PFAS in Water: What to Check in Illinois

Federal PFAS claims proceed in MDL 2873 (In re: AFFF Products Liability Litigation) in the District of South Carolina (Charleston) before Judge Richard M. Gergel. Illinois plaintiffs and water utilities file directly into MDL 2873. Illinois also has active PFAS litigation in state court, including claims against industrial sources. The Illinois attorney general has pursued PFAS accountability alongside private plaintiff litigation.

Illinois water utilities near Scott AFB, O'Hare International Airport, and other AFFF-using sites are eligible participants. Illinois EPA has been actively monitoring PFAS in public water systems under EPA's 2024 PFAS MCLG standards (zero for PFOA/PFOS).

Illinois has a 2-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims under 735 ILCS 5/13-202. For latent toxic exposure diseases, Illinois applies the discovery rule (Rozny v. Marnul) tolling limitations until the plaintiff discovered or should have discovered both the injury and its causal connection to PFAS exposure. Given the latency of PFAS-linked kidney cancer, testicular cancer, and thyroid disease, the discovery rule is critical for Illinois claimants.

Significant Illinois PFAS contamination sites include: Scott AFB (O'Fallon, St. Clair County — PFAS plumes in local groundwater), O'Hare International Airport (Chicago — AFFF use in firefighting training), Greater Rockford Airport, NAS Glenview (former naval air station — Lake County), and industrial electroplating/manufacturing facilities in the Chicago metropolitan area and Rockford region. Illinois EPA identified PFAS detections in dozens of community water systems in 2021 monitoring.