Attorney general seeking attorneys to hold PCB manufacturers accountable
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Monday announced her office is seeking proposals from attorneys and law firms to serve as special attorney generals and seek damages from polychlorinated biphenyls — or PCB — manufacturers for the impact these chemicals have had on the environment.
PCBs are a group of man-made chemicals that were previously used in manufacturing products ranging from coolants and lubricants to caulks, paper products, sealants and electrical equipment. They were banned as the chemicals are toxic and can accumulate in organisms, building up in living things over time and passing up through the food chain as other organisms consume contaminated plants and animals.
'While PCBs are thankfully no longer manufactured in the United States, their harmful effects continue to contaminate our natural resources, wildlife, and communities,' Nessel said in a statement. 'The manufacturers responsible for this damage should be held accountable, not Michigan taxpayers. Pursuing this litigation will ensure that those who profited from the manufacture and sale of these chemicals and who hid the known toxicity and negative impacts of their use are held liable for the lasting damage they caused.'
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The state has pursued and secured remediation and restoration work at sites where PCBs were used and released into the environment at unsafe levels, and issues Eat Safe Fish guidelines to help protect Michiganders from exposure to PCBs and other chemicals.
However, Nessel's office said there are areas where too little work — or no work at all — is being done to clean up PCB contamination and restore the state's resources.
The Department of Attorney General is seeking proposals from attorneys and law firms with experience and interest in pursuing constitutional, statutory, tort and other applicable common law claims against manufacturers of toxic chemicals that ended up in the environment.
Contracts will be awarded based on the best value to the state, considering qualifications, experience, abilities, capacity and cost-effectiveness. Nessel will make the final decision based on recommendations from department staff in order to ensure an objective selection process and maintain bidder anonymity.
The Department of Attorney General will post a notice to its website when the selection has been made. The selected law firms will be compensated on a contingency basis.
More information on how to submit a proposal is available at the Department of Attorney General's website. The deadline for submissions is May 5, 2025.
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