The state of North Carolina and 11 local governments have reached a nearly $500 million settlement with DuPont and two spin-off companies to address PFAS contamination at its chemical manufacturing facility in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
The settlement with DuPont, Corteva and Chemours, reached on Sept. 10, resolves state and local litigation stemming from PFAS contamination that originated at the Fayetteville Works plant, which was operated initially by DuPont and then by its spin-off, Chemours, since the early 1970s. According to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, the plant has emitted GenX and other “forever chemicals” into the air and soil for nearly 40 years. The plant also released PFAS chemicals into the Cape Fear River, which provides drinking water to 500,000 residents of southeastern North Carolina.
In 2019, the agency obtained a consent order requiring Chemours to immediately cease PFAS discharges, take remedial action and pay a $12 million civil penalty. The following year, the state sued DuPont, Chemours and their affiliated companies, seeking compensation for damage to the state’s drinking water and natural resources.
The new deal calls for the companies to pay $455 million over 15 years. The state will receive $75 million, of which about $55 million will go to the newly created North Carolina Emerging Contaminant Mitigation Fund, which supports local governments’ efforts to detect and reduce contaminants in drinking water. The remaining $380 million will be split among the 11 local governments, none of which were part of a $1.2 billion 2024 U.S. Public Water System class-action settlement.
Half of the total settlement will be covered by Chemours, with DuPont and Corteva responsible for the rest. The latter two companies must also establish a $135 million reserve fund to ensure that Chemours meets its consent order obligations should the company experience financial difficulties.
Chemours has already spent nearly $1.2 billion to comply with the 2019 consent order, which the state environmental agency’s secretary, Reid Wilson, calls one of the agency’s “most powerful tools to hold the company accountable and ensure residents of southeastern North Carolina have access to clean water and land.”
Work in progress
Over the past five years, Chemours has designed and constructed an underground PFAS compound migration barrier that extends for more than a mile along the Cape Fear River and reaches depths of 100 feet. Chemours says the barrier works in conjunction with a groundwater extraction and treatment system designed to remove more than 99 percent of captured PFAS compounds. The company has also offered water filtration systems to approximately 10,500 families in the region with PFAS-contaminated wells, according to the state agency.
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The Fayetteville Works plant continues to produce PFAS, although Chemours has yet to follow through on a planned expansion of PFAS production announced in 2022. The agency has not acted on the company’s request, filed last fall, to amend its state air quality permit to support increased production.
A Chemours statement said the agreement with the state and localities “provides greater clarity” regarding responsibilities and community concerns associated with its legacy PFAS activities and “recognizes the significant progress already made at the Fayetteville Works and supports the company’s continued operation of this major manufacturing facility.”
Statements from DuPont and Chemours note that $18 million of the settlement covers PFAS contamination unrelated to the Fayetteville Works plant. However, the department says the companies may still be subject to other potential litigation, including a lawsuit filed by the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority seeking additional funds for pollution cleanup for its service area in Wilmington and parts of New Hanover County, as well as personal injury and property damage claims.
North Carolina’s attorney general is also litigating six other cases against other companies that make AFFF, a PFAS fire extinguisher that has contaminated several military bases, airports and fire training facilities in the state.
The settlement is separate from a $450 million settlement announced in June by the US Environmental Protection Agency involving alleged PFAS contamination at facilities in North Carolina, West Virginia and New Jersey. The deal drew criticism from North Carolina officials, who said they were not consulted before the announcement, nor was the state guaranteed any funding under the $90 million PFAS mitigation program in the government-overseen deal.
