, 2024
- EPA Launches New Studies and Data Collection Efforts to Better Protect Communities from PFAS - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Dec 16th, 2024
- More than 30 groups call on State Legislature to take action on safe drinking water for Safe Drinking Water Act 50th anniversary - Wisconsin Conservation Voters - Dec 5th, 2024
- EPA Launches New Initiative to Tackle PFAS, Identify Emerging Contaminants in Water - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Nov 20th, 2024
- Environmental & Public Health Groups Urge Wisconsin Supreme Court to Reject Attempt by WMC to Undermine State’s Spills Law - Midwest Environmental Advocates - Nov 18th, 2024
Read more about PFAS Problem here
