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Williamstown City Council votes to join water lawsuit

By Kristen Hainkel 3 min read

WILLIAMSTOWN -- Williamstown City Council voted to start participating in a water contamination litigation against 3M Tuesday evening.

Attorney Ben Ware of Goodwin and Goodwin law firm based out of Charleston, spoke to council about a pending litigation regarding water contamination of the chemical polyfluoroalkyl or PFAS.

"It was a chemical originally manufactured by 3M and other manufacturers. It was used in fire fighting foams. Throughout the last number of decades, it's been used in trainings, to put out fires and its been manufactured into a variety of other products. Unfortunately it's found its way into our water systems across the United States," Ware explained.

Ware said Goodwin and Goodwin has worked with another law firm in New York who has been litigating a case with 3M with a potential $10.5 billion settlement.

Ware said he wasn't at the meeting to cause alarm, only to educate city officials regarding the Environmental Protection Agency's amended standards of allowed PFAS chemicals in water supplies.

"I'm not here to create a stir, to cause a panic. It's more so regulations and the crackdown by the EPA and their authorized parts per trillion are ever decreasing," he said.

Williamstown Mayor Paul Jordan agreed, emphasizing that when the city last tested the water supply in 2022, the measurement hadn't changed, the standard had.

As part of the city's participation in the litigation, they will need to have the water supply tested again for up to date figures.

"[PFAS] is not an imminent threat to the public," Ware said. "However, long term this situation will have to be remediated. What we're offering as far as the litigation goes is the contingency fee, which I think you all are familiar with, and we're fronting all expenses. That includes the testing of the water."

In other business, Jordan asked council to delay the acceptance of demolition bids of the old Williamstown Elementary School due to questions regarding electricity connections during the demolition process.

Jordan said he worked with city engineer Maria Hardy and they discovered it might be possible to disconnect the electric components from sections that will be demolished and reconnect to the parts that will remain.

"The good part of that idea is it would allow us to remove the parts that we're giving those that wanted to do the demolition a lot of heartburn," he said.

Council member Marty Seufer said if they delayed the acceptance, Jordan should call the three companies who sent bids personally and explain the issue. Jordan agreed.

The council passed the delay of accepting bids unanimously. The city received three bids for the demolition.

Kristen Hainkel can be reached at khainkel@newsandsentinel.com

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