North Carolina has secured $455 million in payments from Chemours, DuPont and Corteva over PFAS pollution, along with a separate $135 million reserve intended to protect future drinking water and cleanup work.
State officials value the total agreement at $590 million and say it is the largest state recovery for environmental damage in North Carolina history.
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The settlement resolves lawsuits over PFAS and other historical releases from the Fayetteville Works plant in Bladen County. It also covers separate state claims involving PFAS-containing firefighting foam used elsewhere in North Carolina.
The $455 million will be paid to the state and 11 affected local entities over the next 10 to 15 years. Most of the $380 million will go to communities significantly affected by pollution from Fayetteville Works.
“Out of this $590 million settlement, $380 million will be allocated to go directly to the local communities that were most impacted,” Attorney General Jeff Jackson said Thursday in Cumberland County.
The state will receive the remaining $75 million. About $55 million will go to North Carolina’s Emerging Contaminant Mitigation Fund, which helps local governments detect and reduce contaminants in drinking water.
The 11 local entities receiving money are Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, New Hanover, Robeson and Sampson counties; Lumberton, Wrightsville Beach and Bald Head Island; and the Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authority.
The agreement does not yet detail how the $380 million will be divided among them.
Those entities were excluded from a separate $1.2 billion national settlement with public water providers approved in 2024.
Reserve protects future cleanup
The additional $135 million is not part of the direct settlement payments. DuPont and Corteva will place that money in a reserve that North Carolina can access if Chemours becomes unable to continue work required under a 2019 consent order.
A key requirement of that order is providing filtration or other clean water options to families whose private wells were contaminated by pollution from Fayetteville Works.
State officials have raised concerns about Chemours’ long-term financial stability. Jackson said the reserve is designed to keep drinking water and cleanup programs operating even if Chemours goes bankrupt or can no longer afford them.
Chemours has spent nearly $1.2 billion complying with the consent order and projects spending another $320 million, according to the company’s public filings.
Approximately 27,500 private wells have been tested, and about 10,500 households have been offered filtration systems or other alternative drinking water, according to the state.
The company has also stopped discharging highly contaminated process wastewater, installed groundwater and stormwater treatment systems and constructed a barrier wall intended to reduce PFAS flowing into the Cape Fear River.
Gray’s Creek project could expand
In Cumberland County, officials said the settlement will provide additional resources for projects bringing public water to communities with contaminated wells.
Construction is already underway on the first phase of the Gray’s Creek water system. The $30 million project is being funded with existing county, state and federal money.
Cumberland County Board of Commissioners Chairman Kirk deViere said the county expects water lines to reach about 200 homes by the end of 2027.
“It’s not just going to happen overnight,” deViere said. “We’re not standing up here today to say everything’s solved, and we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
DeViere said the settlement could help the county continue expanding public water access in Gray’s Creek and other contaminated areas. Cumberland County’s individual share of the settlement has not yet been released.
DEQ calls for stronger statewide limits
The settlement preserves the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s authority to enforce the consent order and take Chemours back to court if the company violates it.
DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson said preventing PFAS pollution before it reaches water or air remains the most effective and least expensive way to protect public health.
Wilson told WRAL News that DEQ cannot independently establish numeric limits on PFAS discharged by industrial facilities. That rulemaking authority belongs to the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission.
“We don’t have the authority at DEQ to actually make that required,” Wilson said. “There’s a different entity, the Environmental Management Commission. They are the rulemaking authority.”
Wilson said the commission could establish limits on PFAS released into waterways by plants and manufacturers. He also called on the commission or the General Assembly to give regulators stronger tools to stop contamination at its source.
PFAS are a group of synthetic chemicals that persist in the environment and can build up in people. Exposure to some PFAS has been associated with certain cancers, immune system effects, reproductive harm and other health concerns.
For decades, Fayetteville Works released PFAS into the Cape Fear River and surrounding groundwater, soil and air. The river provides drinking water to more than 500,000 people downstream.
North Carolina sued Chemours, DuPont and related companies in 2020, seeking compensation for damage to the state’s drinking water and other natural resources.
Other PFAS cases continue
The agreement is separate from a $450 million federal settlement announced in June involving Chemours facilities in North Carolina, West Virginia and New Jersey.
Jackson, Wilson and Gov. Josh Stein criticized that agreement because it guarantees no specific amount for North Carolina.
An ongoing Cape Fear Public Utility Authority lawsuit against Chemours and DuPont is not affected by the new settlement. That case seeks additional cleanup money for Wilmington and parts of New Hanover County.
Jackson is also pursuing six cases against companies that manufactured PFAS-containing firefighting foam used at military bases, airports and fire-training facilities across North Carolina.
Chemours said the agreement recognizes the pollution reductions and other work completed under the 2019 consent order while establishing a process for completing its remaining obligations.