Politics & Government

Suffolk County Water Authority Wins Contamination Suits

SCWA awarded $1.1 million from chemical companies that ignored their commercial clients' habit of dumping dry cleaning products.

The Suffolk County County Water Authority recently won $1.1 million in lawsuit settlements against eight different chemical companies, including Dow Chemical, for their part in potentially contaminating Suffolk County’s water table through the sale of their dry cleaning products.

According to Newsday, the water authority filed suit against the companies in 2010, claiming that they knowingly sold their products to commercial dry cleaners and were aware of the common practice for these dry cleaners to dump the chemical compounds into public sewers, which could contaminate Suffolk’s drinking water. The SCWA has had to routinely test underground water supplies.

The specific chemical manufactured and marketed by the defendants in the lawsuit is perchloroethylene, or PCE, which has been linked to kidney, liver and central nervous system damage and can increase chances of cancer.

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"Our policy is clear: Anyone who contaminates our wells, we'll go after them," SCWA chairman James Gaughran was quoted in the Newsday article. "We're thrilled to reach these settlements so far and we're pursuing more."

The water authority said the PCE has not polluted the drinking water supply to residents, but that persistent testing and well remediation has proven costly to the agency.

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