Chemour's Washington Works facility in Ohio.
Chemours Co., DuPont and Corteva Inc. have reached a $110 million settlement with the state of Ohio to resolve claims over the production and sale of PFAS substances.
The Nov. 29 settlement resolves a February 2018 lawsuit brought against the chemical companies by the state of Ohio in Washington County regarding Chemour's Washington Works facility along the Ohio River.
The agreement also resolves claims relating to the manufacture and sale of PFAS-containing products; and Ohio's claims related to aqueous film-forming foam.
"Chemours believes this settlement furthers its objective to manage and resolve legacy liabilities, consistent with our [memorandum of understanding] framework in coordination with DuPont and Corteva," Chemours said in Nov. 29 statement.
Of the $110 million in punitive damages, 80 percent will be allocated by Ohio for "conduct related to discharges from Washington Works," and the remaining 20 percent for other PFAS claims statewide, including AFFF, according to Chemours.
According to the January 2021 MOU that outlined terms of a possible future settlement, Chemours will pay $55 million, or 50 percent of the settlement; while DuPont and Corteva will be responsible for the final 50 percent.
According to a Nov. 28 Reuters report, DuPont has agreed to pay $39 million of the final 50 percent.
Chemours works in titanium technologies, thermal and specialized solutions and advanced performance materials. The company spun off of DuPont in 2015 as DuPont's "performance chemicals" division.
Indianapolis-based Corteva had been the agricultural and seed division of DowDuPont, prior to spinning off from DowDuPont in February 2018.
"After the dangers of PFOA began to be publicized, DuPont announced its intention to spin off its 'performance chemicals' business, which manufactures fluoroproducts that contain PFOA, into a newly publicly traded company called Chemours Co.," the original lawsuit from nearly six years ago alleged.
The lawsuit charged DuPont and Chemours — DuPont is cited throughout the lawsuit rather than Chemours or Corteva — with negligence, public nuisance, statutory nuisance, trespassing and punitive damages.
All told, the lawsuit alleged DuPont discharged more than 150,000 pounds of PFOA into the Ohio River and surrounding Mid-Ohio River region, in the air, soil and water.
The 29-page lawsuit covers decades of alleged deception and falsification by DuPont and Chemours, going back to the mid-1980s.
"DuPont intentionally concealed the dangers of PFOA from governmental entities and the public at large ... to protect its profits and avoid public responsibility for injuries and damage caused by its toxic product," the lawsuit states.
The Washington Works facility along the Ohio and West Virginia border — technically in Wood County, W.Va., along 1,200 acres — is Chemour's largest plant in the U.S., according to the lawsuit brought by then-Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.
The Ohio lawsuit and subsequent settlement is one of thousands of PFAS-related lawsuits that have been filed across the country.
The Chemours, DuPont and Corteva settlement comes two days after a U.S. Court of Appeals judge for the Sixth Circuit in Ohio dismissed a massive class action suit brought by a firefighter against 3M Co. and nine other chemical firms.
That lawsuit would have covered every Ohioan — about 11.8 million people — against certain levels of exposure to PFAS chemcials.
3M agreed in June to pay $10.3 billion to settle hundreds of claims that the company polluted public drinking water with the chemicals, while Chemours, DuPont and Corteva reached a similar deal earlier this year with U.S. water providers for $1.19 billion.
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