Albany

A New York City law firm filed a federal class-action lawsuit Wednesday against two companies that have operated a Hoosick Falls manufacturing plant that's being blamed for contaminating the village's public water supply with a toxic chemical.

The lawsuit against Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics and Honeywell International was filed on behalf of four residents of Hoosick Falls who claim they were exposed to perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and that the value of their properties has been diminished by the pollution. The lawsuit does not make a claim for any bodily injuries, although the state Health Department is examining concerns by village residents that their community has been afflicted with a high rate of cancer and other illnesses. PFOA exposure has been linked to increased health effects, including testicular and kidney cancer and thyroid disease.

The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Albany also does not say whether any of the plaintiffs — Michele Baker; Angela Corbett; Michelle O'Leary and Daniel Shuttig — are afflicted with any health problems from drinking contaminated water. The claim states that Baker tried to refinance the mortgage on her Mahar Road home in January but was turned down by a local bank because of the water pollution.

Corbett, the lawsuit states, has a private well but is concerned she will not be able to sell her home. O'Leary, who moved to Hoosick Falls last September, has two children and fears for their health, the claim states. Her home gets water from the village's public supply, which draws water from underground wells near the Saint-Gobain plant.

O'Leary helped organize a grassroots organization that has been delivering bottled water to elderly and other residents who cannot get it on their own from a local supermarket. Schuttig also owns a home that gets water from the village's treatment plant and is concerned about his property value, the complaint states.

The lawsuit was filed by attorneys for Weitz & Luxenberg, a firm that specializes in class-action and personal injury litigation. It seeks class-action status for any residents or property owners damaged as a result of the pollution, including those with private wells. The filing lists claims for negligence, private nuisance, trespassing and liability for abnormally dangerous activity. Even if the firm is successful in establishing the class-action status, it would not prohibit others in the village from filing claims for any health-related illnesses.

The law firm began aggressively pursuing the case two months ago, around the time a Times Union story revealed state Health Department and village officials were still telling residents the water was safe to drink despite contrary warnings from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The village subsequently shifted its position, warning residents to stop consuming the water.

"While Saint-Gobain has acted quickly and openly since learning of the presence of PFOA in the drinking water supply in the village of Hoosick Falls, we respect the right of individuals to pursue their claims in a court of law," said Dina Silver Pokedoff, a company spokeswoman. "Saint-Gobain has, and will continue to work with the local, state and federal agencies to investigate the source of the PFOA in the drinking water."

Honeywell officials recently met with state agencies to discuss the situation.

"Honeywell is doing a review to understand the historic operations by our predecessor, AlliedSignal Laminated Systems Inc., which operated in Hoosick Falls between 1986 and 1996," said Victoria Ann Streitfeld, Honeywell's spokeswoman. "After selling the business in 1996, AlliedSignal Laminated Systems conducted several site investigations and received 'No Further Action' letters from the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation. Regulations did not require testing for PFOA at the time."

Streitfeld said Honeywell has offered to help with the ongoing testing of private wells in the village of Hoosick Falls and town of Hoosick.

On Jan. 30, Weitz & Luxenberg organized a public meeting at Bennington College in Vermont, just across the border from Hoosick Falls, that was attended by dozens of people. The event was bolstered by the firm's high-profile consultant, environmental advocate Erin Brockovich, who is widely known for her efforts in an environmental pollution case against Pacific Gas & Electric in California.

PFOA, a man-made chemical, was discovered in Hoosick Falls' water system by a village resident, Michael Hickey, who began researching the issue two years ago. Hickey said his interest was piqued by what he believed was a high rate of cancer in the village. His father, John, who worked at the Saint-Gobain plant for decades, died of kidney cancer in 2013. Hickey used his own money to have samples of village water tested for PFOA and he notified village officials in 2014 that the tests showed the levels of the chemical found in the system exceeded federal health advisories. PFOA has been used since the 1940s to make products such as nonstick coatings and heat-resistant wiring.

Last month, the state Department of Environmental Conservation called on Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics and Honeywell International to enter consent orders that would require them to clean up the remnants of the toxic chemical that polluted water supplies in and around the village of Hoosick Falls.

The DEC said in a statement that its preliminary investigation, begun last month, determined the two corporations, and possibly others, are the "parties responsible" for the presence of high levels of PFOA that were discovered two years ago in the village's public water supply. The chemical has since been found in private wells in and around the village, as well as in the groundwater under Saint-Gobain's McCaffrey Street plant a few hundred yards from the village's water treatment plant.

Saint-Gobain has owned the McCaffrey Street plant since 1999. Honeywell's predecessor corporation, Allied Signal, operated the facility from 1986 to 1996, one of five companies that owned and operated the site since 1956.

The lawsuit provides a detailed outline of the history of the McCaffrey Street site, including practices that included washing PFOA-contaminated residue into floor drains during the manufacturing processes. "Those floor drains resulted in the discharge of PFOA into the soil and, in turn, into the aquifer," the lawsuit states.

Although the federal complaint said Saint-Gobain halted the use of PFOA at the plant in 2004, the company has said it did not eliminate its use of PFOA at the facility until 2014. A company spokeswoman previously told that Times Union that, for the production of films and tapes, it used "lower, steadily decreasing levels of PFOA" from 2006 to 2014.

In addition to punitive damages, the federal lawsuit seeks "consequential damages" that would pay for a medical monitoring program in which people exposed to PFOA would be regularly tested for any adverse health effects.

A spokeswoman for Saint-Gobain last month said the company was "potentially" responsible for the pollution and that there has been no official determination about the cause of the contamination, which state officials acknowledged may have come from multiple manufacturing facilities in and around the village.

Saint-Gobain, which said it learned of the pollution in December 2014, has voluntarily funded the distribution of bottled water and said it will pay for the installation of a temporary water filtration system as well as a long-term water filtration system expected to be in place by October.

DEC said the agency will use its Superfund authority to make sure the contamination is cleaned up.

The DEC released a map last month identifying 11 current and former manufacturing sites in Hoosick Falls where it said PFOA chemicals may have been used in processing. The sites are John Street, McCaffrey Street, Carey Avenue, Church Street, three locations on River Road, Liberty Street, First Street and two locations on Mechanic Street.

blyons@timesunion.com • 518-454-5547 • @brendan_lyonstu