Community Meeting Over Water Quality Concerns Could Lead To Lawsuits
by KYW's David Madden
NEW YORK, NY (CBS) -- A New York based law firm is hosting a meeting Tuesday night at Upper Moreland High School, aimed at informing people of their legal rights in light of concerns over water quality around three current and former military facilities in Bucks and Montgomery Counties.
Weitz and Luxenberg rented the school auditorium for the meeting, prompted after some 50 calls and e-mails from local residents to the firm, following word that traces of firefighting chemicals were found in almost 100 municipal and private wells, leading to their shutdown.
It's thought the contamination follows the use of PFOA and PFOS at the former Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Willow Grove, the former Naval Air Warfare Center in Warminster, and the Horsham Air Guard Station.
Robin Greenwald heads up the firm's Environmental and Consumer Protection Unit and suggests meetings such as this are the first step in filing lawsuits. "Based on what I know so far, it appears that we will," Greenwald told KYW Newsradio. "The people that have reached out to us are certainly interested in talking to us further."
The firm says it's conducted a preliminary investigation of the situation, but that does not include independent checks of anyone's water supply.
"We learned about what was happening in Pennsylvania in real-time from people who got water quality reports," she said. "They got letters to inform them that they had PFOA in their water."
Local congressman Brendan Boyle recently noted reports that exposure to PFOA or PFOS could lead to increased cancer risks, and has called for federal hearings into the issue.
