3M is set to pay New Jersey up to $450 million over the next quarter-century to settle claims it contaminated the state with harmful “forever chemicals,” or PFAS, affecting drinking water.
The Minnesota-based chemicals giant manufactured the PFAS, which were used for decades at the Chambers Works facility in Deepwater, N.J., a nearly 1,500-acre complex on the banks of the Delaware River. The site was owned by DuPont, a rival company.
It is the largest single clean-water settlement in New Jersey’s history, the state said. New Jersey sued 3M, DuPont and other PFAS manufacturers in 2019, saying the facility had contaminated drinking water.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, is used in a range of everyday products like nonstick cookware, water-repellent clothing and stain-resistant carpets. Exposure to the chemicals has been linked to metabolic disorders, decreased fertility in women and developmental delays in children, as well as increased risk of some prostate, kidney and testicular cancers.
Under the settlement announced Tuesday, 3M will pay New Jersey between $400 million to $450 million over 25 years to pay for damages, as well as cleanup and drinking water treatment.
DuPont and its chemical spinoff Chemours, which now owns the Chambers Works facility, were not part of the settlement, New Jersey said. The remaining parties are expected to proceed to trial in the case. DuPont declined to comment.
“Corporate polluters must be held accountable when they contaminate our state’s water supply,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said in a statement. “For decades, 3M knew that their PFAS chemicals were forever contaminating the New Jersey environment. But they continued to pollute the environment and escape accountability,” he said. “That ends now.”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Chambers Works facility once manufactured gunpowder as well as radiological material, and contributed to the development of the atomic bomb. It more recently manufactured a variety of chemicals, including PFAS.
Shawn M. LaTourette, New Jersey’s Commissioner of Environmental Protection, said contamination in the state went well beyond drinking water. “We find PFAS everywhere in the state of New Jersey, leeching from landfills, and even in the soils of distant remote New Jersey forests that should be pristine,” he said.
New Jersey is the second known state to settle with 3M over PFAS drinking water contamination claims. In 2018, 3M agreed to pay Minnesota $850 million for contaminating drinking water and natural resources in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
In 2023, 3M also reached a nationwide settlement with public water suppliers for up to $12.5 billion to address PFAS contamination in drinking water.
3M said the agreement was an “important step toward reducing risk and uncertainty” around historical PFAS contamination. The company said in 2000 that it was voluntarily phasing out the production of two major types of PFAS, and it has said it is on track to discontinue all PFAS manufacturing by 2025.
The company said the settlement did not amount to an admission of guilt. It is taking a pretax charge of $285 million in the second quarter.
The E.P.A. had been expected to indicate this week whether it intends to stick to strict PFAS drinking water standards set by the Biden administration last year, which would require water utilities to all but remove six different types of PFAS from their water supply.
Chemical companies and utilities sued the agency over the move. The Trump administration had been due to say on Monday whether it would continue to defend the standards in court. Instead, it asked for a 21-day extension to decide on its planned course of action.
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