Introduction.
After seven years of intense litigation—involving the production of over 27,000,000 pages of documents, the taking of almost 200 witness depositions, over $10 million dollars in tests, fees and costs, over 100 judicial hearings and conferences, over 1,600 court filings, and a final non-stop negotiating session lasting 22 hours, our 3M lawsuit involving the discharge of perfluorochemicals (PFCs) is finally resolved. By the end of the case, over 75 lawyers from eight law firms had been involved with various aspects of the matter, which included several appeals to the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court and one lawsuit against one of the law firms.
The Proceeds.
The matter is resolved with a payment of $850 million by 3M to the State. The Minnesota Environmental Remediation Fund will receive $850 million in the form of a restricted grant. According to the Harvard Environmental Law Review, this is the third largest natural resource recovery in the history of the United States. (The Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil spill is the largest.) This is the largest environmental settlement in Minnesota history, more than 100 times larger than the next largest case. To give perspective, I am told that the Reserve Mining case from the 1970s resulted in a $1.84 million resolution.
The lawsuit related to a 100 square mile underground “plume” of PFC chemicals in the eastern metropolitan area of the Twin Cities. The money will be paid by 3M as a restricted grant, with its primary purpose being to construct a state-of-the-art water supply system for communities located above the contaminated plume.
The company will pay up to another $40 million to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to help these communities with short-term drinking water solutions. If the $890 million is exhausted at some point in the future and drinking water problems remain, the company will continue to pay to fix those problems under a consent order.
The Case Involved Natural Resources, Not Personal Injuries or Home Values.
The Attorney General’s Office does not have jurisdiction to undertake personal injury lawsuits or property damage cases for individuals. These cases may only be brought by private attorneys. In West Virginia, several law firms filed a personal injury lawsuit against DuPont for its disposal of PFCs used to make Teflon. The lawyers settled the class action personal injury lawsuit with a $671 million payment to the class. The law firm that represented the litigants in the DuPont case also was involved in bringing a lawsuit in Minnesota against 3M. The court dismissed the claims for personal injury damages of the litigants. The lawsuit also involved a claim for diminution in home value caused by PFCs, but the Washington County jury found for the company.
Our lawsuit was about damage to State’s natural resources. A cutting-edge statute with limited judicial history provides that the State of Minnesota is the trustee of the State’s natural resources, including the water, the vegetation, and the birds, fish, and wildlife, and that the Attorney General may file a lawsuit when those natural resources are damaged. Following what I call the “Pottery Barn Rule,” an entity that harms the State’s natural resources must compensate the State for the harm.
People who feel that they have suffered personal injury or property damage should talk to a private attorney.
For what it is worth, I drafted an Opening Statement that I intended to present at trial and have put portions of it on the Attorney General’s Office website. The website includes references to the most significant documents in the case.
Swanson's continuance in office will be a statewide [ballot top] November election item. Both Senators will be on the ballot. The major contest of local importance remains the contest for Governor. With so much on the ballot down-ballot voting likely will be extensive from an expected large turnout.