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3M PFAS documentary: What the company knew about PFAS
The 3M Company has vowed to stop manufacturing PFAS chemicals by the end of 2025. The FOX 9 Investigators reviewed hundreds of hours of video depositions that shed new light on how company executives and scientists responded after first learning about the widespread contaminations.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - 3M’s potential legal exposure related to PFAS continues to grow after the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe filed a federal lawsuit this week accusing the Minnesota-based company of contaminating its water supplies, jeopardizing the reservation’s natural resources and public health.
3M faces another lawsuit over PFAS contamination
What we know:
In a lawsuit filed this week, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe said several years of testing for PFAS contamination on its reservation produced "alarming" results.
The Band revealed it has stopped using the public water system that supplies two schools and is instead using bottled water.
Test results also showed high levels of PFAS contamination in several types of fish and deer, according to the lawsuit.
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3M sued by Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
A Native American tribe is suing 3M and other companies after the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe says it found nearly two dozen deer contaminated with PFAS, or "forever" chemicals. FOX 9’s Mike Manzoni has the details.
"The presence of PFAS threatens the Band’s resources, economic viability, political integrity, and human health," the lawsuit states.
FOX 9 reached out to 3M for a response to the new lawsuit but has not yet heard back.
The backstory:
Last year, 3M agreed to pay up to $12.5-billion to settle similar environmental claims brought by water districts across the country.
RELATED: AIG doesn’t want to cover 3M’s PFAS liability
Those claims focused largely on firefighting foam manufactured and sold by 3M for decades.
Aquenous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) contaminated water supplies near military bases and airports where it was widely used to suppress petroleum-fueled fires, including at the Bemidji Regional Airport which is located upstream from the reservation.
The lawsuit states contaminated wastewater from Bemidji "flows downstream and enters the Leech Lake Reservation."
Dig deeper:
Thousands of health claims related to the use of AFFF are also pending.
The first trial, known as a bellwether case, was scheduled to begin this month. A judge delayed the trial, which involves a plaintiff from Pennsylvania diagnosed with kidney cancer.
READ MORE: 3M PFAS trial delayed, more health claims filed
The other side:
3M denies it can be proven that its chemicals or products are the direct cause of serious diseases such as kidney and testicular cancer.
"It is a high threshold to establish causation," 3M attorneys stated in a filing as part of the Pennsylvania case.
What they're saying:
The lawsuit filed by the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe listed the same health concerns raised across the country.
It states the Band’s members have been exposed to a mix of PFAS substances through deer, fish, lake water, and drinking water, among other sources.
"PFAS will continue to contaminate drinking water, surface water, groundwater, soil, and air on the Leech Lake Reservation, exposing people and wildlife to dangerous health effects, unless and until the PFAS contamination is treated, removed, mitigated, or otherwise cleaned up from the environment," the lawsuit states.
"Even then, long-term health monitoring and treatment of the Band’s Tribal members will likely be required as a result of this PFAS exposure."
Big picture view:
The Band’s lawsuit comes seven years after 3M agreed to pay nearly $900-million to settle environmental claims made in a lawsuit brought by the State of Minnesota.
The lawsuit also produced thousands of corporate records and research that showed what 3M knew about widespread contamination caused by its chemicals.
The FOX 9 Investigators obtained hundreds of hours of depositions revealing what 3M executives and scientists said under oath.
WATCH: EVERYWHERE & FOREVER: BLOOD. WATER. AND THE POLITICS OF PFAS.
The settlement has been used to fund massive water infrastructure projects, but the money is running out and 3M has questioned whether all of those projects are reasonable and necessary.
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Everywhere & Forever: Blood. Water. And the Politics of PFAS.
A new FOX 9 documentary tells the inside story of how 3M contaminated the world’s blood and water. Video depositions exclusively obtained by the FOX 9 Investigators reveal what company executives said under oath.
What's next:
The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe argue in its lawsuit that has and will continue to incur substantial losses to address PFAS contamination on the reservation.
"These include, or will include, costs related to additional testing and treatment of its public drinking water systems, testing of citizen’s private drinking water wells…remediation and mitigation of contaminated natural resources, health monitoring and increased healthcare costs for its members," the lawsuit states.