People who lived, worked or owned property near W. L. Gore & Associates’ Elkton, Maryland plants, in parts of Cecil County, Maryland and the Newark, Delaware area, may be covered by a proposed class action alleging Gore released PFOA that contaminated drinking water, air and soil there for decades. No class has been certified and there is nothing to file yet.
Allegations Only · No Settlement Yet
This article describes a class action complaint. The statements below are unproven allegations. W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. has not been found liable, there is no certified class, and nothing to claim at this time. This page is informational and is not legal advice.
What Is This About?
Forty-six current and former residents of the Elkton, Maryland and Newark, Delaware area sued W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., the maker of Gore-Tex, on August 17, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The case is Addi v. W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., No. 1:26-cv-03249.The complaint alleges that for decades Gore’s plants in Elkton, Cecil County, used PFOA (also called C-8), a “forever chemical” in the PFAS family, to make fluoropolymer products, and that PFOA released from the plants’ stacks and wastewater contaminated nearby wells, groundwater, soil and air. It is filed both as a proposed class action, seeking medical monitoring and property damages for the community, and as individual claims for plaintiffs who say they developed cancer or other illnesses. Gore has not been found liable, and the court has not ruled on anything.
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What Does the Complaint Allege?
According to the complaint, Gore began processing PTFE, the fluoropolymer best known as Teflon, at its Elkton facilities in the early 1970s, using resins and dispersions that contained PFOA and later making its own with PFOA as a processing aid. It names three sites: the Cherry Hill facility, the four-building Appleton complex and the Fair Hill facility. It says PFOA vaporized during processing, left through exhaust stacks, settled on the surrounding land and water, and also entered wastewater, reaching the groundwater and private wells people drank from.The complaint says Gore used PFOA until about 2015, when the eight companies in the EPA’s PFOA stewardship program said they had phased it out. It cites decades of industry studies and internal documents to argue that Gore knew PFOA was toxic and built up in the body and the environment, tested its own employees’ blood, but did not offer testing to the community or warn neighbors. It also alleges that employees were told to purge documents about PFOA use. These are allegations; Gore has not yet responded in court.
Who Would Be Covered?
The complaint proposes three classes, all limited to a “Contamination Zone” made up of properties in ZIP codes 19702 and 19711 through 19717 (in and around Newark, Delaware) and 21916, 21920 and 21921 (in and around Elkton, Maryland) that were served contaminated water or whose air, soil or groundwater was contaminated by Gore’s releases:• Property Damage Class: people who own property in the zone now, or owned it within three years before the suit was filed.
• Medical Monitoring Class: people who lived, worked or went to school in the zone for at least six months between January 1, 1972 and class certification, drank PFOA-contaminated water from a public system or private well there, and are at increased risk of the listed illnesses.
• Personal Injury Class: people with the same exposure who have been diagnosed with testicular, kidney, liver or thyroid cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, pregnancy-induced hypertension or high cholesterol.
Gore and its affiliates, the judge and court staff, class counsel and their families, and government entities are excluded. The court has not certified any of these classes.
What Is the Lawsuit Asking For?
The claims are strict liability for an abnormally dangerous activity, negligence, private nuisance and, for property owners, trespass, all under Maryland law. The complaint asks for damages for lost value and use of property and loss of quality of life, money to fund a medical monitoring program tailored to PFOA exposure, a court-ordered biomonitoring protocol, compensation for the named plaintiffs’ illnesses and punitive damages.Related PFAS Cases
Gore is also one of several makers named in a separate lawsuit by New York fire districts over PFAS in firefighter turnout gear, which is unrelated to the Elkton contamination claims. Community PFOA cases like this one have a long history: the best-known, over DuPont’s Washington Works plant in West Virginia, led to a large medical monitoring settlement and thousands of injury suits.What Happens Next?
The public docket shows only the complaint so far. Gore’s first response is likely to be a motion to dismiss or to strike some claims. Courts often handle class claims for medical monitoring and property damage differently from individual injury claims, which have to be proven person by person. There is nothing to file and no deadline. OCA will update this page as the case develops.Questions
What area does the Gore PFAS lawsuit cover?
The complaint defines a Contamination Zone by ZIP code: 19702 and 19711 through 19717 in and around Newark, Delaware, and 21916, 21920 and 21921 in and around Elkton, Maryland. A property counts only if, as a result of Gore’s releases, it was served PFAS-contaminated water or its air, soil or groundwater was contaminated. The court has not approved that definition.
What health conditions are in the Gore PFAS personal injury class?
The proposed personal injury class covers people diagnosed with testicular cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer, thyroid cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, pregnancy-induced hypertension or high cholesterol after living, working or attending school in the Contamination Zone for at least six months since 1972 and drinking PFOA-contaminated water there.
What is medical monitoring in the Gore lawsuit?
Medical monitoring is a request that Gore pay for a program of regular health screening for people who were exposed to PFOA but have not been diagnosed with a related illness, so that conditions linked to exposure can be caught early. The complaint asks for money to fund such a program and for a court-ordered biomonitoring protocol.
Can I join or get money from the Gore PFAS lawsuit now?
There is nothing to file. The case is at the complaint stage, no class has been certified and there is no settlement. If a class is certified or the case settles, a court-approved notice would explain who is included and what to do.
Sources
• Class action complaint with individual claims, Addi v. W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., No. 1:26-cv-03249 (D. Md., filed August 17, 2026), the source of every allegation above.• The case docket on CourtListener.
