Brook Park council voted June 17 to retain outside law and consulting firms to investigate whether PFAS from firefighting foam used in the city may have contaminated soil or water and to pursue recovery under the nationwide settlement against 3M.

The move, introduced as an emergency measure, follows what Mayor Edward A. Orcutt and Service Director Brian Beyer described as a national settlement announced in June 2024. "There is about a little over $10,000,000,000 settlement," Service Director Brian Beyer said, adding that the firms will perform sampling and coordinate with the fire department to identify where foam was used. Mayor Orcutt said roughly "$10,300,000,000 is available" from the 3M settlement as part of his explanation to council.

Why it matters: council members said the work could identify contaminated city property and create a source of funds to pay for cleanup and potentially for other municipal priorities if recoveries remain after remediation. Brian Beyer said the firms would "assume all of the cost for the investigations" in the first instance under the contract language he described, while the city would pay for any separate testing it chose to perform: "When you get into b2... all costs associated in any investigation... undertaken by the client," he told council.

Council members pressed for scope and oversight. Councilman Troyer asked whether the city knew which properties would be tested; Beyer said the fire department keeps records of where foam was deployed and would help pinpoint sampling locations. Councilman Jim Mancini asked how many other municipalities had joined; the service director said firms were already active in roughly 300 jurisdictions and that the largest known payout so far had been $450 million to New Jersey, as he described it.

Formal action and next steps: the council adopted the ordinance/order (listed in the record as Order No. 11476‑2025) to retain the firms. Under the agreement language discussed at the meeting, the firm-led pre‑litigation investigations and associated costs are advanced by the firm and treated under the contract; the city may separately perform its own testing at its expense. If contaminants are found, the firms would seek recovery from the settlement pool. Mayor Orcutt and Beyer said recovered funds could be used for remediation and, possibly, for broader city priorities such as land acquisition, though specifics would depend on recoveries and allowable uses under the settlement and related agreements.

What council did not decide tonight: neither testing results nor any remediation plan exists yet. Council approved only the retention and preliminary investigative work; any cleanup program, use of funds, or litigation decisions would come later. Several council members asked for continuing updates and for the administration to coordinate with the fire chief on targeting sample sites.

Ending: council approved the retention during the June 17 session; Beyer said the work will be coordinated with the fire department and that the firms will proceed with sampling as they work to identify whether Brook Park properties were affected.