An appeal pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit asks whether CERCLA preempts state law claims for medical monitoring in Giovanni v. U.S. Department of the Navy, No. 17-2473 (3d Cir.). This is an important issue in the context of perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) because the exact health effects remain in dispute. Residents state PFCs from the U.S. Department of the Navy’s Willow Grove and Warminster facilities contaminated their drinking water. The two naval facilities are currently being cleaned up under the Superfund program. The district court dismissed the request for an injunction to require the Navy to fund a health effects study and medical monitoring because the court held that the residents’ claim constituted a challenge to an ongoing cleanup, which was barred by Section 113(h) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).
Read more from my article in The Legal Intelligencer supplement, PA Law Weekly, by clicking here.