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$450M Chemours PFAS deal faces criticism in NC. By Cierra Noffke, posted About 9 hours ago While a recent agreement with the Chemours Company marks what officials call the first comprehensive federal settlement against a manufacturer over PFAS pollution claims, its terms left many state and local stakeholders disappointed. Last week, the Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) announced a proposed settlement agreement with Chemours - whose facilities have been the source of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) across three states, including the Cape Fear River basin in North Carolina. In a news release, the Justice Department announced that the value of the agreement with Chemours was estimated at $450 million. It includes a $22.5 million civil penalty that would be paid to WVDEP and the EPA and up to $90 million in funds "to further reduce (Chemours') emissions and discharges of PFAS, or provide alternative drinking water relief." The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the EPA filed the complaint on the same day that the settlement was announced, leading Gov. Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson to call the agreement "a backroom deal" that largely excluded North Carolina from discussion. "This was clearly done behind closed doors," said Kemp Burdette, executive director of the Cape Fear River Watch and the Cape Fear Riverkeeper. "They announced the complaint and the settlement on the same day, and the settlement is hundreds of pages long, with hundreds more pages of appendix." The complaint alleges that Chemours, through manufacturing facilities located in Parkersburg, West Virginia; Deepwater, New Jersey; and Fayetteville, North Carolina, violated federal and West Virginia law by releasing PFAS into the environment and into the drinking water near the facilities. Notably, despite reaching a settlement agreement, Chemours denies violating EPA pollution rules and disputes that exposure to PFAS is linked to harmful health effects in humans and animals. Jean Zhuang, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), is doubtful whether North Carolina, much less stakeholders in Wilmington, will get anything from the settlement. "The reality when you peek behind the curtain is that there's really not much in the way of what's actually required of Chemours, especially for North Carolina communities," Zhuang said. Zhuang added that the $450 million figure touted by the Justice Department isn't actually in the settlement agreement itself; rather, it's an estimate of how much Chemours could spend, not how much it is contractually required to spend. Additionally, the $90 million earmarked for PFAS-related mitigation projects is a maximum that Chemours is required to spend. "For them to pretend like this is going to do anything to really protect communities is just insulting," she added. "It's not true. It's far from the truth." According to a spokesperson for Chemours, as part of the settlement terms, the company will take specific actions to reduce PFAS emissions at its Fayetteville Works facility in North Carolina. "For Fayetteville Works, these site-specific actions include hiring an EPA-approved third-party auditor to review certain manufacturing processes at the site and recommend additional controls, if warranted, to further reduce emissions from those processes," said Jess Loizeaux, Chemours spokesperson, in an email to the Business Journal. Loizeaux added that, in accordance with the agreement, the Fayetteville Works facility is now required to capture 99.5% of GenX emissions, including HFPO-DA byproduct emissions, and that the facility has already invested over $400 million in recent years to reduce PFAS emissions. "The $450 million figure in U.S. EPA's press release includes the $22.5 million civil penalty and $90 million mitigation fund, plus the agency's estimate for various actions and site-related obligations under the agreement," said Loizeaux. Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, which sued Chemours in 2017 for PFAS pollution in the Cape Fear River basin, has spent over $92 million to address PFAS, according to its June board materials. "We can confirm that this settlement does not address CFPUA's claims against Chemours and DuPont and that our litigation is unaffected," said a CFPUA spokesperson. "We continue to call on Chemours to do the right thing for its downstream neighbors and reimburse our utility for all costs associated with removing Chemours' pollution from our water source." In 2019, a court-enforceable consent order between Chemours, Cape Fear River Watch and the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) required Chemours to take several measures to mitigate PFAS pollution, including installing a thermal oxidizer and conducting regular testing and public reporting. Despite those requirements, Cape Fear River Watch and SELC maintain that Chemours is still contaminating groundwater with high levels of ultrashort-chain PFAS in Fayetteville and in Wilmington. Additionally, Chemours is in the application process for expansion plans that would increase output at its Fayetteville facility. Both Zhuang and Burdette expressed disappointment over the EPA's handling of the settlement - and what it might portend for future chemical pollution cases. "It does set the precedent that other companies that knowingly break the law and contaminate drinking water supplies for everyday Americans can expect the same treatment by the EPA right now," said Burdette, "which is a slap on the wrist and basically a get-out-of-jail-free settlement agreement." Both point to the appointment of two Chemours executives to the EPA Science Advisory Board in April: Shawn Gannon, chief toxicologist at Chemours, and Sean Uhl, the senior director of sustainability at Chemours. In May, the EPA formally proposed rolling back PFAS regulations established during the Biden administration, with a public hearing scheduled for July 7 and a public comment period open until July 20. "I think the fact that the last administration had promulgated these much-needed drinking water standards for PFAS was a sign that we were going to see some protections, but now all of that is falling apart," Zhuang said. "This administration is getting rid of multiple drinking water standards for PFAS and delaying standards for others of these toxic chemicals, and it did this after meeting with industry many times." Burdette also points to the need for enforceable PFAS limits in drinking water at the state level to continue holding industrial polluters accountable. "North Carolina has never had standards for PFAS in drinking water," he said. "We do have narrative standards that should prevent any discharger from discharging anything toxic into drinking water, but the state does not use that." The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission (EMC) held six public hearings this spring to hear feedback on updated drinking water standards for PFAS and 1, 4-dioxane. The rules under consideration would require wastewater treatment plants and industrial facilities to monitor for PFAS and 1,4-dioxane and develop pollution minimization plans if thresholds are exceeded. At the public hearing held in Wilmington this April, Burdette and other local advocates, including Emily Donovan of Clean Cape Fear, urged state regulators to reconsider the standards. "These rules were written by industry," Burdette said. "The EMC acknowledged that these rules were provided to them by industry, and they were proposed as written, and they do absolutely nothing to remove PFAS." The EMC is expected to hold a final voting session on the proposed rules later this year. The Chemours settlement is subject to a 30-day comment period, which officially opened on June 29 and will end July 29, and is awaiting final court approval. Zhuang urges the public to comment and raise the issue to representatives. "It is important for the EPA at this point, and DOJ, to respond to public comments and to actually take them to heart," she said, "and to recognize that people deserve more after suffering from this pollution for decades."

West Virginia plays key role in $450M multi-state PFAS settlement with Chemours. June 26, 2026 This week, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WV DEP), U.S. EPA, the U.S. Department of Justice, and announced a proposed settlement with the chemical company Chemours valued at more than $450M to address alleged releases of PFAS from facilities in West Virginia, North Carolina, and New Jersey. The agreement includes a $22.5M civil penalty along with investments in pollution controls, drinking water protection, and environmental compliance measures. The agreement includes an estimated $60M for new PFAS pollution controls at Chemours' Washington Works facility in West Virginia and approximately $280M to provide clean drinking water and monitoring for communities near facilities in West Virginia and New Jersey. In addition, Chemours will implement 14 projects to reduce PFAS releases from wastewater, stormwater, and groundwater at the West Virginia site. Chemours will also undertake actions to reduce PFAS and other chemical releases from its North Carolina operations and implement measures to control emissions and discharges across affected facilities. EPA announced that the agreement aims to reduce future contamination while allowing continued manufacturing operations under enhanced environmental controls. The proposed consent decree is subject to public review and comment before it can be finalized. The full complaint and proposed settlement agreement are available on the Justice Department's Proposed Consent Decree webpage. More information on the settlement is also available on EPA's Chemours Settlement Summary website.