08/15/2025

DuPont, Chemours, Corteva to pay more than $2B in New Jersey PFAS settlement

Plastics News | Bruce Meyer | August 6, 2025

DuPont, Chemours, Corteva to pay more than $2B in New Jersey PFAS settlement

DuPont Co. and two of its spinoff companies — Chemours Co. and Corteva Inc. — have reached a settlement that will resolve all pending environmental and other claims by the state of New Jersey in a variety of litigation matters, including PFAS contamination.

The total value of the agreement tops $2 billion, including clean-up activities along with funds paid to a remediation funding source and an additional reserve fund, according to an Aug. 4 news release issued by the New Jersey attorney general and the state's Department of Environmental Protection.

The settlement, if approved, covers all legacy contamination claims related to the companies' current and former operating sites — Chambers Works, Parlin, Pompton Lakes and Repauno — and claims of statewide PFAS contamination unrelated to those sites, including from the use of aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), DuPont, Chemours and Corteva said in a joint statement.

New Jersey officials said the proposed settlement, which they claimed is the largest environmental settlement ever achieved by a single state, will resolve the Chambers Works case, a 2019 lawsuit against DuPont and other DuPont-related entities. It comes after a month of trial proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The agreement also will resolve three other lawsuits regarding specific sites in New Jersey, the statewide claims for the firefighting material AFFF, and DuPont and its related entities' responsibilities under a PFAS statewide directive.

The per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances known commonly as "forever chemicals" are used in a wide range of household, consumer and industrial products, including fluoroelastomers (FKM) and fluoropolymers. Chemours produces FKMs under the iconic Viton brand.

PFAS chemicals have been made in the U.S. since the 1940s and get their nickname because they don't degrade or break down over time and continue to accumulate in the environment and in the human body. They have been classified as likely carcinogens, with studies showing the chemicals may cause kidney, liver and testicular cancer, as well as autoimmune and endocrine disorders in adults. PFAS also have been linked to developmental issues affecting fetuses during pregnancy and infants who breastfeed.

"When I became attorney general in 2022, I pledged to fight corporate polluters who, for decades, have knowingly contaminated our land and water with PFAS and other dangerous chemicals," New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement. "PFAS are particularly insidious. These dangerous chemicals build up and accumulate everywhere, and New Jersey has some of the highest levels of PFAS in the country."

Platkin and Shawn Tourette, a commissioner with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), said they have filed numerous PFAS-related lawsuits since 2018. They chalk this case up as the state's third major victory in PFAS-related litigation in just over two years. The DEP and the attorney general reached a settlement with co-defendant 3M in May, just a week before the Chambers Works trial was scheduled to start, with 3M agreeing to pay up to $450 million for PFAS contamination at the Chambers Works and Parlin sites and throughout the state.

In 2023, Solvay Specialty Polymers agreed to spend $393 million to ensure the remediation of contamination and compensate the public for PFAS contamination near Solvay's facility in West Deptford, Gloucester County. More recently, co-defendant Arkema Inc. agreed to settle its responsibility for contamination at the same site, including paying $33.9 million for remediation and damages combined and guaranteeing $75 million for a reserve fund.

"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," said DEP Commissioner LaTourette. "This landmark settlement will advance New Jersey's nation-leading PFAS abatement efforts, improve drinking water quality and restore injured natural resources.

"This resolution embodies the steadfast commitment of the Department of Environmental Protection and our attorney general to hold all PFAS polluters to account, and to protect public health, safety and the environment from these harmful chemicals."

Tallying up the settlement

DuPont, Chemours and Corteva will pay $875 million, split into annual payments over the next 25 years, according to the settlement. Those funds primarily will be used to restore injured natural resources and abatement funds, to be held by DEP in a dedicated trust account, to address PFAS and other contamination, including through the provision of drinking water treatment.

About $125 million of the $875 million will go toward costs, fees, penalties and punitive damages.

The companies also agreed to create a remediation funding source (RFS) of up to $1.2 billion to ensure all cleanup work is paid without public funds. In addition, they will establish an additional $475 million reserve fund to ensure that if any of the companies go bankrupt or don't pay the settlement, the damages will still be paid.

"This extra financial protection is critical to the settlement to ensure that there is enough funding to protect human health and the environment at these sites, as DEP's lawsuit alleged that DuPont attempted to avoid this liability when it spun off Chemours," the officials claimed.

Chemours, DuPont and Corteva said $16.5 million of the settlement is attributed to alleged PFAS contamination unrelated to the companies' operating sites, including AFFF costs of $4.13 million. They claimed in their news release that the pre-tax total present value of the settlement payments is about $500 million, based on the discount rate set forth in the judicial consent order (JCO) for purposes of prepaying settlement amounts.

Under terms of a January 2021 memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the parties, Chemours will pay 50 percent of settlement payments, or approximately $250 million on a present value basis; DuPont will be responsible for 35.5 percent of settlement payments, or about $177 million on a present value basis; and Corteva will be responsible for the remaining 14.5 percent, or roughly $72 million on a present value basis.

The settlement also establishes a process for determining the amount of the RFS at the four current and former operating sites and the initial range for each, as well as other mechanisms to secure future remediation at the sites. The RFS will be secured by a surety bond or similar instrument.

In addition, DuPont and Corteva will establish a reserve fund based on their respective cost sharing percentages, capped at $475 million, also through a surety bond or similar instrument, to serve as further financial security, separate from and secondary to the RFS. The reserve fund will be accessible only under limited conditions detailed in the settlement. The RFS and reserve fund do not represent a new cash outlay by the companies other than the ongoing costs of maintaining the surety bond or a similar instrument to support both, the firms said in their release.

The terms of the settlement are set forth in a proposed JCO, which remains subject to notice and comment pursuant to New Jersey law, as well as final court approval.

Contingent upon approval of the JCO, DuPont and Corteva also will purchase Chemours' rights to receive certain insurance proceeds related to PFAS claims for $150 million. After DuPont and Corteva have recovered the $150 million, plus a fee, Chemours will be entitled to its 50 percent share of further insurance recoveries.

Chemours said in an 8-K filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission on Aug. 5 that this $150 million combined with the expected release of about $50 million in restricted cash from the 2021 MOU escrow account is expected to fully fund Chemours' obligations under the New Jersey settlement through 2030. The present value of payments remaining after 2030 by Chemours for the New Jersey settlement is approximately $80 million prior to the consideration of additional PFAS-related insurance recoveries, according to the SEC filing.

For the second quarter of 2025, Chemours reported a net loss of $381 million, primarily driven by litigation-related charges pertaining to the New Jersey settlement and related tax impacts, Shane Hostetter, Chemours senior vice president and chief financial officer, said in prepared remarks accompanying the firm's Q2 results.

DuPont said in an Aug. 4 8-K filing that it recorded a pre-tax charge of $177 million in its second quarter results. The firm said that reflects the net present value — using an 8-percent discount rate — of the $311 million that is estimated to be the company's share of the cash payment in accordance with the MOU. The companies have the right to prepay settlement amounts at the discount rate set forth in the settlement agreement with New Jersey.

DuPont intends to utilize the $35 million within the MOU escrow account for the first settlement payment in 2026, according to the 8-K filing.

The New Jersey officials said the settlement with the DuPont-related firms will be published in the New Jersey Register and available for public comment shortly. The 3M settlement was published in the New Jersey Register on July 21 and comments can be submitted through Sept. 19.

Both settlements are subject to approval by the U.S. District Court.

Manufacturing and industrial activities began on the four industrial sites in the late 1800s and early 1900s and still continues at the Chambers Works and Parlin sites, according to the state of New Jersey release.

The Pompton Lakes Works site manufactured explosives, producing lead azide, aluminum and bronze shelled blasting caps, metal wires, and aluminum and copper shells at the site.

The Chambers Works facility began making gunpowder and other explosives and later transitioned to dyes and chemicals, including the use of PFAS, in the 1950s, the New Jersey officials said. During DuPont's operations, hundreds of pollutants and hazardous substances were discharged into the environment, making Chambers Works one of the most contaminated sites in New Jersey, they added.

DuPont began operating the Parlin site as a chemical manufacturing plant in 1904. PFAS contamination, as well as a variety of other contamination, has been found in the surface waters, groundwater, soils, sediments, air, wetlands and other natural resources on and around the Sayreville site.

The Repauno site began as another DuPont explosives and chemicals facility, and the company's first research laboratory was located here.