Page 11 - Yucaipa Valley Water District - Board Workshop
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INSIGHT: PFAS Liability Is Coming to California about:reader?url=https://www.bna.com/insight-pfas-liability-n57982093402/
prohibited under Proposition 65. Once the OEHHA finally sets
maximum contaminant limits, local water districts will be on the
hook for remediation liability. As explained above, PFAS are neither
easy nor cheap to remediate. The water districts will be forced to
find other parties to help shoulder the remediation burden,
especially manufacturers and distributors of firefighting foam, which
is a common groundwater exposure method. These companies will
be at serious risk of immediate Proposition 65 litigation come
November.
The liabilities associated with PFAS exposure could be substantial,
particularly in California. Even worse, given the ever-expanding
scope of PFAS regulation and litigation, the landscape is always
shifting. For business owners and operators who have used
PFAS—or are simply unsure whether they did—the present
regulatory and legal environment can be daunting.
There are steps businesses can take to stave off the worst
consequences of PFAS-related liability. As an initial step,
companies can have audits performed to assess their potential
liability, and take steps to minimize risks.
A thorough audit will examine the business top-to-bottom. Even if
the business never manufactured its own products with PFAS, it
must be equally certain that products bought and used as part of
business were also PFAS-free. The company’s legal department
should review the business’s relationships with PFAS suppliers and
consumers, including any contracts or other transactional
documents (such as insurance policies) for assumptions of risk and
other related protections. Be sure to receive warranties from
suppliers that they are providing PFAS-free products and that those
products did not encounter PFAS anywhere in the supply chain.
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