Chemours' PFAS settlement total, with another $590M, grows to $3.095B

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(The Center Square) – Eleven local governments near the Chemours facility in Bladen County, and the state of North Carolina, have settled for $590 million with chemical companies Chemours, DuPont and Corteva.

First-term Democratic Attorney General Jeff Jackson made an afternoon announcement in Wilmington at the Battleship Park. The settlement does not resolve all litigations; for example, the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority on Thursday said it would move forward with its October 2017 filed lawsuit against Chemours and DuPont over contamination to the Cape Fear River.

Taken together, four settlements involving all of part of Chemours, DuPont and Corteva have totaled $3.095 billion. Included in that calculation is one from earlier this year, another from August 2025, and another from 2023 approved the following year. Chemours, in a release Thursday, said the latest settlement is $455 million over 15 years.

Following a second quarter with net sales of $1.6 billion, Chemours’ financial report says the full year projects adjusted EBITDA between $775 million and $825 million. Adjusted EBITDA means a financial metric that modifies standard earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization by adding or removing one-time, irregular, and non-cash items to show a company's true core operating profitability.

“It’s coming in right at $590 million and it’s designed to hold them accountable and to help clean up people’s drinking water,” Jackson said. “That’s the most important thing we do.”

The StarNews newspaper in Wilmington was first to report contamination found in the Cape Fear River by N.C. State University researchers in June 2017. It led to multiple litigations, the building of a $100 million thermal oxidizer designed to reduce air emissions at the riverside plant, testing, hearings and lots of finger-pointing for blame.

At the time of discovery, the impact of GenX – a PFAS used to make nonstick coatings, for example on cookware – and other PFAS on humans was evolving. Animal tests had indicated cancer possibilities, and humans were believed to be at risk for kidney or testicular cancer, elevated cholesterol levels and health challenges for children.

Downstream from Chemours at the Fayetteville Works Plant, the Cape Fear River is a source of drinking water for about 1 million people in the region of a state with population 10.8 million.

The 11 government entities in the settlement are Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, New Hanover, Robeson and Sampson counties; municipalities of Lumberton, Wrightsville Beach and Bald Head Island; and the Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authority.

The state’s portion is about $75 million. Most of the rest goes to the other 11 entities.

Jackson said there is $135 million in a reserve fund, set aside in the event Chemours goes bankrupt and putting DuPont on the hook.

In July 2015, DuPont spun off its performance chemicals division with creation of Chemours. Corteva is the creation of a global agriculture company as part of the 2019 breakup of the Dow-DuPont merger.

Jackson estimated 500,000 people are downstream of the plant called Fayetteville Works that is at the county line of Bladen and Cumberland.

The lawsuit filed by the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority started in October 2017. A statement from the authority after the settlement was announced distinguished the difference in litigations, and suggested the settlement would “motivate Chemours to take responsibility for its continued burden” on the authority.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in April 2024 for the first time, gave legally enforceable drinking water standards related to PFAS. That's the acronym for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances that are widely used, long lasting chemicals, components of which break down very slowly over time.

While the EPA says there is a standard, details it listed says it is “setting a maximum contaminant level goal, a non-enforceable health-based goal, at zero. This reflects the latest science showing that there is no level of exposure to these contaminants without risk of health impacts, including certain cancers.”

The maximum contaminant level is 4 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS, individually. For PFNA, PFHxS and GenX chemicals, the goal and the standard are each set at 10 parts per trillion. The EPA also set a limit for any mixture of two or more from the PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS and GenX chemicals.

To understand the acronyms, PFOA is perfluorooctanoic acid; PFOS is perfluorooctane sulfonic acid; PFNA is perfluorononanoic acid; PFHxS is perfluorohexane sulfonate; and PFBS is perfluorobutane sulfonic acid.

The EPA said extensive research and science led to the ruling. It considered how PFAS affects public health, conversations and decisions included the water sector and state regulators, and effective implementation was part of the discussion.

More than 120,000 comments were offered on the proposed rule in the process.

Earlier in June, Chemours said it would pay $450 million in a settlement with the federal government that resolves complaints involving facilities in North Carolina, New Jersey and West Virginia.

The U.S. Department of Justice, Environmental Protection Agency, and West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection announced the deal related to forever chemicals known as PFAS. Chemours will incur costs for its penalty and implementation of injunctive relief programs. The civil penalty is $22.5 million.

Additionally, Chemours will conduct a multi-year, $90 million program to mitigate PFAS discharges; install PFAS pollution controls for surface water discharges and air emissions at its facility in West Virginia, at an estimated cost of $60 million; supply clean drinking water for more than a decade to communities that surround its facilities in West Virginia and New Jersey at an estimated cost of $280 million; and evaluate options and implement corresponding controls to reduce releases of PFAS and other toxic chemicals from its facility in North Carolina.

Chemours in August 2025 settled litigation with the state of New Jersey for $875 million over 25 years. Chemours, DuPont and Corteva were defending.

In 2024, a $1.18 billion settlement from 2023 was approved to resolve nationwide claims regarding PFAS contamination. That also involved Chemours, DuPont and Corteva.