Rhode Island Initiates PFAS Litigation

ByPFAS Primer Team

The Rhode Island Attorney General recently filed suit against 3M Company, Dupont de Nemours Inc., and other companies in the Superior Court of Providence County, Rhode Island seeking damages for the cost of investigating and remediating PFAS contamination.  While referencing the many applications of PFAS, Rhode Island’s complaint specifically alleges that state agencies, working with Brown University, have detected “significantly elevated” concentrations of PFAS in numerous public water systems and private wells located near fire stations, airports, and military bases where PFAS-containing aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) was used.  The Rhode Island Attorney General maintains that the named defendants should be liable for the State’s costs under failure to warn, design defect, public nuisance, trespass, and unjust enrichment theories, and also under the State’s environmental, pollution, and deceptive trade practices statutes.

State of Rhode Island v. 3M Company et al., No. PC-2023-02452 (Bristol Cnty. Super. Ct. May 25, 2023).

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