Stein, Jackson Challenge Chemours PFAS Settlement

Governor Josh Stein, Attorney General Jeff Jackson, and other North Carolina officials are challenging a “backroom deal” settlement between the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Chemours corporation over years of damages from the company’s release of “forever chemicals” like PFAS.

“More than 2,600 plaintiffs sued Chemours for polluting their drinking water wells, air, soil, and groundwater. The pollution impacted about 500,000 North Carolinians and about 10,000 private drinking wells. But plaintiffs won’t get their day in court if a proposed landmark $450 million settlement between the EPA and Chemours, announced last month, moves forward.” 

North Carolina Leaders Push Back

Stein and Jackson have filed comments in the case opposing the proposed deal, which they say would do almost nothing to address the damages Chemours has caused in North Carolina. “Chemours and the EPA negotiated this deal behind our backs,” said Jackson. “It does nothing to fix the decades of damage Chemours has done to our state, and it’s offensive to the people who drink this water. That’s why I’m asking the federal government to throw it out. The people of eastern North Carolina deserve better.” 

Chemours Will Not Side-Step Accountability in NC 

Governor Stein and the NC Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) have filed an amicus brief in the case, in support of Attorney General Jackson’s authority to hold Chemours and related corporations (such as DuPont) responsible for the damages caused. 

“For decades, Chemours knowingly contaminated North Carolina’s air and water by discharging PFAS from its Fayetteville plant into the Cape Fear River,” said Stein. “Now, Chemours is cutting a settlement deal with the federal government that does next to nothing for North Carolinians and at the same time, is trying to evade the North Carolina Department of Justice’s lawsuit so it can avoid repaying the state for the damage it inflicted. Now is the time for the EPA and the state Supreme Court to do right by our people and our water and truly hold Chemours accountable.”   

Environmental Advocates Echo Pushback on Settlement

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) agrees. “This proposed settlement would leave North Carolina communities to keep paying the price for Chemours’ widespread PFAS pollution while the administration seeks to release the company from accountability,” said Kelly Moser, senior attorney and leader of the Water Program at SELC, which has litigated against Chemours in North Carolina. “Rather than holding Chemours accountable, the deal appears designed to shield the company from meaningful consequences for the widespread harm its chemicals have caused. The message is hard to ignore: Chemours gets leniency while families get contamination. This leniency is especially alarming given EPA Administrator Zeldin has appointed Chemours’s scientists to agency advisory positions and Chemours is challenging the long-awaited PFAS drinking water standards, pushing to expand its operations, and continuing to release massive amounts of ultrashort-chain PFAS into waterways that serve hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians.”