What Are Your Rights: Hoosick Falls PFAS Settlement
Recorded on August 28, 2024
The village of Hoosick Falls expects to receive $3 million over the next three years as a result of the village joining a national class action settlement related to PFAS water contamination. So what happened in this case?
On CBS6 to help explain is Partner Rosemarie Riddell Bogdan.
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Announcer: The following segment is sponsored by Harding-Mazati.
Interviewer: The village of Hoosick Falls expects to receive $3 million over the next three years as a result of the village joining a national class action settlement related to PFAS water contamination. Partner Rosemarie Bogdan from Harding Mazzotti is here to explain this all. So what happened in this case?
Rosemarie: Well what happened in this case is there was a class action commenced on behalf of municipalities all over the country and the village joined that class action. The purpose of the class action was to get compensation for the villages in the costs that they have incurred to try to deal with this PFAS contamination which has been a real problem.
Interviewer: Yeah one of the problems with it is it can cause health issues, injuries, so what are some of those outcomes?
Rosemarie: Well PFAS is a forever chemical and the problem is, is that it does not biodegrade and that’s true in our environment and causes environmental damage but it’s also true in our bodies it doesn’t biodegrade. And, unfortunately, this man-made chemical causes health effects as you’ve spoken about which can be liver, kidney cancers, testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis. So you know that’s really the issue.
Interviewer: Yeah. And are there other pieces of ongoing, you know, litigation or legal action that Hoosick Falls is dealing with regarding contamination?
Rosemarie: Hoosick Falls to my understanding has other actions pending against defendants that have not settled. So there’s the opportunity in the future for them to also get compensation from those other defendants that are outside of the class settling defendants.
Interviewer: Gotcha. If you believe that you have suffered a health issue related to PFAS contamination what should you or can you do?
Rosemarie: Well PFAS contamination and the issue in the Hoosick Falls case is it’s in the water supply. So if someone has been exposed to PFAS through their drinking water or importantly also our firefighters have been exposed to PFAS through the firefighting foam that they use not only to fight fires but for their practice so to speak then they really should consult with a law firm that’s handling the PFAS cases. We’re doing that here at Harding Mazzotti to see about their exposure and whether their particular cancer or illness is associated with that.
Interviewer: Yeah. No, that makes sense. All right. Well, thank you so much for explaining it all for us.
Rosemarie: My pleasure.
Interviewer: And for more info covered in our weekly What Are Your Rights segments or to send us a story idea just head to our website cbs6albany.com