Rapidly Emerging Sector of PFAS Litigation

The current most rapidly emerging sector of PFAS litigation appears to be cases arising from PFAS contamination in bio solids spread across farmland, golf course and other land, leading to water and other environmental contamination.  The issue is far more significant than first believed.

Litigation arising from PFAS spread through bio-solids now appears to be a growing and significant sector of PFAS litigation. In many aspects these are among the least complex PFAS cases to litigate. At PFAS Summit V you will an in depth “how to guide” that will teach you how to identify these cases in your area, work them up, including identifying defendants and gathering proof against each. We will also discuss the strategies to maximize the benefits of your firm’s discovery and development of a PFAS bio-solids case cluster.

PFAS spread via bio-solids leaches into ground water as well as the unsaturated zone of aquiferJs. When PFAS in biosolids seeps from land into the ground it first seeps into the unsaturated zone of the aquifer beneath the land. Water and the onboard PFAS move much faster through the unsaturated zone of an aquifer but not necessarily as far, at high levels. This is one factor that makes these cases less complex.

Attendees of Summit V will also receive copies of the various  proprietary databases we have developed and are developing discussed below.  Receiving these assets and learning how to use them makes attending PFAS Summit V a must.

Attend PFAS SUMMIT V in Fort Lauderdale on March 21st-23rd  to learn what your firm needs to know to help farms in your area file claims for PFAS contamination in their water and soil.

Where: The Riverside Hotel in Fort Lauderdale
When: Friday March 21st – Sunday March 23rd 

Register and get your room today while there is still time:

Register: Ray Group - Mass Tort Success

Book your room: Riverside Hotel - Fort Lauderdale (travelclick.com) 

Multiple regionalized PFAS litigation arising from PFAS spread in bio-solids compost originating from public wastewater system sludge . Once the more recent litigations in Johnson County Texas started as a private case brought by local farmers (as well as a case against the EPA) experiencing cattle deaths because of PFAS laden compost, sold by Syngro with the sludge having been originally sourced from the Fort Worth waste water treatment plant. This private litigation led to a county criminal investigation and ultimately to Johnson County Texas being declared a PFAS disaster area.

Many dairy farmers in Maine are already facing massive losses due to not being able to market milk and other dairy products due to PFAS in the milk that originated with bio-solid spread on local farms.

According to the EPA over 3 million metric tons of bio-solids composted from public wastewater treatment plants are spread over approximately 77 million acres of farmlands, golf courses and other lands in the U.S. each year. A metric ton is just over 2204 pounds. 77 million acres is approximately the size of the State of Missouri.

We have already created a database of the tonnage of bio-solids spread in each State and added additional metrics for each State (see below). The primary use of this broad data is to determine which States will likely produce the most signicant number of PFAS injury cases and/or remediation cases arising from spread of PFAS laden bio-solids. Examples of how this data can be used is shown at the end of this paper.

Every state will present an opportunity for your firm to sign these cases, the broad data examples are simply intended to demonstrate which States will be “target rich”.

We are currently using the bio-solid spreading land applications of the various States as well as the counties within States when a State delegates the application process to the counties to develop maps of probably PFAS biosolid contamination areas.

This database will provide specific information as to the address and owner information of farms, golf course and other land where large amounts of PFAS laden bio solids were spread. It will also provide the identity of the specific intermediary composting company that purchased the waste sludge from a specific public wastewater treatment center.

Once we establish all public wastewater systems that sold their sludge to composting companies, we will then incorporate the public water systems, industrial facilities  and public storm water systems from which each of these public wastewater systems. Most public wastewater plants receive wastewater that originated (was originally sourced) from multiple public water systems, industrial wastewater systems (via contract) and storm water systems.

We will then use out complete PFAS positive public water system and natural water database to target areas where large amounts of bio solids were spread, and we know the identifies of the parties responsible and the locations where the bio solids were composted as well as spread.

This intelligence will then be used in several ways: 

Storm Water Systems 

1. For storm water spread purposed we will use the address of the composting facility and the address where the composting facility and spread area to determine the watershed or sub-watershed in which these facilities reside.
2. We will take the above information and compare the same to our public water system water source database. 

Public Water Systems Served by Wastewater Plant

1. Once we have determined the PWS and other systems that originally sources water treated by the specific public wastewater system and then use our source water database to identify the source water for each PWS and industrial water facility that originates water ultimately treated at the specific public wastewater system.
2. The above will lead us to the hydrological unit code of the source water for each of the PWS and industrial water facilities in question. 

Identifying Defendants

1. Once we have the hydrological unit codes for each of the PWS and industrial facilities (from above), we will then use the NPDES database to identify the facilities that listed the specific HUC as the receiving water for their PFAS discharges. 
2. We will then stratify the list according to the coordinates of the outfalls of each discharging facility as compared to the intake point of each PWS and industrial water facility to determine which dischargers PFAS reached the PWS, or industrial water facility  intake point through natural water flow.
3. Finally, we will determine if inter-basin water transfers and water reuse schemes impact on relevant water flows and account for these factors.
4. Once we narrowed our facility list (from NPDES) searched to facilities that discharged at outflow points that would reach the relevant PWS and industrial intake geo-coordinates . We have our list of defendants and can start gathering evidence against each.
   5. The composting intermediary company will also be named (i.e) Sangro. 

In PFAS Summit V, we will take a deep dive into the “how to” of what we have discussed above. 

See the spreadsheet screen shots below with brief explanations of how the broad data can be arranged to determine the volume of PFAS bio solid cases are likely to arise in each State. 

These cases will arise in every State and regardless of whether your State is a target rich environment or may only produce a small number of cases, your firm should be the one that discovers them and benefits from the knowledge you will gain in PFAS Summit V.

Bio Solids Applied to Land (PFAS) in Pounds Per Person

This arrangement of data shows (from top to bottom) with the states with the most (in pounds) of biolsolids spread per person in the State. The metric created by this arranagment may most useful in determining the degree of harm and injury caused to humans and other life by bio solid spread, comparing one state to others.

Bio Solids (PFAS) Total Pounds Applied to Land
This arrangement of the data is organized according to which state spreads the largest number of bio-solids in pounds. This arrangement is useful for determining which states may have the most widespread PFAS bio-solid contamination issue but does not indicate the intensity of the various contamination areas within the State.