North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein has sued a web of corporations over toxic PFAS water pollution. The lawsuit asserts knowing contamination of the environment with dangerous pollutants — and then a series of corporate mergers and divestitures to avoid financial responsibility.

For several years, the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has entered into a series of regulatory rulings and consent orders with Chemours requiring pollution controls and cleanups, but the latest lawsuit goes further. It asserts the actions of Chemours and its predecessors were deliberate, negligent, and fraudulent, carried out to maximize profits, despite knowing they were dumping dangerous chemicals in public waters.

The lawsuit also asserts that several major corporate moves since public discovery of the PFAS contamination problem in 2015 have been made to avoid fiscal responsibility. DuPont originally owned the Fayetteville manufacturing facility which made and released the chemicals. DuPont spun off Chemours as a subsidiary owning the plant. Then DuPont merged with Dow and divested ownership of Chemours.

Stein’s office said these corporate moves were made to shield billions of dollars of assets from litigation. “DuPont and Chemours have dumped PFAS into North Carolina’s drinking water even as they knew these forever chemicals pose threats to human health and our natural resources,” said Stein. “These companies maximized their profits at the expense of the people of North Carolina. That’s wrong. I am taking DuPont and Chemours to court to make them pay for the mess they made.”

The litigation was filed in state Superior Court in Cumberland County, near the Chemours plant which for decades has contaminated the Cape Fear River, which supplies the drinking water for millions in eastern North Carolina.