Chemours, DuPont and Corteva to Pay $455 Million Over North Carolina PFAS Pollution

Chemours, DuPont and Corteva have agreed to pay $455 million to settle lawsuits brought by North Carolina and 11 local governments over "forever chemical" pollution linked to Chemours' Fayetteville Works plant, the companies said Thursday.

The deal ends one of the most closely watched state fights over PFAS contamination in the country. It also gives investors a clearer view of a legal liability that has hung over the three chemical makers for years. It does not close the book entirely: personal injury and property damage claims are not covered.

Who gets paid, and how

The money will be paid over 15 years, starting within 30 days after the agreement is executed. North Carolina will receive $75 million, and the remaining $380 million will go to the local plaintiffs.

Those plaintiffs are Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, New Hanover, Robeson and Sampson counties, the towns of Wrightsville Beach and Lumberton, the Village of Bald Head Island and the Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authority. Most are in the Cape Fear River basin, where the Bladen County plant is located.

Chemours will cover half of the total, a share it values at about $180 million in today's dollars, and expects to pay roughly $50 million over the next 12 months. DuPont and Corteva will pay the other half between them.

What the deal covers

• Fayetteville Works: claims over PFAS released from the site, including historical discharges.
• Firefighting foam: the state's separate PFAS claims tied to aqueous film-forming foam used elsewhere in North Carolina.
• Not included: personal injury and property damage lawsuits, which can go forward.

The settlement still depends on the courts entering dismissals of the lawsuits it covers.

A long-running fight

PFAS are a large family of synthetic compounds valued for resisting heat, water and grease. They break down extremely slowly, which earned them the "forever chemicals" label, and some have been linked to serious health problems, including certain cancers.

Fayetteville Works became a national flashpoint in 2017, when residents of the lower Cape Fear region learned that a PFAS compound known as GenX was turning up in the river many of them rely on for drinking water. Since 2019, Chemours has operated under a consent order requiring it to sharply cut emissions from the plant and address contamination in nearby communities. The new agreement recognizes the parts of that order already completed and sets out how the rest will be handled.

The companies share the bill because of their corporate history. Chemours was spun off from DuPont in 2015, and Corteva was later formed from the agriculture business of the former DowDuPont. In January 2021 the three agreed on a formula for dividing responsibility for older PFAS liabilities.

Chemours said about $210 million of the settlement counts toward that cost-sharing arrangement. It added that the deal satisfies all future payments into the escrow account the agreement set up, including a $50 million contribution due this month.

Why it matters beyond North Carolina

PFAS litigation has become one of the largest legal exposures facing the U.S. chemical industry. It spans water utilities, state attorneys general, military sites and makers of firefighting foam. Settlements of this kind put a price on part of that risk, which is why investors watch them closely.

For the communities involved, the value lies less in the headline number than in steady funding over a long period. Local governments will now have to decide how to spend it, whether on water treatment, testing or other programs.

What happens next

Payments begin once the agreement is executed and the covered cases are dismissed. The injury and property cases that fall outside the deal will continue on their own track.

For Chemours, DuPont and Corteva, the agreement removes a significant state case from a crowded PFAS docket. Lawsuits in other states and continued regulatory scrutiny of the chemicals mean their broader exposure is far from settled.

Image: DiscoA340 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0