Georgia bill would block families from suing carpetmakers for contamination on their land, water

Read the full article by Sophia Choi (WSB-TV).

“Channel 2 investigative reporter Sophia Choi spoke to the lawmakers trying to give these companies immunity on WSB Tonight at 11. More and more families in Northwest Georgia are signing up to be part of these lawsuits against carpet companies.

Cities and counties like Calhoun and Gordon County are also suing. But the PFAS Receiver Shield Act or House Bill 211 could give carpet companies immunity unless you can prove they purposely ignored the risks.

‘I don’t think we will ever be made whole,’ said Tim Thomason a Whitfield County landowner. Thomason showed Choi around his 25-acre farm in Dalton where researchers found the second highest concentration of PFAS in Northwest Georgia.

‘It came back 137,000 parts per trillion,’ said Thomason. He is part of a growing list of families suing carpet manufacturers and chemical companies in the Dalton area, saying they knew of the dangers stain resistant products posed ‘but hid them.’ House Bill 211 would protects carpet manufacturers – the largest employer in Dalton, known as the carpet capital of the world.”…