City of Mansfield will continue in litigation about possible contamination at Lahm Airport

Mark Caudill, Mansfield News Journal
·2 min read

The city of Mansfield will continue to participate in ongoing litigation against DuPont and 3M regarding possible contamination at Lahm Regional Airport.

Following a 20-minute executive session at a special meeting Tuesday night, Mansfield City Council voted unanimously to authorize Dave Remy, public works director, to sign documents to stay in settlement discussions.

John Spon
John Spon

"The city is not opting out," Law Director John Spon said after the meeting.

In January, the city of Mansfield filed a civil suit against 81 companies, including DuPont and 3M, and individuals, some of them international, about possible contamination at the airport.

Four attorneys filed a complaint and jury demand in Richland County Common Pleas Court. Two of the attorneys are from Ohio, one from Louisiana and one from Washington, D.C. Council had voted to hire outside counsel for the suit.

The city has since joined with other plaintiffs in federal court.

Issue involves chemicals in foam used to fight fires

Law firms representing 190 other communities had contacted city officials about the situation at Lahm Airport on city-owned property, specifically at the 179th Airlift Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard.

The issue is related primarily to chemicals in foam used by the Air National Guard's firefighters.

According to the initial complaint filed in January, the defendants' fluorosurfactant products were "defective in design and unreasonably dangerous" because they "render drinking water unfit for consumption, pose significant threats to public health and create real and potential damage to the environment."

At issue are so-called "forever chemicals" PFOA and PFOS and their assorted health risks. According to the initial complaint, concerns about such chemicals go back decades.

In the initial complaint, the attorneys assigned the following seven causes of action, which are legal claims that allow a party to seek judicial relief:

  • Products liability, design defect.

  • Products liability, failure to warn.

  • Trespass.

  • Negligence.

  • Public nuisance.

  • Private nuisance.

  • Violation of Ohio's Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (against UFTA defendants only).

In a previous News Journal story, however, the public affairs office from the 179th said the city was notified in October 2020 of a soil and groundwater site investigation at the base from September 2017 through January 2020.

A report from the National Guard Bureau determined the 179th as "low risk due to soil permeability and distance to drinking water sources."

Asked for a possible time frame on a possible resolution to the case, Spon said, "It could go on for years. It gets very complicated."

Following a council meeting in September, Spon said more extensive testing would be done in the coming weeks at Lahm to determine possible chemical contamination.

"We have made arrangements to have chemical testing out at our airport to determine what, if any, unlawful chemicals are in our airport grounds," Spon previously said. "We have a certain amount of residue out there now."

Spon said Tuesday he has not received an update.

mcaudill@gannett.com

419-521-7219

X (formerly Twitter): @MarkCau32059251

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Mansfield City Council to stay in litigation related to Lahm Airport