Santa Clara County

Santa Clara County sues more than a dozen companies over ‘Forever Chemicals' found in water

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Santa Clara County is suing over a dozen companies for exposing residents to the toxic “Forever Chemicals.”

Lawyers claim the companies have sparked an environmental and health crisis, after the chemicals were detected in local water supplies.

Santa Clara County joins a growing list of groups of suing the makers of PFAS, a highly toxic environmental contaminants, it said are circulating in county water supplies.

They are known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t degrade. They are found in everyday items like clothing and non-stick cookware and also in foam used to by fire departments.

The EPA said they have been linked to harmful health effects in people and animals including cancer and reproductive problems.

Santa Clara County claimed 22 manufacturers including 3M and Dupont profited from selling those chemicals, while concealing the environmental and health dangers from the public.

Now, the county wants them to “pay for the costly remediation necessary to protect county residents and restore the county’s property.”

Tony LoPresti with Santa Clara County Counsel said that nearly every city and county is America is now dealing with this and there are thousands of similar lawsuits against PFAS makers and distributers nationwide.

"The question of whether they can ever be completely cleaned up, I think is, somewhat of an open question. What I can say is folks are going to have to do their best because the damage they cause is so severe," he said. "We wanted to be sure that our rights are being preserved. That the damages to our county are being recognized."

The complaint closely follows the state’s lawsuit on this topic from three years ago.

NBC Bay Area reached out the 3M and Dupont for comment on Monday, but did not hear back.

However, 3M has previously said it will end the manufacturing of all PFAS by the end of this year.

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