Just outside Bangor, Maine — the hometown of famed horror author Stephen King — more than 500 students, faculty and staff come to Hermon High School every day.
But since November, they can no longer drink water. All fountains are sealed with plastic bags. Bottled water is stacked nearby. Water filtration system will be installed in summer.
A fountain at Hermon High School in Maine was shut down after water tests exceeded the state’s safe limit for the PFAS chemical.
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“We’re very concerned,” Hermon School District Superintendent Micah Grant told CNBC.
reason? The school’s water was recently tested to exceed the state’s safe limits for PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances commonly known as “permanent chemicals.”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to even trace amounts of PFAS in drinking water can pose serious health risks.
“We don’t fully understand why it’s showing up in our water, and at the level we’re at,” Grant said.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said Hermon High School is just one example of PFAS contamination currently affecting the community. The chemicals have also been found in groundwater in towns and municipalities across the state, including several military installations and farms, according to Frey.
“Some farmers have had to euthanize their livestock because of chemical contamination,” Frey told CNBC.
Farmer Adam Nordell looks at the remains of his once-thriving songbird farm, now closed after its soil and crops tested positive for toxic “permanent chemicals.”
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Maine recently joined a growing list of states — now including Maryland, rhode island and Massachusetts – exist Filed lawsuits against various chemical manufacturers Alleging that they have caused significant damage to the state’s residents and natural resources.
“We claim that 3M and DuPont (and other manufacturers) created these chemicals … there is science showing how dangerous they are, how toxic they are, how they’re going to last forever,” Frey said. “I have a duty to do everything in my power to hold accountable the companies that profit from this chemical.”
More than a dozen other states — including Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Vermont and Wisconsin — have filed lawsuits against PFAS manufacturers for years .
Some have reached settlements. Take Minnesota, for example, Settles with 3M for $850 millionDelaware vs. DuPont and its $50 million spin-off companyaddressing the company’s liability for damages in those states.
Wall Street now awaits a trial in federal court scheduled to begin Monday in which the city of Stewart, Fla., accused 3M of contaminating its water supply with firefighting foam chemicals.
What are PFAS?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, PFAS are a group of chemicals used to make paints and products that are resistant to heat, oils, stains, grease, and water.
The man-made substance dates back to the 1940s, and over the decades, they’ve been used in a wide variety of applications, including nonstick cookware, waterproof fabrics, carpet, food packaging, and cosmetics, as well as lawsuits like the Center in Stewart.
But as time went on, concerns started to mount.CDC officials say synthetic chemicals does not decompose in the environment and is associated with serious health risks.
“We’ve seen correlations with thyroid disease, certain types of cancer, kidney disease, liver dysfunction, where it concentrates in the liver…they’re called ‘forever chemicals’ because they stay in your body,” former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC. “I think what the government needs to do is step up testing and make sure we have a better understanding of where these chemicals are getting into food sources (and) water supplies.”
While testing for PFAS is expected to become more common in the coming years, Gottlieb said there are steps consumers can take now to assess their exposure. Residents who live near military bases or factories known to produce these chemicals should ask whether their local water utility tests for PFAS levels, he said.
“A large analysis of different water cities was done many years ago and found that about 1 percent of all municipal water sources did contain some level of PFAS,” Gottlieb said.
According to a March EPA report, more than 64 million people have been affected by drinking water contaminated with PFAS — readings of four parts per trillion or more.
Manufacturer response
Several manufacturers have announced plans to reduce or cease production of PFAS in the coming years.
“As the science and technology of PFAS, social and regulatory expectations, and what we expect of ourselves, has changed, so has the way we manage PFAS,” a 3M In a statement to CNBC, a spokesperson said the company plans to stop producing the chemicals by 2025.
The company also expressed a commitment to remediate PFAS contamination, invest in water treatment and work with communities.
dupontThe company, on the other hand, said it “never manufactured” the harmful chemical and considered the legal complaint “baseless.”
Formerly known as EI du Pont de Nemours, the company spun off its chemical business in 2015 to form Chemours. It then merged with Dow in 2017 to create DowDuPont, which was subsequently split into three separate entities in 2019: Corteva Agriscience, Dow, and the new DuPont.
All of these companies, and others, are named as defendants in the Maine lawsuit. DuPont and Chemours have been excluded from the lead trial in which Stewart, Fla., is the lead plaintiff.
On Friday, DuPont, Chemours and Corteva announced a $1.19 billion fund that will be used to resolve “drinking water claims related to PFAS.” However, an addendum to the joint statement announcing the fund added that it “does not include claims for personal injury resulting from alleged exposure to PFAS or claims by state attorneys general that alleged PFAS contamination has damaged the state’s natural resources.”
Chemours committed in 2018 to reduce PFAS emissions from its production sites by at least 99% by 2030. In a statement, a spokesman said it had made significant progress in implementing advanced technologies to minimize emissions of fluorinated organic compounds.
Dow denies producing PFAS and says it has not been accused of causing any environmental pollution.
A Corteva spokesperson told CNBC it “does not comment on ongoing legal matters.”
3M is heavily indebted
Deane Dray, managing director at RBC Capital Markets, sees the lawsuits as a unique financial risk for 3M.
“At this stage, given the valuation and what we know about the PFAS litigation, we do think 3M is not investable at this time,” Dray told CNBC.
3M World Headquarters in Maplewood, Minnesota, USA, on Thursday, January 26, 2023.
Ben Brewer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Shares of 3M have been under pressure this year, down 20% in the past six months, and are at their lowest level in more than a decade.
“I expect PFAS to be front-page news for the next few years,” Del Rey said, adding that the substances are now used in many semiconductor applications and military weapons systems.
According to RBC Capital, 3M’s PFAS liability exposure is estimated at $20 billion to $25 billion.
3M is showing signs it may be feeling the pinch: In its latest earnings report, it disclosed a restructuring plan that includes layoffs affecting 6,000 workers worldwide that the company says will save as much as $900 million a year. It also plans to spin off its healthcare business in early 2024, which analysts say will generate billions of dollars in capital.
The industrial giant is already facing a separate lawsuit Military combat weapon earplugs. The lawsuits were brought by more than 200,000 military members and veterans who claimed that 3M’s earplugs were defective and failed to protect them from hearing loss during combat and training.
3M Combat Arms CAEv2 Earplugs
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3M’s attorney, Eric Rucker, told CNBC in March that the earbuds work when used according to their directions and that any liability estimates are “purely speculative.”
PFAS and politics
Last year, the Biden administration announced that $10 billion in a bipartisan infrastructure law would be used to address PFAS pollution.
That same month, the EPA launched its first New standard for drinking water Address the amount of PFAS allowed for consumption.
The industry is awaiting word on whether the EPA will continue to designate PFAS compounds as hazardous chemicals, which experts say could open the door to further litigation and push water utilities to make necessary upgrades to their filtration systems.
While the agency has publicly acknowledged its intention to do so, experts including Capstone energy analyst Gianna Kinsman say formal designation could happen before the end of the year.
Kinsman added that the 2024 presidential election could also affect the timeline: “I think if a Republican takes office, we might see a slowdown in PFAS regulation, and if Biden wins re-election, I believe his PFAS regulation agenda It will be balanced and more ambitious, perhaps addressing PFAS across larger categories rather than individually.”
RBC’s Dray added that, given the lack of alternative options on the market, it is in the national security interest to expand the use of PFAS.
“(It takes) ten years to develop another molecule and then go through all the testing,” he said.
Meanwhile, scientists and industry experts are engaged in an arms race to develop a safer alternative to PFAS. Others are working on techniques to break down synthetic chemicals using electrification and heat, as well as treatment options for exposed areas.
grassroots action
Nearly 30 miles from the country town of Hermon High School in Unity, Maine, lie the remains of a once thriving songbird farm.
Nine years ago, Adam Nordell (now an advocate for the nonprofit Defend Our Health) and his wife, Johanna Davis, came here to grow healthy fresh produce to sell to their community.
At the time, Songbird was thriving and lush, and over the years the couple had grown a variety of grains and vegetables, including tomatoes, peppers, garlic, onions, sweet potatoes and cantaloupe.
But that all changed two years ago, when Knodel and Davis tested their soil when a client called to inquire about a local news report she had seen detailing a plant that had been killed. PFAS contaminated farms.
When the test results came in, their worst fears came true.
“We learned that our land is heavily contaminated with permanent chemicals,” Knodel said. “As soon as we found out, it closed.”
The family has since learned that the land was covered in municipal sewage sludge in the early 1990s. Knodel said at the time that it was marketed to farmers as a free or cheap source of fertilizer.
“Farmers are told they are fertilizing their crops. Unfortunately, the wastewater contains all kinds of industrial chemicals leached from consumer products,” he said.
The nonprofit he now works for has a mission to reduce people’s exposure to toxic chemicals, raise awareness among farmers across the country, and hold chemical manufacturers accountable.
“They need to stand up and pay for the impact they have had on the world,” Knodel said.