Sitka wades into an unsettled frontier of environmental law

Sitka is weighing whether to sue over the chemicals in its water — and one of the three contaminants it's targeting puts the borough on legal ground almost no local government has tested. On Tuesday, the Assembly considers hiring an outside firm to pursue civil claims over PFAS "forever chemicals," the solvent byproduct 1,4-dioxane, and microplastics, including waste from tobacco products.

Two of those are familiar territory. Suing PFAS manufacturers is a well-worn path: Alaska's attorney general did it in 2021, thousands of municipalities have filed nationally, and the landmark 3M and DuPont settlements have already sent billions to public water systems. Cases over 1,4-dioxane are following the same model.

Microplastics are the frontier. There is litigation over plastic pollution — cities like Baltimore and states like New York have sued beverage giants over plastic waste — but suing over microplastics as a water contaminant, folded into a treatment-cost recovery claim alongside forever chemicals, is a newer and largely untested theory. Courts are still working out whether it holds; several early microplastics cases have been thrown out. No other Alaska municipality appears to have tried it.

The structure makes the gamble cheap for a small borough. Under the contingency deal, the firm, David Grossman & Associates, fronts the litigation and gets paid only if Sitka wins or settles, taking a share of the recovery. If the case goes nowhere, the borough is out nothing but the attorney's time.

That doesn't make it a sure thing. The lawyers take a cut of any award, these cases can grind on for years, and authorizing a suit is a long way from collecting on one — Sitka would still have to show contamination and pin it to the companies it sues, a heavier lift for microplastics, where the science and the standards are still forming.

For a town whose economy leans on clean nearshore waters and the reputation of its seafood, the calculation runs as much through the fishery as the water bill. The resolution is set for a single reading, so the Assembly could approve it Tuesday.