A federal lawsuit, filed by the Martinsburg Municipal Authority against some of the nation’s largest chemical companies in an effort to remediate the presence of toxic substances in the borough’s water supply, may soon be transferred to a district judge in South Carolina.

Martinsburg, like many communities throughout the nation, is experiencing the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs) in its wells that provide water to more than 3,000 customers.

The substances causing the water problems are derived from the use of the years of aqueous film-forming foam, possibly at the Altoona-Blair County Airport, “to control and extinguish aviation, marine, fuel and other shallow spill fires,” according to the lawsuit.

The legal complaint was initially filed in May in the Blair County Court, but in late August it was transferred to the federal district court in Johnstown by one of the defendant companies, Tyco Fire Products LP of Landsdale.

Borough solicitor Nathan W. Karn Sr. of Hollidaysburg filed the lawsuit, but it will be pursued in the federal courts by a Dallas, Texas, law firm, Baron & Budd PC.

On Thursday, the authority was notified that the lawsuit has received a conditional transfer order from the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to the District Court in South Carolina.

District Judge Richard M. Gergel has been presiding over hundreds of similar cases, according to the transfer order.

“It appears that the (Martinsburg complaint) on this conditional transfer order involves questions of fact that are common to the actions previously transferred to the District of South Carolina and assigned to Judge Gergel,” according to the order signed by the clerk of the panel, Tiffaney D. Pete.

The order does not become final until it is filed in South Carolina.

She reported the transfer will be stayed for seven days, giving defendants the opportunity to

challenge the finding.

According to the order, the multidistrict litigation involving water cases began in late 2018 with the transfer of 75 proceedings to Gergel.

Since then, another 542 such cases have been transferred to the judge’s docket.

The order involving the Martinsburg lawsuit includes the transfer of another 75 lawsuits filed by communities in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York.

A month ago, Gergel approved a proposal by the 3M company to establish a $10.3 billion fund for the remediation of drinking water pollution that has occurred in 22 states.

The Martinsburg lawsuit is seeking money damages to investigate the extent of contamination in its water supply, the cost of remediation and the expense of continued monitoring of the water system in the years ahead.

In recent interviews, Martinsburg Borough Manager Richard Brantner Jr. has maintained the level of PFAS in the local water supply is low.