A family in Maryland can join the state's lawsuit against W.L. Gore & Associates after a ruling in late October.
Cheryl and Stephen Martin, along with the state of Maryland, are suing Gore for PFOA chemical contamination in the groundwater stemming from the company’s 13 manufacturing facilities in the area.
“This case is more about enforcing the federal statutes that exist that would relate to this PFAS contamination, and it's more about remediation,” said Phil Federico, a partner at Brockstedt Mandalas Federico, which is representing the Martins.
District Judge Richard Bennett granted the Martins’ motion to join in the state’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) lawsuit against the company. The Martin’s prior RCRA suit was dismissed on minor technicalities in how the case was filed.
"We did not oppose the Martin’s intervention in the State of Maryland’s suit," a Gore spokesperson said in a statement. "Rather, Gore responded to the Martin’s intervention by proposing measures to the Court that Gore believed would help ensure this case moves forward as expeditiously as possible. In light of the Court’s order, Gore will be working with both the State and the Martins to continue to efficiently litigate this case."
The ruling allows the Martins to fully engage in the suit with Maryland as they try to show that Gore knowingly used the chemical PFOA and allowed it to seep into the groundwater even when the company knew it was a health risk.
PFOA is a type of PFAS chemical, which encompasses a wide array for "forever chemicals" that have been linked to health and environmental issues.
Federico said Gore knew in the 1980s that the chemicals were dangerous.
“In the animal studies that were being done, the animals were getting cancer,” Federico said. “Gore at that time could have, and should have, taken the necessary precautions to filter and otherwise clean the water and the air before they put it into the community.”
The environmental remediation case is happening as two other cases continue against Gore.
One is a class action suit of that could encompass as many as 4,000 residents. Residents who sign on can seek damages. The other case is a family seeking compensation for PFAS contamination on their land.
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said the state is also seeking compensation along with its suit to remediate environmental damages.
Brown said there were extensive damages for past and future contamination caused by Gore’s factory in Cecil County.
“I can tell you that the components of our damage claim right is to remediate the harm that's been done, the cost of abatement, to prevent future harm, and then to the extent that there's been - and we suspect that there has been - harm to people and communities, then we'll seek recovery in that regard as well,” Brown said.
Similar suits have brought in billions of dollars in settlement money to other states. DuPont settled for $1.18 billion in 2023 and 3M settled for more than $10 billion the same year. However, those suits were on a national scale and are hard to fully compare to what Gore could be responsible for if found liable.
The Maryland case states that Gore, through its connections to DuPont, knew as early as 1961 that PFAS chemicals were a health risk.
Gore claims that it eliminated PFAS chemicals from its raw materials to create Gore-Tex about a decade ago.
The company hired an environmental consulting firm for Cecil County and provided bottled water and filtration systems for some residents.
Gore is pushing back against the AG’s claims.
“W. L. Gore & Associates denies the allegations in the complaint and is surprised by the Maryland Attorney General’s decision to initiate legal action, particularly in light of our proactive and intensive engagement with state regulators over the past two years,” the company wrote in a statement.
PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, have been linked to certain cancers and other illnesses like ulcerative colitis and thyroid disease.
