This story originally appeared in the Lede. For more or to subscribe, visit www.birminghamlede.com

Birmingham Water Works (BWWB) voted this week to end their legal contract with Environmental Litigation Group, P.C. and to dismiss their legal complaint against over two dozen chemical manufacturers.

In November BWWB accused these manufacturers of contaminating Birmingham’s groundwater with toxic manmade chemicals known as PFAS.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) these chemicals can cause several negative health effects on humans and animals including cancer and stunted development.

However, BWWB opened this week’s meeting with a public statement telling customers they should not be concerned about the safety of their drinking water.

This statement came after customers and public officials voiced their concerns over not receiving any notification of the original complaint.

“It is important that customers know that the quality of our water is safe, and our water is not contaminated,” said BWWB General Manager Michael Johnson in the statement this week. “We are fully in compliance with current existing water quality regulations.

“Our customers need to know we use a variety of water treatment technologies that are fully effective in achieving existing water quality regulations by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management [ADEM].”

Johnson continued with details on BWWB’s water testing process.

“To ensure the safety of our water and to ensure compliance with all existing water quality regulations our certified laboratory performs over 173,000 advanced analyses per year on the quality of the water we treat, as well on the safety and quality of the water we distribute to our customers,” said Johnson. “In addition to the testing that occurs at our certified laboratory, our licensed water treatment operators perform an additional 91,200 tests on raw water and over 135,000 tests on finished water every year in wet labs located at each of our four water filtration plants. In total, BWWB performs over 399,200 tests on over 300 different chemicals or contaminants each year. Finally, we have never been cited by ADEM or EPA for violating any water quality standard.

“As part of our extensive testing regime, we test for a variety of unregulated chemicals and compounds including PFOS and PFOA. The chemicals generally referred to PFAS are found everywhere in our everyday environment. The testing that we have performed on these chemicals have detected no PFAS chemicals in any of our various sources of water supply or our four water treatment plants’ finished water above any EPA or ADEM regulatory limit.

“We remain committed to delivering the highest quality water to our customers. We will continue to monitor EPA’s evolving guidance on PFAS chemicals and all other contaminants of concern and are prepared to take whatever steps are necessary to continue to remain in full compliance with all ADEM and EPA standards.”

A similar statement was emailed to the Lede on Friday, Mar. 3 by BWWB spokesman Rick Jackson.

In his statement, Jackson also included the following comment which offers some reasoning as to why BWWB voted to dismiss the case.

“Given this [the results of the water testing], the board of directors will be considering whether it plans to continue with the recently filed lawsuit concerning these chemicals.”

Jackson did not respond when asked on Mar. 9 if this was the reason BWWB was working to dismiss the case.

The lawsuit pointedly contended that a long list of chemical companies is responsible for contaminating drinking water with PFAS and related chemicals derived from a fire-fighting foam called AFFF.

“Plaintiff seeks to recover the costs of remediating the contamination, restoring its contaminated drinking water systems that have been, and continue to be, contaminated by PFOS and PFOA related to the manufacture and use of AFFF, and the costs of treating the water produced by the subject wells to remove the PFOS and PFOA,” read the complaint.

In a previous BWWB meeting on Feb. 22, an agenda indicated the possibility that the utility would drop its suit. But the item was instead dropped from the agenda.

This week’s agenda again indicated that the case would be discussed during the regular meeting, but it was instead moved to an executive session following the meeting that was not open to the public.

It was following this meeting that BWWB voted to end their legal contract and dismiss the case according to Jackson.

“It’s important to note that our water quality is safe,” wrote Jackson in an email to the Lede. “We comply with all current water quality regulations and use effective water treatment technologies. We perform over 399,200 tests yearly, and our water has never violated any water quality standards set by ADEM or EPA. We remain committed to providing high-quality water to our customers and will continue to monitor EPA’s guidance on PFAS chemicals and other contaminants.”

BWWB was not the only entity reckoning with the effects of PFA contamination. As the Lede previously reported, the city of Birmingham is also engaged in an ongoing legal suit involving the same two dozen or so manufacturers for similar reasons. The same law firm represented both the city of Birmingham and the BWWB.

“Because the Defendants knowingly placed defective and dangerously toxic fluorinated AFFF [Aqueous Film-Forming Foam] foams into the stream of commerce they are strictly liable to the Plaintiff for causing the release of toxic PFAS compounds onto the City’s municipal lands and its surface and subsurface soil,” reads the city’s 2021 suit.

BWWB’s case also alleged that the PFAS originated in the AFFF’s used by Birmingham firefighters that were manufactured and sold by a long list of chemical companies.

These companies include: 3M, AGC Chemicals Americas, Inc., Trussville’s Amerex Corporation, Archroma U.S. Inc., Arkema, Inc., Buckeye Fire Equipment Company, Carrier Global Corporation, ChemDesign Products, Inc., Chemguard, Inc., Chemicals, Inc., Chemours Company FC, LLC, Chubb Fire, Ltd., Clariant Corporation, Corteva, Inc., Deepwater Chemicals, Inc., Du Pont de Nemours Inc., Dynax Corporation, Kidde-Fenwal, Inc., Kidde P.L.C., Inc, Nation Ford Chemical Company, National Foam, Inc., Chemours Company, Tyco Fire Products, LP, United Technologies Corporation, UTC Fire & Security Americas Corporation, Inc.

So far only 3M and Corteva have come forward to deny the claims as the Lede previously reported.

Johnson said during this week’s meeting that Birmingham was not alone in dealing with PFAS and added that this was a nationwide issue that the EPA was continuously working on.

One recent EPA measure was to dedicate $52.6 million in funding to removing chemical contaminants from Alabama’s water according to a report from AL.com’s Dennis Pillion.