RALEIGH, NC. (NCN News) — Attorney General Jeff Jackson and North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Reid Wilson announced a $590 million deal between the state of North Carolina, 11 local governments, and DuPont and Chemours over PFAS contamination in North Carolina,
According to a press release, it is the largest total environmental damages recovery in the state’s history.
Chemours has already spent nearly $1.2 billion to comply with a 2019 consent order to stop discharging contaminants from its Fayetteville Works facility into the Cape Fear River and air. Today’s agreement secures Chemours’ obligations to provide clean drinking water and repair the damage done to southeastern North Carolina. In all, state and local governments have recovered nearly $2 billion in value to North Carolina and its residents.
“Chemours and DuPont devastated North Carolina’s water and natural resources for decades,” said Jackson. “This deal forces them to pay for the harm they caused the people of southeastern North Carolina, and gives our local governments more resources to help ensure clean drinking water for families. It is a massive step forward in giving our state more dollars to help fund clean water programs. This settlement puts even more teeth behind the consent order with NCDEQ. Chemours made this mess, and we’re making sure Chemours cleans it up.”
“This settlement is a huge victory for North Carolina,” said DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson. “These companies are finally paying for the damage they caused to North Carolina’s land and waters. While no amount of money can fully compensate North Carolinians for all the harm these companies have done to public health and the environment, this settlement not only provides funds to address PFAS contamination but also strengthens DEQ’s 2019 Consent Order with Chemours. The Order will continue to be one of DEQ’s most powerful tools to hold the company accountable and ensure that southeastern North Carolina residents have access to clean water and land.”
“DuPont and Chemours knew they were dumping toxic forever chemicals into our drinking water, but they put their profits over our people – which is why I sued them in 2020,” said Governor Josh Stein. “I thank Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Secretary of Environmental Quality Reid Wilson for continuing to hold Chemours accountable. Now we must keep working to ensure all North Carolinians can count on clean water from their taps.”
“For years, Cumberland County residents have lived with the consequences of contamination they did not create,” said Cumberland County Board of Commissioners Chairman Kirk deViere. “Families who did nothing wrong have worried about what comes out of their tap. The lawsuit was about accountability. The settlement provides resources. The work ahead is about solutions. We will continue to use every resource to protect our communities, pursue additional state and federal support and build toward a permanent solution for clean, safe, regulated drinking water.”
“We know that Chemours will only do the right thing when it’s forced to, so we’re grateful to the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality for showing North Carolinians that they will hold Chemours’ feet to the fire to make sure we have clean drinking water,” said Dan Crawford, Senior Director of Public Affairs, North Carolina League of Conservation Voters.
The agreement guarantees $455 million to the state and to 11 local governments that joined the deal, to be paid over the next 10 to 15 years. Of that amount, $75 million will be allocated to the state with roughly $55 million going to an Emerging Contaminant Mitigation Fund recently created by the North Carolina General Assembly. The fund supports efforts by local governments to detect and reduce contaminants in drinking water.
The remaining $380 million will be divided among the following local governments that were affected by Fayetteville Works’ pollution and previously sued Chemours and DuPont:
- Bladen County
- Brunswick County
- Columbus County
- Cumberland County
- New Hanover County
- Robeson County
- Sampson County
- Town of Wrightsville Beach
- City of Lumberton
- Village of Bald Head Island
- Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authority
The deal also establishes a $135 million reserve fund from DuPont and sister company Corteva to guarantee the work that Chemours must continue to complete for decades into the future under the NC Department of Environmental Quality’s (NCDEQ) 2019 consent order. A key feature of that consent order is requiring Chemours to provide clean drinking water to families whose well water is polluted with PFAS from Fayetteville Works. If at any time Chemours loses the ability to pay for these obligations, the state can tap into a reserve fund of $135 million to make sure the work gets done. This ensures that the families receiving clean drinking water will continue to do so, regardless of Chemours’ future financial footing.
The settlement also reinforces that NCDEQ will continue to enforce the remaining obligations under the consent order. So far under the consent order, Chemours has already:
- stopped discharging highly contaminated wastewater from Fayetteville Works.
- constructed a subsurface barrier wall more than a mile long to prevent PFAS contamination from migrating into the Cape Fear River.
- installed multiple treatment systems to treat contaminated groundwater and stormwater.
- installed pollution control technology to control 99.99% of PFAS air from Fayetteville Works.
- Sampled approximately 27,500 wells belonging to southeastern North Carolina households for the presence of PFAS.
- offered clean drinking water (e.g., filtration systems) to approximately 10,500 families whose wells are polluted with PFAS.
This deal is a vast improvement over the Environmental Protection Agency’s deal with Chemours earlier this year, which promised only $90 million in environmental projects across three different states, with no guarantee of any of that money coming to North Carolina. The EPA and Chemours reached that deal without consulting the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office or the Department of Environmental Quality.
Other PFAS cases in North Carolina are continuing. There is an ongoing case brought by Cape Fear Public Utility Authority against Chemours and DuPont seeking additional contamination clean-up funds for the utility’s service area in Wilmington and parts of New Hanover County. That case is not impacted by this settlement. Separately, Attorney General Jackson is also litigating six other cases against other companies that manufacture AFFF, a fire suppressant that contains PFAS and has contaminated several military bases, airports, and fire training facilities around the state.
The history of PFAS contamination in North Carolina:
Southeastern North Carolina was ground zero for contamination from GenX, a toxic PFAS compound, and North Carolina officials have been fighting to hold Chemours and DuPont accountable for the profound damage the companies have done to the state’s natural resources.
Chemours’ predecessor DuPont began operating the Fayetteville Works chemical plant in Bladen County in the early 1970s. Starting around 1980, the facility began using southeastern North Carolina as a dumping ground for its PFAS. For decades, the facility emitted GenX and other PFAS into the air and soil and discharged the chemicals into the Cape Fear River, which provides drinking water to 500,000 southeastern North Carolina residents.
PFAS contamination poses serious health risks. Known as “forever chemicals,” PFAS don’t degrade but accumulate in the body through air, water, and soil contamination. Exposure to these chemicals has been linked to kidney and testicular cancer, liver damage, and birth defects.
Holding DuPont and Chemours accountable:
In late 2016, North Carolina researchers published a study that detailed exceptionally high levels of PFAS in the Cape Fear River watershed. In 2017, soon after the contamination was revealed, NCDEQ filed an emergency injunction to stop Chemours from continuing to release PFAS from Fayetteville Works.
In 2019, NCDEQ obtained a landmark consent order that required Chemours to immediately cease discharging its wastewater, control air emissions of GenX and other PFAS, provide water filtration systems to residents with contaminated drinking water wells, reduce PFAS contamination in the Cape Fear River, and address all sources of chemical contamination at the Fayetteville Works facility. The consent order also required Chemours to pay a $12 million civil penalty, the largest environmental civil penalty in North Carolina history. NCDEQ’s action significantly reduced the release of PFAS from Fayetteville Works, and NCDEQ continues to enforce the terms of the order to this day.
In 2020, the North Carolina Department of Justice (NCDOJ) filed its lawsuit against Chemours, DuPont, and their affiliates, seeking compensation for the damage the companies have done to North Carolina’s natural resources.
While the North Carolina Attorney General’s case was ongoing, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—without consulting with North Carolina officials—reached a proposed deal with Chemours to settle claims under federal law regarding PFAS contamination from Chemours’ North Carolina, New Jersey, and West Virginia facilities. Attorney General Jackson denounced the deal, which would do almost nothing to address the harm Chemours has done in the state. He was joined by Gov. Josh Stein and DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson in filing comments opposing the deal in court.