this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2023
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3M Co has reached a $10.3 billion settlement with a host of U.S. public water systems to resolve water pollution claims tied to "forever chemicals," the chemical company announced on Thursday. The company said the settlement would provide the funds over a 13-year period to cities, towns and other public water systems to test and treat contamination of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

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[–] Senseibu 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How can it actually be treated? They are there now and will never breakdown. What do we do? filter them and put them in a dump underground how does it work if they can only be detected microscopically

[–] kiwifoxtrot@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They pump groundwater through filters to capture the PFAS. The filters are incinerated to destroy the PFAS.

[–] Senseibu 1 points 1 year ago

Ahh thanks, useful to know.

[–] Syo@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

3M, which is facing thousands of lawsuits over PFAS contamination, did not admit liability, and said the money will help support remediation at public water systems that detect PFAS "at any level."

Not liable? Sure... Still for $1B/year for the next decade this is at least a meaningful amount.