Daikin settles PFOA suit

A federal circuit court judge has approved a $5 million payment by Japanese chemical maker Daikin to settle charges that it polluted drinking water in Decatur, Ala. About $4 million will be used to install a system to filter the fluorosurfactants perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) that leached into the Tennessee River from Daikin’s fluoropolymer manufacturing site in Decatur. The remaining funds will be used to pay plaintiff attorney fees and to compensate residents, who were warned not to drink the contaminated water. Also named in the suit are fluorochemicals maker 3M and its Dyneon fluoroelastomer subsidiary, which likewise operate in Decatur. 3M says the claims against it lack merit and that it stopped manufacturing PFOA and PFOS more than a decade ago. In February, Chemours and DuPont agreed to pay $670 million to settle claims that PFOA-contaminated drinking water near Parkersburg, W.Va., sickened residents. Water contaminated with the fluorosurfactants is also under scrutiny near industrial facilities in Hoosick Falls, N.Y.; Gadsden, Ala.; and Dordrecht, the Netherlands.