Massive 3M payout over bad chemical “uncertainties”
MAPLEWOOD, Minnesota — Chemical manufacturer 3M has agreed to pay $7.3 billion — that’ billions with a “b” — to thousands of people who claimed their groundwater was poisoned by 3M chemicals in the ground water. The chemicals were in widely used and highly profitable fire-fighting foam. The money will be divided amng120, 000 claimants, mostly nea airports where the foam was used for decades in training drills for airplane crashes. Among poisoned sites was French Island on the Mississippi River is Wisconsin, near the LaCrosse airport. The issue was so-called “forever chemicals” that never ever dissolve or degrade. Even with the settlement, 3M continued to sidestep responsibility: 3M’s chair, William Brown, saidt he settlement substantially reduces “uncertainty” about the chemicals. The payout will be over nine years, which mitigates damage to 3M’s bottom line.
