For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Jackie Greger, Jackie.Greger@sierraclub.org
Dupont Finally Held Accountable for PFAS Pollution in Historic Settlement Valued Over $2B
Trenton, NJ - Today, NJDEP Commissioner LaTourette and NJ Attorney General Platkin announced a historic environmental settlement with DuPont, valued at over $2 billion, to remedy decades of PFAS contamination, also known as “forever chemicals,” as well as other pollutants originating from four industrial sites across the state.
This comes after months of trial, and is the largest environmental settlement ever achieved by a single state.
DuPont and all subsidiary companies, including Chemors, have agreed to fully clean up contamination at four sites across the state on a continuing basis. The affected sites are:
- Pompton Lakes Works, in Pompton Lakes and Wanaque, Passaic County;
- the Parlin site, in Sayreville, Middlesex County;
- the Repauno site, in Greenwich Township, Gloucester County; and
- Chambers Works, in Pennsville and Carney’s Point, Salem County.
To ensure full cleanup, the companies agreed to create a remediation funding source of up to $1.2 billion, and in order to avoid taxpayers being left with the bill in case one of the companies goes bankrupt, an additional reserve fund of $475 million will be established.
The corporation, additionally, must pay $875 million in natural resource and other damages to the State for the harm that was caused to land, water, and other sensitive natural resources, and to fund abatement projects, which will include drinking water treatment and natural resource restoration.
The full announcement is available here.
NJ Sierra Club Chapter Director, Anjuli Ramos-Busot, issued the following statement:
“DuPont has been knowingly poisoning our lands and waters for decades. As an entity of chemical innovation, DuPont brought prosperity to New Jersey. But, like with all polluters with a ROI bottom line, the true impact brought to New Jersey was hidden from us. However, now the contamination from DuPont is so obvious and widespread throughout the state that they can no longer hide. We are now at the point where we have entered the billion-dollar level to clean up PFAS pollution, which goes to show the severity of contamination. DuPont has finally been held responsible for what they have done to New Jersey, to our public health, and to our environment.
Can we call this justice? Not yet. DuPont has done this across the world and in many other parts of the country. Until all of those sites are cleaned up and PFAS is no longer in our environment or in our blood, then we can call it justice.
Today’s settlement is an incredible and historical achievement for New Jersey. This is the state’s third PFAS settlement with corporate polluters to come in two years, which continues to reinforce that their negligence will no longer be tolerated.
As we face the dismantling of the EPA , rollbacks in PFAS regulations, and the cutting of environmental protections at the federal level, we must step up in New Jersey to protect ourselves and ensure clean drinking water and air for all. We thank Attorney General Platkin and NJDEP Commissioner LaTourette for doing just that, for standing up to the multi-billion dollar chemical industry in an incredible legal fight with one of the titans of the industry, and we urge them to keep the momentum going.”
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About the Sierra Club: The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information about our work in New Jersey, visit www.sierraclub.org/new-jersey