Court Preliminarily Approves $750 Million PFAS Settlement Between Tyco and Water Providers

Johnson Controls subsidiary Tyco Fire Products LP—a manufacturer of AFFF, a firefighting foam that is alleged to contain or degrade into PFAS—agreed to a $750 million settlement to resolve PFAS contamination claims brought by a class of public water systems in the AFFF MDL pending in the District of South Carolina. The district court issued…

Coca-Cola Defeats PFAS-Related Claims

Coca-Cola won a motion to dismiss claims alleging that the company’s Simply Tropical Juice Drink—which the company advertised as “made simply” with “all-natural ingredients”—was falsely labeled because it purportedly contained PFAS. In granting Coca-Cola’s motion to dismiss for lack of Article III standing, the district court emphasized that, while the plaintiff claimed that he conducted independent…

Fourth Circuit Affirms EPA’s Approach to PFAS Testing Under the TSCA

Pursuant to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), several North Carolina–based citizens groups petitioned the EPA in 2020 to initiate testing of 54 individual PFAS. The EPA responded by agreeing to test seven of the PFAS and to potentially test nine more. The groups viewed this as a denial of their petition and, in 2021,…

Water Utilities Challenge EPA’s New PFAS Drinking-Water Regulations

Two water utility associations have petitioned the D.C. Circuit for review of the EPA’s first national drinking-water rule for PFAS, claiming that is arbitrary and capricious, unreasonable, and unfeasible. In doing so, the associations allege that the EPA did not rely on the best available science, follow the process mandated by Congress, or properly assess…

EPA Orders U.S. Air Force and Arizona Air National Guard to Treat PFAS

In a rare step, the EPA issued a Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Section 1431 unilateral administrative order to the U.S. Air Force and Arizona Air National Guard requiring them to conduct measures to abate the “actual and potential imminent and substantial threat to the health of persons presented by the presence of [PFAS] in…