Chemours, DuPont & Corteva Reach $455 Million Settlement Over North Carolina PFAS Claims

Key Takeaways

• $455 Million Settlement: Chemours, DuPont and Corteva will pay $455 million over 15 years to resolve covered PFAS litigation brought by North Carolina and 11 local entities.
• Chemours Bears Half: Chemours is responsible for 50% of the payments, which it values at approximately $180 million on a net present value basis and says are covered by existing accruals.
• Claims Extend Beyond Fayetteville Works: The settlement covers historical discharges from Fayetteville Works as well as certain state claims involving PFAS contamination unrelated to the facility, including from AFFF use.
• Consent Order Work Continues: The agreement recognizes progress under Chemours’ 2019 consent order with North Carolina while establishing procedures for certain remaining off-site obligations, including drinking water programs.
• Other PFAS Liabilities Remain: The settlement does not resolve all potential PFAS liabilities, including certain claims by non-settling North Carolina subdivisions, personal injury, property damage and natural resource damages claims.

Deep Dive

Chemours, DuPont and Corteva have agreed to pay $455 million over 15 years to settle a collection of North Carolina lawsuits over PFAS contamination, resolving claims that reach back through years of discharges from Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility and extend to contamination the state says originated elsewhere.

The agreement, announced Thursday, covers litigation brought by North Carolina and 11 local entities near Fayetteville Works that were excluded from a nationwide public water system settlement approved in 2024. It addresses PFAS and other historical discharges from the facility, along with separate state claims involving contamination unrelated to the site, including from the use of aqueous film forming foam, or AFFF.

It is a large settlement whose accounting requires some care. The companies will collectively make $455 million in payments over 15 years, beginning within 30 days of the agreement’s execution. Chemours is responsible for half of those payments under a cost-sharing arrangement with DuPont and Corteva, but puts its share at approximately $180 million on a net present value basis. The company expects approximately $50 million of its payments to come over the next 12 months and says its obligations are covered by existing accruals.

Of the full settlement amount, $18 million is attributed to the state’s claims involving PFAS contamination unrelated to Fayetteville Works. The agreement remains subject to the entry of dismissals in the covered litigation.

For Chemours, the settlement closes another substantial piece of the legal history surrounding Fayetteville Works while acknowledging that the work outside the courtroom is not finished. The facility has been operating under a 2019 consent order with North Carolina, under which the company has invested in reducing PFAS emissions and mitigating off-site impacts in surrounding communities.

The new agreement recognizes that several provisions of that order have been completed. For obligations that remain, it establishes procedures for addressing certain off-site areas, including the implementation of drinking water programs.

Dividing the Bill

The allocation of the settlement traces back to a January 2021 memorandum of understanding among Chemours, DuPont and Corteva governing certain PFAS liabilities.

Chemours will bear 50% of the settlement payments, with DuPont and Corteva responsible for the remaining half. The companies have also reached additional understandings about how the settlement — and potentially future multi-year settlements — will be valued on a net present value basis when calculating qualified spending under that agreement.

For those purposes, the $455 million settlement will count as approximately $210 million in qualified spend.

The companies also agreed that all future contributions to the MOU escrow account will be considered satisfied. That includes a $50 million contribution from Chemours that otherwise would have been due in September 2026.

Those figures describe different things, an important point in a settlement whose nominal value and financial treatment are separated by both time and the companies’ existing cost-sharing structure. The $455 million is the total amount to be paid over 15 years. Chemours calculates its half of those payments at approximately $180 million on a net present value basis. The approximately $210 million figure, meanwhile, is the amount assigned to the settlement for purposes of calculating qualified spend under the MOU.

What the Settlement Resolves

The agreement covers claims brought by North Carolina as well as Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, New Hanover, Robeson and Sampson counties, the Town of Wrightsville Beach, the City of Lumberton, the Village of Bald Head Island and the Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authority. Those local entities had not been included in the U.S. Public Water System Class Settlement approved in 2024.

The scope is broader than claims arising solely from Fayetteville Works. North Carolina’s claims involving PFAS contamination unrelated to the facility are also covered, including those associated with AFFF. The companies attributed $18 million of the settlement to those claims.

Just as important is what remains outside the agreement. Chemours said in its announcement that potential liabilities continue to include claims by North Carolina subdivisions that are not parties to the settlement, as well as personal injury, property damage and natural resource damages claims. Ongoing remediation obligations also remain, including unfinished requirements under the 2019 consent order.

The settlement therefore gives the companies greater certainty around one substantial collection of North Carolina claims without pretending that the broader PFAS liability picture has been settled with it.

At Fayetteville Works, the practical consequences will continue beyond the payment schedule. Chemours said its work under the consent order since 2019 has substantially reduced PFAS emissions from the facility and mitigated off-site impacts in surrounding communities. The settlement acknowledges that progress while establishing how certain remaining obligations will be handled.

For Chemours, DuPont and Corteva, the agreement converts years of covered litigation into a defined financial obligation spread across the next decade and a half. For North Carolina and the 11 participating local entities, it resolves claims tied both to one of the state’s most consequential PFAS sites and to contamination alleged to have originated elsewhere.

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