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 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
- Gov. Evers Slams Republicans for Continued Delays Releasing Critical Funds to Fight PFAS Statewide, Stabilize Healthcare Industry in Western Wisconsin - Gov. Tony Evers - Mar 11th, 2024
- Wisconsin DNR Update On WMC And Leather Rich, Inc V. DNR - Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources - Mar 8th, 2024
- State Appeals Court Blocks DNR’s Regulation of PFAS - Danielle Kaeding - Mar 6th, 2024
- Evers Seeks Compromise on Republican PFAS Bill - Danielle Kaeding - Feb 27th, 2024
- Gov. Evers Urges Lawmakers to Support Compromise to Release $125 Million to Fight PFAS Contaminants Statewide - Gov. Tony Evers - Feb 27th, 2024
- PFAS Bill Puts Burden of PFAS Cleanup on Wisconsin Taxpayers - Clean Wisconsin - Feb 26th, 2024
- PFAS ‘poison pill’ bill SB 312 is bad legislation deserving of veto - Wisconsin Conservation Voters - Feb 26th, 2024
- Legislature Passes PFAS Bill, But Evers Likely To Veto It - Danielle Kaeding - Feb 22nd, 2024
- Republican Proposal Moves Forward PFAS Standards - Danielle Kaeding - Feb 19th, 2024
- New PFAS legislation would allow critical PFAS groundwater standards to progress - Wisconsin Conservation Voters - Feb 7th, 2024
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