EPA, Justice Department reach $450 million Chemours PFAS settlement

The EPA, the Justice Department and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection announced a more than $450 million settlement with Chemours to resolve PFAS pollution claims in West Virginia, North Carolina and New Jersey. The deal is the first comprehensive federal settlement with a major PFAS manufacturer, and it puts a dollar figure on years of contamination tied to waterways and neighborhoods near four Chemours facilities.

The agreement covers Chambers Works and Parlin in New Jersey, Fayetteville Works in North Carolina and Washington Works in West Virginia. Chemours released PFAS into the Cape Fear River, Delaware River and Ohio River, in some cases without required permits and in other cases while violating existing permits. Those releases affected communities that rely on those waters for drinking water, and the settlement requires the company to bear cleanup costs rather than local ratepayers.

Under the deal, Chemours will pay a $22.5 million civil penalty and carry out a multi-year, government-supervised $90 million PFAS mitigation program. It will also spend an estimated $60 million on pollution controls at its West Virginia facility and provide alternative drinking water for communities near its sites in West Virginia and New Jersey at an estimated cost of $280 million. The company must also evaluate and implement controls to reduce PFAS and other toxic releases from its North Carolina plant.

The settlement resolves Chemours’ liability under the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act and the West Virginia Water Pollution Control Act.

The proposed consent decree is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval in the Southern District of West Virginia. Chemours can keep manufacturing PFAS for commercial and military uses while the agreement imposes new controls aimed at protecting nearby communities.