Three chemical giants will pay $875 million over the next 25 years to settle environmental claims over PFAS pollution—per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, more commonly known as forever chemicals—contaminating the Garden State, originating from four industrial sites.
It’s the largest environmental settlement ever achieved by a single state, according to a statement shared by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, valued at more than $2 billion.
“This landmark settlement will advance New Jersey’s nation-leading PFAS abatement efforts, improve drinking water quality and restore injured natural resources,” Shawn LaTourette, department of environmental protection (DEP) commissioner, said in the statement. “This resolution embodies the steadfast commitment of the [DEP] and our attorney general to hold all PFAS polluters to account—and protect public health, safety and the environment from these harmful chemicals.”
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Chemours—a decade-old performance chemicals company headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, created as a spinoff from DuPont in 2015—will cover half the settlement: about $250 million on a present value basis. DuPont will cover approximately 36 percent (about $177 million), while Corteva will cover the remaining 14 percent (about $72 million).
Under the deal, the companies are required to fund the industrial sites’ cleanup, create a remediation fund—of up to $1.2 billion—and establish an extra reserve fund of $475 million to “ensure that if any one of the companies goes bankrupt or otherwise fails to fulfill their responsibilities to the state, taxpayers won’t be left with the bill.” About $125 million is allocated toward costs, fees, penalties and punitive damages, per LaTourette.
“Polluters who place profit above public well-being, by releasing poisonous PFAS and other contamination in our state, can expect to be held responsible to clean up their mess and fully compensate the state—and its citizens—for the precious natural resources they’ve damaged or destroyed,” he said.
PFAS—a class of some 15,000 synthetic chemicals manufactured since the 1940s—are used in a myriad of products like non-stick cookware and period-panties to firefighting foams and raincoats. They’re commonly called “forever chemicals” given the permanent nature of these synthetic substances. Given that PFAS cannot decompose in nature—be it the planet or the people on it—they’ve been linked to myriad medical issues like endocrine disorders and autoimmune dysfunctions.
“PFAS are particularly insidious,” Platkin’s statement reads. “These dangerous chemicals build up and accumulate everywhere; New Jersey has some of the highest levels of PFAS in the country.”
The settlement resolves all pending environmental (and other) claims across four former and current operating sites: Chambers Works in Pennsville and Carney’s Point, Salem County; the Parlin site in Sayreville, Middlesex County; Pompton Lakes Works in Pompton Lakes and Wanaque, Passaic County; and the Repauno site in Greenwich Township, Gloucester County.
These sites have century-spanning histories of industrial activity—from manufacturing gunpowder and explosives to chemicals like PFAS and various volatile organic compounds—leading to widespread contamination of land and water (among other natural resources). Notably, the Repauno site began as a DuPont explosives facility, home to the American chemical company’s first research laboratory.
The settlement also resolves all statewide PFAS contamination, including that from aqueous film forming foam (AFFF). Of the total settlement announced on Monday, per DuPont, $16.5 million is attributed to alleged PFAS contamination unrelated to the aforementioned operating sites.
The payments’ present value is around $500 million before taxes, slated to start no later than January 1, 2026. DuPont and Corteva will also acquire Chemours’ rights to certain PFAS-related insurance proceeds for $150 million, DuPont said in a statement.
The lawsuit against DuPont alleged that the chemical company attempted to skirt this liability when it established Chemours, per Platkin’s statement. The spinoff is the largest producer of titanium dioxide, an inorganic compound with ingestion and inhalation concerns that led to Europe’s ban of its use as a food additive and the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s classification of the mineral as a potential carcinogen.
