Read the full article by Xanthe Gregory (ABC News)
“A Federal Court judge has described the Commonwealth’s $2 billion lawsuit against the chemical manufacturing company 3M over PFAS contamination at defence bases as ‘daunting’.
During the first case management hearing in Federal Court today the two parties agreed the Australian government’s claim was ‘large and complex’.
It heard a 1,600 page statement of claim has been filed about alleged soil and water contamination at 28 defence bases across Australia, where firefighting foam containing PFAS chemicals was used.
Justice Catherine Button told the court sitting in Melbourne she had ‘never seen a claim like this … and to characterise it as daunting would be an understatement, daunting for everybody’.
In March the Commonwealth announced it was seeking damages from US-based chemical manufacturer 3M and 3M Australia.
It the largest legal claim ever brought by the federal government, attempting to recoup the costs associated with investigating, managing and remediating contamination from the legacy use of AFFF firefighting foam.”…