3M, DuPont Face Lawsuits in Dallas Over PFAS

The city of Dallas is suing 3M, DuPont and other chemical companies, alleging they contaminated some of the area’s drinking water.

The lawsuit alleges 3M and other companies manufactured and sold PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances), often called “forever chemicals.” PFAS are known to be toxic, extremely persistent in the environment and capable of causing significant health risks.

PFAS are a group of synthetic chemicals used in various consumer products, such as nonstick metal coatings for cookware, paper food packaging, facial creams and cosmetics. The chemicals were used in Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF), a foam commonly used by firefighters to suppress fires.

The city says the foam was released over the years into its water system and soil. Many residential locations with groundwater contaminated by PFAS are near military bases or airports where AFFF firefighting foam was regularly used.

The city’s attorney’s office and 3M declined to comment.

The lawsuit is part of a multidistrict litigation brought by multiple public water providers and individuals against the companies that manufactured and sold these products. The city sued in January and filed an updated version on Feb. 28 in a District Court in Charleston, South Carolina.

Gale Pearson, a senior partner with the Dallas-based Nachawati Law Group, has been part of the plaintiffs’ executive committee on AFFF litigation. “The cat is out of the bag,” and companies can no longer deny the harmful effects of these chemicals, Pearson said.

Pearson said the number of cities pursuing this litigation has increased. She said cities are compelled to act to protect their residents’ water supply and health.

The city of Fort Worth filed a similar lawsuit last month against the companies and the U.S. Department of Defense for $420 million. In December 2024, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued 3M and DuPont for allegedly engaging in deceptive trade practices, including failing to disclose the health risks and environmental harms associated with their products.

“These companies knew for decades that PFAS chemicals could cause serious harm to human health, yet continued to advertise them as safe for household use around families and children,” said Paxton in the Dec. press release.

Remediation

The lawsuit claims that from 1964 through 2002, the U.S. Air Force purchased 3M’s AFFF and used it for fire training and response at airports, military bases and other locations throughout the country, including at locations impacting the city of Dallas property.

In 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency established the first-ever national, legally enforceable drinking water standard to protect communities from exposure to PFAS. As a result, public water systems are required to monitor for these chemicals and implement solutions to reduce PFAS in water.

There is no safe level of exposure to PFAS, and exposure to certain PFAS over a long period can cause cancer and other illnesses, according to the EPA.

“When I started to talk about this 25 years ago, no one knew what it was, and you can’t see it, smell it, or taste it. So it’s really hard to teach people that this is a bad thing,” Pearson said. “It doesn’t make sense that something invisible would be that dangerous.”

Under the new law, all public water systems have three years to complete their initial monitoring for these chemicals. They must also inform the public of the level of PFAS measured in their drinking water in their annual consumer confidence report. Where PFAS is found at levels that exceed these standards, systems must implement solutions to reduce PFAS in their drinking water within five years.

According to the 2023 Dallas Water Utilities Department consumer report, the city’s drinking water meets new regulatory limits, but he 2024 report has not been published.

In 2023, 3M reached a $10.3 billion settlement with U.S. public water suppliers to address claims related to PFAS contamination in drinking water. The same year, DuPont and its spin-off companies Chemours and Corteva committed $1.18 billion to settle similar claims, the Associated Press reported.

The city of Dallas wants to cover the costs it incurs to ensure water quality complies with federal limits.

These treatments can be expensive and are a lifelong process, said Pearson.

“I don’t think there’s enough money among all of the polluters to clean this [forever chemicals] up from the planet,” Pearson said.