Chemical giants DuPont de Nemours, Corteva and the Chemours Co. have reached a $1.185 billion settlement agreement to resolve all PFAS-related drinking water claims against them, the companies announced in a joint statement Friday.
The chemical companies have been sued by state and local governments across the country for their alleged contamination of water systems in the U.S. due to the manufacturing of products containing harmful PFAS, known as “forever chemicals.”
The cost of the class-action settlement will be split between the three companies, with Chemours paying $592 million, DuPont $400 million and Corteva $193 million.
The companies expect the settlement to be finalized by the end of the month, and payment into a settlement fund used by all three will be completed within 10 days. Claims to the settlement funds will require court approval and could take at least six months.
The settlement covers public water systems that detected any level of PFAS, as well as those under monitoring for PFAS as mandated by the EPA, state or local laws. This encompasses water systems “that serve the vast majority of the United States population,” according to the joint release.
The agreement does not include personal injury claims or claims by any state attorneys general that the chemicals damaged a state’s natural resources. More than a dozen states have filed lawsuits against
DuPont publicized the settlement the same day that fellow chemical behemoth 3M reportedly struck its own tentative $10 billion settlement with various cities and towns to resolve PFAS-related water contamination claims against it, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
In response to the reports, 3M said it doesn’t comment on rumors and speculation, Communications Manager Sean Lynch told Manufacturing Dive on Monday.
Both 3M and DuPont are striking deals as an impending federal trial over 3M’s role in the contamination of a city’s public water system was set to begin Monday. The city of Stuart, Florida sued 3M and others for manufacturing firefighting foam containing PFAS, which it says contaminated its public water systems.
On Monday, a judge granted an up to three-week delay to the trial as the parties neared a resolution.
The Stuart, Florida case is the one of approximately 500 individual cases from across the country jointly filed as multidistrict litigation. The plaintiffs are suing 3M and other makers of the firefighting material aqueous film-forming foams, which contains two types of PFAS. Plaintiffs claim the use of the foam contaminated groundwater at various military bases, airports and other industrial sites.
The trial was set to be a bellwether for how companies like 3M and DuPont will be held responsible for the impact PFAS have had on the U.S. Cities and states across the country are seeking billions of dollars in damages over what they say has been decades of environmental and public health harm.
