The Borough filed a lawsuit this month to hold accountable the manufacturers of certain specialized firefighting foam products, known as aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF), which contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). As alleged in the Borough’s lawsuit, the defendant manufacturers were aware of the toxicity of PFAS yet continued to place their products into the stream of commerce knowing that their normal use would inevitably result in contamination in locations across the country, including in the Borough’s drinking water service area.
PFAS-based AFFF products were in heavy use at the former Willow Grove Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Horsham Township and the former Naval Air Warfare Center in Warminster Township, Pennsylvania. The Borough has proactively sampled its drinking water supply wells for the primary PFAS contaminants, known as PFOA and PFOS, since July 2016. These chemicals were detected in a number of wells, although the drinking water is safe and complies with all current standards applicable to drinking water, including with regard to these contaminants. Nonetheless, the Borough is taking affirmative, proactive steps to address PFAS contamination and remove all known PFAS contaminants from the water supply. We have received over 3 million dollars in grant funds to address the contaminant. Moreover, both the EPA and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are poised to more strictly regulate PFAS in the near future, and the Borough expects to incur further costs to monitor, assess, and remediate PFAS contamination as a result of such forthcoming regulation. By way of its lawsuit, the Borough seeks shift the burden to pay for such remedial actions and other damages incurred by the Borough traceable to PFAS contamination where it rightfully belongs–onto the AFFF manufacturers that profited from the sale of these products over many decades.
