3M 2010 Annual Report Download - page 112

106
Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. In July 2010, the Company and the State of Wisconsin reached a settlement of the
matter by the Company paying a $150,000 penalty and agreeing to implement two environmental projects at its
manufacturing facility.
Environmental Litigation
As previously reported, a former employee filed a purported class action lawsuit in 2002 in the Circuit Court of
Morgan County, Alabama, involving perfluorooctanyl chemistry, seeking unstated damages alleging that the plaintiffs
suffered fear, increased risk, subclinical injuries, and property damage from exposure to perfluorooctanyl chemistry
at or near the Company’s Decatur, Alabama, manufacturing facility. The Circuit Court in 2005 granted the Company’s
motion to dismiss the named plaintiff’s personal injury-related claims on the basis that such claims are barred by the
exclusivity provisions of the state’s Workers Compensation Act. The plaintiffs’ counsel filed an amended complaint in
November 2006, limiting the case to property damage claims on behalf of a purported class of residents and property
owners in the vicinity of the Decatur plant. Also, in 2005, the judge in a second purported class action lawsuit (filed by
three residents of Morgan County, Alabama, seeking unstated compensatory and punitive damages involving alleged
damage to their property from emissions of perfluorooctanyl compounds from the Company’s Decatur, Alabama,
manufacturing facility that formerly manufactured those compounds) granted the Company’s motion to abate the
case, effectively putting the case on hold pending the resolution of class certification issues in the first action
described above filed in the same court in 2002. Despite the stay, plaintiffs filed an amended complaint seeking
damages for alleged personal injuries and property damage on behalf of the named plaintiffs and the members of a
purported class. No further action in the case is expected unless and until the stay is lifted.
In February 2009, a resident of Franklin County, Alabama, filed a purported class action lawsuit in the Circuit Court of
Franklin County seeking compensatory damages and injunctive relief based on the application by the Decatur
wastewater treatment plant of wastewater treatment sludge to farmland and grasslands in the state that allegedly
contain PFOA, PFOS and other perfluorochemicals. The named defendants in the case include 3M, Dyneon LLC,
Daikin America, Inc., Synagro-WWT, Inc., Synagro South, LLC and Biological Processors of America. The named
plaintiff seeks to represent a class of all persons within the State of Alabama, Inc. who have had PFOA, PFOS and
other perfluorochemicals released or deposited on their property. In March 2010, the Alabama Supreme Court
ordered the case transferred from Franklin County to Morgan County. In May, 2010, consistent with its handling of
the other matters, the Morgan County Circuit Court abated this case, putting it on hold pending the pending the
resolution of the class certification issues in the first case filed there.
In July 2009, the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority in Florida filed a lawsuit against the Company, E.I. DuPont de
Nemours and Company, Solutia, Inc., and Fire Ram International, Inc. in the Escambia County Circuit Court alleging
contamination of public drinking water wells from PFOA and PFOS and seeking to recover costs related to
investigation, treatment, remediation and monitoring of alleged PFOA and PFOS contamination of its wells. The
Company, joined by the other defendants, removed the lawsuit to the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of
Florida. On November 19, 2009 the District Court denied the plaintiff’s motion to remand the case to state court,
finding that plaintiff’s joinder of the only Florida defendant, Fire Ram International, Inc., was fraudulent. The District
Court subsequently denied as not timely the plaintiff’s motion for leave to file an amended complaint. On April 29,
2010, the Company and the other defendants argued motions for summary judgment, seeking dismissal of the case
on various legal grounds. On September 29, 2010, the Court granted these motions and dismissed the lawsuit. The
plaintiff opted not to appeal.
In June 2009, the Company, along with more than 250 other companies, was served with a third-party complaint
seeking contribution towards the cost of cleaning up a 17-mile stretch of the Passaic River in New Jersey. After
commencing an enforcement action in 1990, the State of New Jersey filed suit against Maxus Energy, Tierra
Solutions, Occidental Chemical and two other companies seeking cleanup and removal costs and other damages
associated with the presence of dioxin and other hazardous substances in the sediment of the Passaic. The third-
party complaint seeks to spread those costs among the third-party defendants, including the Company. Based on the
cleanup remedy currently proposed by the EPA, the total costs at issue could easily exceed $1 billion. The
Company’s recent involvement in the case appears to relate to its past disposal of industrial waste at two commercial
waste disposal facilities in New Jersey. Whether, and to what extent, the Company may be required to contribute to
the costs at issue in the case remains to be determined. The Company does not yet have a basis for estimating its
potential exposure in this case, although the Company currently believes its allocable share, if any, is likely to be a
fraction of one percent of the total costs.
On December 30, 2010, the State of Minnesota, by its Attorney General Lori Swanson, acting in its capacity as
trustee of the natural resources of the State of Minnesota, filed a lawsuit in Hennepin County District Court against
3M to recover damages (including unspecified assessment costs and reasonable attorney’s fees) for alleged injury