Getting justice for PFAS victims is a steep uphill battle

Getting justice for PFAS victims is a steep uphill battle.  The chemicals were entirely unregulated as recently as five years ago; and still unregulated in most states. Polluters have an array of defenses, ranging from sovereign immunity for the U.S. Government, to the government contractor defense for the foam manufacturers. But when I saw the drinking water of 80,000 people in my community (including me) polluted with PFAS, I was not going to take it lying down.

So I did something no other lawyer in the U.S, had done—sued the U.S. Government to provide a  medical monitoring fund to pay for medical testing for people exposed to PFAS in their drinking water. And we won a major victory , when the United States Court of Appeal ruled that our claim was not barred by sovereign immunity.

Our victory was made possible by the help we received from three amici—friends of the court—who filed briefs in support of our position, Earth Justice, Delaware Riverkeepers Network, and Toxics Action Center. The story of how Earth Justice and two extraordinary citizen leaders—Hope Grosse and Joanne Stanton, helped defeat the U.S. Government is told in the article linked here.