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PFAS: When Confronted With Potential Liability, Know Your History

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Last month, on the heels of our trilogy of blogs related to the Impact of PFAS on Environmental Litigation (Virtual) Conference hosted by Perrin Conferences, TRG attended a subsequent PFAS webinar, which is the subject of this week’s blog.

“Do the Homework on Corporate History” was one of six key takeaway points from the Identification of PFAS Sites and Questions of Legal and Insurance Coverage webinar hosted by Perrin Conferences. The webinar cautioned that, while companies attempting to understand their liability often turn first to insurance archaeology, instead their initial step should be to fully understand their own corporate history and how they became liable in the first place. The webinar pointed out that sales, acquisitions, and mergers all may have affected liability, as well as any active insurance policies.

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PFAS: Civilian Usage and Disposal

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This week we continue our series of blogs reflecting on material covered in the “Impact of PFAS on Environmental Litigation (Virtual) Conference” hosted by Perrin Conferences by examining the growing focus on civilian usage and disposal of PFAS.

When certain PFAS chemicals first became cause for concern, it was the manufacturers of the chemicals themselves—firms such as DuPont and 3M—that were the focus of litigation. As focus broadened to end-users and disposers of chemicals that contained harmful PFAS, it was largely the military that came under scrutiny due to its widespread use of AFFF firefighting foam, as we described in last week’s blog. Today, however, there is also widespread focus on civil users, distributors, and disposers of PFAS-containing material, a point driven home by conference presenters.

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PFAS: Military Usage Still a Major Concern

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Last week we began our series of blogs reflecting on material covered in the Impact of PFAS on Environmental Litigation (Virtual) Conference hosted by Perrin Conferences, with a look at the federal government’s recent actions to address PFAS in the environment. This week, we’ll take another look at military sources of PFAS contamination. TRG has been a pioneer in researching historical usage and disposal of PFAS end-products such as AFFF during the last decade. In the coming years, we expect our research into AFFF and other PFAS and PFAS-containing chemicals to continue to grow, as our current and future clients in both government and the private sector seek out our in-depth knowledge of the relevant federal, state, and local records and our ability to provide detailed information relevant to their cases.

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PFAS: Bold Actions by EPA Expected to Create New Liabilities

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When it comes to PFAS contamination liability, be proactive. That was one of several important messages conveyed at the Impact of PFAS on Environmental Litigation (Virtual) Conference hosted by Perrin Conferences, which Taylor Research Group (TRG) recently attended. Readers familiar with TRG’s work will know that research into PFAS end-product usage and disposal has been one of our specialties for many years now. Yet within environmental law these chemicals—the best known and most infamous being PFOS and PFOA*—have existed in a sort of limbo.

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Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Unlocks Funds for EPA Cleanup Programs

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The passing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in November 2021 marked a historic day for federal funding of environmental programs. The law unlocked over $50 billion of funds to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), $5 billion of which will be utilized to address problematic Superfund and brownfield sites, abandoned mines, and old oil and gas wells.

Using Chronologies to Analyze Historical Site Issues

As part of the array of research services Taylor Research Group (TRG) offers, we regularly collect, review and analyze historical materials on behalf of our clients. Individually, each document obtained – a Sanborn map, a business charter, a railroad track chart, an inspection report from a regulatory agency – serves as one piece to a larger puzzle. When assembled, these factual pieces of information tell a unique story that assists our clients in myriad ways. Some want to fully grasp the range of factors that contributed to environmental problems at an industrial site, a manufacturing facility, a military base, a former rail yard, a waterway, and so on. Others seek to better understand their own nuanced corporate lineages. Whatever the goal, one of the most useful tools we employ to tell such stories is the chronology.

1918 and 2020: Navigating U.S. Elections Amidst Global Pandemics

The years 1918 and 2020 have been prominent in our national discourse lately, as Americans’ endured devastating pandemics during each year. A less talked about commonality? There were general elections that had to be carried out in both years, despite the impact of the Spanish Influenza in 1918 and COVID-19 in 2020.

Exploring How the 1918 Spanish Influenza Impacted Public Libraries

December 2020 marks the tenth month in which COVID-19 has upended the daily lives of Americans. Throughout the duration of this crisis, we at Taylor Research Group (TRG) have sought parallels between our present experiences and the events of the 1918 influenza, the last pandemic to severely impact day to day life in the United States. As professional researchers that rely on archival repositories of all sizes – from local libraries to the Library of Congress – we were particularly curious as to how such spaces were impacted in 1918

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Conducting Remote Research During COVID-19 Repository Closures

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For the past 14 years, Taylor Research Group (TRG) has touted our ability to obtain obscure archival records on our clients’ behalf. In light of the continued closure of many repositories due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the textual documentation we routinely review is now largely inaccessible. As a result, we have spent the past few months honing our online research techniques and investigating digitized caches of historical records.

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“It was a sincere pleasure to work with your team. Those I worked with were extremely knowledgeable and super patient with someone who was trying to get more experience performing historical research. I greatly appreciated the opportunity to observe and learn.” - Fortune 500 Company

Everything you have provided us this morning is invaluable….The information you’re finding is a game changer for us.” – Law Firm

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