3M Pollution Case Heads to the Jury
After more than four years of court motions, 19 days of trial arguments and more than $1 million worth of expert testimony, a suit in which three east metro households are claiming property damage from 3M Co. chemicals in groundwater has gone to the jury.
Attorneys for both sides wrapped up their cases in a day of closing arguments Tuesday. The six women and three men of the jury today will begin weighing scientific data and corporate and community history that goes back more than half a century, “to when there were no Twins, no Vikings, and no Minnesota Pollution Control Agency,” in the words of 3M attorney Cooper Ashley.
The homeowners say their property values declined by 15 percent because of water contamination from 3M chemicals manufactured and dumped at four public and private sites in the east metro for more than a generation. They are seeking more than $200,000 from the Maplewood firm, in addition to other damages. But Ashley asked the jurors to award them nothing.
“This is important because of the allegations made and 3M’s integrity,” Ashley said.
3M was as upfront as scientifically possible from the time it started manufacturing and dumping waste containing the compounds, called perfluorochemicals, in 1956, Ashley said Tuesday. The chemicals have been used in hundreds of products that resist water and grease, including Scotchgard, firefighting foam, computer chips and nonstick cookware. 3M stopped production early this decade.
But David Byrne, an attorney for the plaintiffs, argued that 3M had developed sophisticated detecting abilities, even seeking out a human control group in China in the 1970s, long before state regulators began establishing health and exposure standards in the 1990s. The company didn’t let officials know what it knew, Byrne argued.
“They were playing games with regulators and playing games with serious chemicals in the environment,” he said.
What did 3M know?
The key to establishing damages will be whether the jury decides 3M knew the chemicals it was dumping were likely to spread through groundwater, or intended to have them invade the plaintiffs’ properties. Both are elements of trespass under Minnesota law, which the plaintiffs argue 3M committed.
3M made the chemicals at its Cottage Grove plant from about 1950 to 2002 and disposed of waste there and at dumps in Lake Elmo, Oakdale and Woodbury from 1956 to 1975. Groundwater beneath each site has been tainted, and has spread to surrounding areas.
In many cases the concentrations are at trace levels that health experts consider safe. In others, 3M paid for residents, including more than 200 Lake Elmo homeowners who had private wells, to be hooked up to city water.
The plaintiffs include one couple who received city water from Oakdale and two individuals who had private wells in Lake Elmo. Tests in 2005 showed their water was contaminated. All were given bottled water or filters and were later connected to Lake Elmo’s expanded water system.
Washington County District Judge Mary Hannon denied the plaintiffs’ motion in 2007 to certify the case as a class-action proceeding involving many more residents. The case was further narrowed in recent months when Hannon dismissed their claims of nuisance and personal injury.
The case is now essentially a property value case. Ruling on a 3M Co. motion Tuesday, Hannon agreed to instruct the jury that the plaintiffs’ claims of exposure to the chemicals in drinking water have nothing to do with property values.
