In January, 2025, the PEI government warned Doug and Robin Jenkins against drinking their well water after it conducted water quality tests. It has been supplying them with bottled water ever since.Photography by Nathan Rochford/The Globe and Mail
A Prince Edward Island family has sued the provincial government over the contamination of their drinking water by “forever chemicals,” part of a growing volume of Canadian litigation targeting the toxic compounds found in non-stick frying pans and firefighting foams.
The Jenkinses’ 130-acre family farm is located in Hazelbrook, a rural municipality 10 kilometres east of Charlottetown. About 220 people live among rolling farms bisected by the Trans-Canada Highway. As in most communities in the province, residents rely on wells for drinking water.
The Jenkinses didn’t worry much about water quality until Jan. 14 of last year, when provincial testing found that every litre from their taps contained 606.6 nanograms of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – 20 times Health Canada’s threshold.
“The more we learned, the more nervous and terrified and annoyed we became,” said Doug Jenkins, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, filed on May 27, along with his wife, Roberta and adult daughter Lindsay.
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The suit seeks personal damages that “will approach or exceed” $1-million per plaintiff, plus property damage. The family is also asking for the complete remediation of a nearby disposal site believed to be the source of the contaminants.
In an e-mailed statement, provincial spokesperson Morgan Martin said it would be inappropriate for the government to comment while the matter is before courts.
The number of lawsuits related to PFAS exposure has been on the rise in recent years as more Canadians learn about high levels of the toxic chemicals in their groundwater, including residents of communities located near airports operated by Transport Canada, where drills using PFAS-laced firefighting foams took place for decades.
The specific product causing the Hazelbrook contamination is uncertain. For years, a disposal site for construction and demolition debris operated about 150 metres from their house. It accepted a range of industrial waste materials containing PFAS, according to the statement of claim.
The suit states that the province was responsible for monitoring the disposal site and took ownership of the property in 2012.
In 2023, the province launched a comprehensive PFAS testing program in preparation for new Health Canada guidance that would come into place the following year, which established a federal PFAS benchmark of 30 nanograms per litre (ng/l). However, that value is not a legal limit and is not enforceable.
Doug Jenkins looks over a map of the community of Hazelbrook, PEI, where his family farm is located. As in most areas of the province, residents rely on wells for drinking water.
In January, 2025, the province gave the Jenkinses and several neighbours their test results and warned them against drinking their well water. The government has been supplying them with bottled water ever since.
When they asked for provincial assistance with site remediation, health monitoring and other issues related to the PFAS contamination, Mr. Jenkins said they were met with silence.
“The Jenkinses have come to tolerate some very difficult truths about their property, their health, their lives,” said Andrew Kirk, the lawyer representing the family. “What’s not easy to tolerate is the silence from the province.”
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In June, 2025, the couple drove six hours to Bangor, Maine, where their blood was tested for PFAS at a private diagnostics clinic. Virtually everyone on Earth has trace levels of the chemicals in their blood. A 2022 U.S. report found that the risk of adverse health affects increased when PFAS levels in blood reached 20 ng/mL.
Mr. Jenkins’s blood came in at 78.92 ng/mL, according to the statement of claim. His wife’s was 113.39 ng/mL.
Ms. Jenkins was so alarmed by her result that she went for a re-test a few months later. The results remained similar: 110.46 ng/mL. Her daughter’s levels were 37.98 ng/mL.
Mr. Jenkins has had two bouts of cancer, but tracing specific health issues to PFAS exposure is an evolving science.
First synthesized in the labs of chemical giant DuPont more than 85 years ago, PFAS have since been added to myriad consumer products: non-stick pans, fast-food containers, waterproof clothing and firefighting foams.
Comprised of a carbon-fluorine bond, one of the strongest-known bonds in organic chemistry, they are prized for their resistance to water, heat and oil. But that same chemical resilience prevents them from readily breaking down when released into the environment.
Research has linked PFAS to developmental delays in children, hormonal interference, immune suppression and some cancers.
The combination of toxicity and environmental persistence has sparked thousands of lawsuits in the U.S. leading to billions of dollars in legal settlements with manufacturers such as DuPont and 3M.
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Earlier this week, Australia sued 3M for $2-billion over PFAS contamination from the use of firefighting foams.
3M said it would contest the claim. “3M has never manufactured PFAS in Australia and ceased sales of the products at issue in Australia around two decades ago,” the company said in a statement. “Despite this, the (Australian) Department of Defense continued to use PFAS-containing firefighting foams for nearly two decades longer.”
PFAS litigation has been slower to hit Canadian dockets. Only one class-action case, targeting PFAS contamination from a National Research Council fire lab in Mississippi Mills, Ont., has been certified.
Recently, the Jenkinses have tried to sell the farm that has been the family for more than four generations. The water issue deterred any potential buyers, Mr. Jenkins said. The province has launched a project to run pipes into Hazelton from a clean well, but that won’t address the remediation issue.
“We just want to province to be accountable for its own rules and regulations,” Mr. Jenkins said. “We think they have no right to poison us.”