Environmental partner, Brian Moskal, provided commentary to PacerMonitor regarding a proposed EPA rule involving PFAS.

Excerpts:

“We’re going to see a lot more reporting requirements and companies being required to report releases of PFAS,” said Brian Moskal, a partner at the Greenberg Glusker law firm in Los Angeles. “Where there’s reporting, there’s litigation.”

“Both of these were expected, but the acceleration of litigation over the last couple of years has been a little bit surprising,” Mr. Moskal said. “It’s just taken off.”

“Part of the problem is that these PFAS substances are so effective,” Mr. Moskal told PacerMonitor News. “They’re resistant to water, oil, heat, and so they’re really good at doing their job, and particularly when you talk about firefighting substances, they are good at putting out fires.”

“Where these companies have to incorporate PFAS into their testing regime, they are finding the substance at a lot more sites than expected and as companies begin spending additional dollars to test for and remediate PFAS, they are going to be looking for other responsible parties to sue,” Mr. Moskal said in an interview.

“Plaintiffs’ lawyers are keenly interested in what does the industry know and when did it know it? So, until discovery starts happening and documents start getting produced and depositions start getting taken, it will be tough to know what specific companies knew about the potential harms and when they knew it,” Mr. Moskal said.

“As they pay millions and millions of dollars in settlements, they will accelerate their move away from PFAS because they will find carrier insurance much more complicated,” Mr. Moskal added.

Resources

• Pacer Monitor