Ricardo Medina, an Orange County Water District research associate, loads ion exchange resins into a treatment system to filter out PFAS toxins. The district is testing 14 different products to determine the best to remove the carcinogenic chemicals from dozens of Orange County groundwater wells. (File photo courtesy of the Orange County Water District)
“Eleven Orange County water agencies have joined in a lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from DuPont, 3M and others whose carcinogenic chemicals have leached into groundwater aquifers and forced the closure of more than three dozen wells in the central and northern parts of the county.
The money would compensate the water districts — and the hundreds of thousands of residents they serve — for costs associated with the contamination, including the treatment plants being designed to remove the PFAS contaminants targeted in the lawsuit. Those chemicals were long used in Scotchguard, Teflon, and other waterproofing and stain-proofing products.
The chemicals are believed to end up in county wells as product residue that finds its way into Inland Empire wastewater. That water is then released as treated sewage into the Santa Ana River, which eventually settles into the county’s groundwater basin, according to water officials. Additionally, the lawsuit lists a 3M plant in Corona and Corona-based roofing company, Decra Roofing Systems, that used 3M products, as possible sources.”
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