Scottsdale City Council seeks portion of water contamination settlement
By Terrance Thornton | Digital Free Press
Scottsdale City Council is joining the class action lawsuit in the United States District Court in South Carolina where defendants Tyco Defendants and the BASF Corporation are negotiating settlement terms for causing water resource damage to the municipal water supply following the usage of aqueous film forming foam or “AFFF” proven to cause health issues in human beings.
Aqueous film-forming foam or AFFF is a fire suppressant used when water is ineffective whereas various chemicals found in the product are now known to be toxic and carcinogenic with negative health consequences for American firefighters — the Scottsdale Fire Department is no exception.
Scottsdale City Attorney Sherry Scott says the city of Scottsdale is now a class member in the Aqueous Film-Forming Foams Product Liability Litigation at the United States District Court in South Carolina.
“The District Court of South Carolina has granted preliminary approval of class settlements with two defendants, Tyco and BASF,” Ms. Scott said in her Sept. 10 report to City Council.
“As a class member, the city will be required to file damage claims. The settlements approved $750 million to settle claims against Tyco and $316.4 million to settle claims against BASF. The actual amount of monies received by the city is dependent upon the number of public water systems throughout the United States that remain class members. Both the Tyco and the BASF settlements will be paid in two installments.”
Scottsdale City Council at its Sept. 10 regular meeting voted to move forward with filing claims at the United States District Court of South Carolina to participate in anticipated settlement payments.
Ms. Scott reports City Council in May 2023 adopted a formal resolution to retain the services of Baron & Budd, P.C., Cossich, Sumich, Parsiola & Taylor, and Law Office of Joseph C. Tann to pursue settlement claims against Tyco and BASF.
“Staff from the Water Resources Division has sampled the city’s surface water and groundwater to determine the extent of PFAS contamination,” Ms. Scott said. “Staff from the City Attorney’s Office and Water Resources Division have provided the PFAS sampling results along with the flow rate data for each well and the CAP water Treatment Plant and the Chaparral Water Treatment Plant to the city’s outside legal counsel in order for claims to be filed.”
Water contamination is not a new issue for the community of Scottsdale as in 1981 groundwater was contaminated by industrial chemicals, primarily trichloroethylene, which was put there by Motorola Solutions (formerly Motorola, Inc.), GlaxoSmithKline (formerly SmithKline Beecham) and SMI Holding LLC (formerly Siemens), super fund designations state.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared the contaminated aquifer a Superfund site, namely the North Indian Bend Wash Superfund Site, in 1983.
