Attorney Tony Spaniola is pictured with documentary filmmaker Sara Ganim (center), a former CNN investigative journalist, at the 2020 premiere of “No Defense.” Also pictured at right is Lisa Wozniak, executive director of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, a non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting our air, land, and water.
By Tom Kirvan
Legal News
When he became engulfed in a nearly decade-long battle to curb the spread of PFAS contamination in 2016, attorney Tony Spaniola, one of the founders of the Ufer, Spaniola & Frost law firm in Troy, could have hardly imagined where that journey would take him.
After all, he had spent most of his life in the world of commercial law, dealing with high-stakes legal matters involving mergers and acquisitions, real estate purchases, and corporate governance matters and strategies.
Suddenly, he was thrust into an altogether different role as an environmental activist, meeting with political leaders in Lansing and Washington, D.C., and with military officials at the Pentagon.
Before long, he was appearing on various radio and television outlets, “including in-depth, special reports on ABC News, PBS News, and CNBC” as his national profile as an articulate and knowledgeable environmental advocate took shape.
“I even was invited to speak before the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine at their inaugural PFAS symposium in Washington,” Spaniola said with a sense of incredulity.
“There I was, a non-scientist, talking to an august group of some of the most respected scientists in the country. In my mind, it was an important opportunity to speak truth to power – to remind them that the scientific community had overlooked PFAS for decades and that the most seminal PFAS scientific discoveries had come in response to ordinary people demanding answers to real-life problems.
“I was not sure how they’d respond,” Spaniola noted, “but in the end, my message, urging them to partner with PFAS-impacted communities in their research, was very well-received.”
In 2024, Spaniola was in the rarefied air of the White House for his pivotal role in bringing about the first-ever national PFAS drinking water standards that were established that year.
By that time, Spaniola had been involved in crafting an “expedited PFAS cleanup strategy that was adopted by the Pentagon as a national policy directive at more than 700 military installations around the country.”
His efforts also led to the “reorganization of the U.S. Air Force’s environmental cleanup program at 39 inactive Air Force installations nationwide – and to the establishment of the Bipartisan Congressional PFAS Task Force, which currently numbers more than 50 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.”
In 2019, Spaniola’s work attracted the attention of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sara Ganim, who at age 24 broke the story that uncovered the sexual abuse of young boys by Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
“Sara originally approached me about being part of a chapter in a book she was writing, but once she got a sense of how involved and widespread this PFAS problem is, she decided to turn it into a documentary film instead,” Spaniola explained.
The result was the critically acclaimed “No Defense: The U.S. Military’s War on Water,” a 75-minute documentary that highlights the poisonous impact on the Oscoda community, as ground zero for PFAS-impacted military communities across the nation.
The film premiered at a sold-out Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor in February 2020, just weeks before the COVID lockdown began.
“It’s a powerful documentary that brings to light the devastating impacts that PFAS can have on families, on a community, and on our country,” said Spaniola, who served as a consultant to Ganim in the production of the film. “In many respects, it is another true story of the likes of ‘Erin Brockovich’ and ‘Dark Waters.’ It’s a movie that should be seen by all.”
Legal News
When he became engulfed in a nearly decade-long battle to curb the spread of PFAS contamination in 2016, attorney Tony Spaniola, one of the founders of the Ufer, Spaniola & Frost law firm in Troy, could have hardly imagined where that journey would take him.
After all, he had spent most of his life in the world of commercial law, dealing with high-stakes legal matters involving mergers and acquisitions, real estate purchases, and corporate governance matters and strategies.
Suddenly, he was thrust into an altogether different role as an environmental activist, meeting with political leaders in Lansing and Washington, D.C., and with military officials at the Pentagon.
Before long, he was appearing on various radio and television outlets, “including in-depth, special reports on ABC News, PBS News, and CNBC” as his national profile as an articulate and knowledgeable environmental advocate took shape.
“I even was invited to speak before the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine at their inaugural PFAS symposium in Washington,” Spaniola said with a sense of incredulity.
“There I was, a non-scientist, talking to an august group of some of the most respected scientists in the country. In my mind, it was an important opportunity to speak truth to power – to remind them that the scientific community had overlooked PFAS for decades and that the most seminal PFAS scientific discoveries had come in response to ordinary people demanding answers to real-life problems.
“I was not sure how they’d respond,” Spaniola noted, “but in the end, my message, urging them to partner with PFAS-impacted communities in their research, was very well-received.”
In 2024, Spaniola was in the rarefied air of the White House for his pivotal role in bringing about the first-ever national PFAS drinking water standards that were established that year.
By that time, Spaniola had been involved in crafting an “expedited PFAS cleanup strategy that was adopted by the Pentagon as a national policy directive at more than 700 military installations around the country.”
His efforts also led to the “reorganization of the U.S. Air Force’s environmental cleanup program at 39 inactive Air Force installations nationwide – and to the establishment of the Bipartisan Congressional PFAS Task Force, which currently numbers more than 50 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.”
In 2019, Spaniola’s work attracted the attention of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sara Ganim, who at age 24 broke the story that uncovered the sexual abuse of young boys by Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
“Sara originally approached me about being part of a chapter in a book she was writing, but once she got a sense of how involved and widespread this PFAS problem is, she decided to turn it into a documentary film instead,” Spaniola explained.
The result was the critically acclaimed “No Defense: The U.S. Military’s War on Water,” a 75-minute documentary that highlights the poisonous impact on the Oscoda community, as ground zero for PFAS-impacted military communities across the nation.
The film premiered at a sold-out Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor in February 2020, just weeks before the COVID lockdown began.
“It’s a powerful documentary that brings to light the devastating impacts that PFAS can have on families, on a community, and on our country,” said Spaniola, who served as a consultant to Ganim in the production of the film. “In many respects, it is another true story of the likes of ‘Erin Brockovich’ and ‘Dark Waters.’ It’s a movie that should be seen by all.”
Actor Mark Ruffalo, who starred in the 2019 film “Dark Waters” that traces the long legal fight against DuPont for poisoning the water in a West Virginia community, is pictured with attorney Tony Spaniola at EPA Headquarters in Washington in January 2024.
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