Dive Brief:
- 3M announced last week that it reached a proposed agreement with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to pay up to $450 million to resolve all legacy PFAS-related claims in the state.
- The deal includes an approximately $210 million commitment to settle litigation relating to The Chemours Co.’s Chambers Works site in Deepwater, New Jersey, alleging 3M supplied PFAS to one of the facilities, according to court documents.
- The settlement also includes 3M’s pledge to pay approximately $75 million to resolve current and future statewide claims from 2030 to 2050, according to the press release.
Dive Insight:
New Jersey officials have filed three lawsuits against 3M since March 27, 2019, according to court documents.
In March 2019, New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection issued a mandate to 3M — along with Solvay Specialty Polymers USA, E.I. DuPont de Nemours, then conglomerate DowDuPont and Chemours — to fund the state’s PFAS assessment and cleanup efforts.
The state then sued the chemical manufacturers listed in the directive. Two of the 3M lawsuits are related to the Chambers Works factories site, which DuPont previously owned and initially established as a gunpowder manufacturing plant in 1892, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The facilities later began producing dyes and chemical manufacturing.
The state’s environmental agency accused 3M of allegedly supplying more than 500,000 pounds of PFOA, a form of PFAS, to the site from the 1970s until 2002, according to court documents.
The state also holds 3M partially responsible for DuPont’s alleged disposal of PFAS-laced waste from the Chambers Works site, saying that the waste was generated by DuPont using 3M’s PFOA-based products. The discharge allegedly contaminated New Jersey’s natural resources near the site, according to the lawsuit.
Chemours took over the Chambers Works site and production in 2015 when DuPont broke off Chemours and Corteva as their own separate entities. The Chambers Works facilities still make fluorinated products such as oils and greases, according to the Chemours website.
The last lawsuit involves allegations that 3M contaminated public water supplies across the U.S. with PFAS-based aqueous film-forming foam. A federal judge finalized 3M’s settlement last year, and the company agreed to pay public water suppliers between $10.5 billion and $12.5 billion. States included in the multidistrict litigation have the choice to opt out of the settlement and instead pursue further litigation.
3M’s proposed settlement with New Jersey will resolve the state’s lawsuits against the chemical manufacturer, as well as the state’s agreement not to sue in the future. 3M said in its press release that the agreement is not an admission of liability.
While 3M has one manufacturing facility in Flemington, New Jersey, the factory does not produce any forever chemicals-laced products. The company is on track to phase out its PFAS usage in its manufacturing processes by next year. New Jersey officials noted in the agreement that 3M “has taken actions, which other companies have not taken, to cease manufacturing of AFFF and PFAS and to seek to phase out the use of PFAS in its products.”
3M is the second chemical manufacturer with which New Jersey has settled litigation. In 2023, the U.S. subsidiary of Brussels-based chemical company Solvay S.A. reached a $392.7 million settlement regarding PFAS contamination claims in the state.
3M settled with the state a week before it was set to go to trial, alongside DuPont and Chemours. The first phase of the court trial involving Chemours and DuPont began on Monday, according to the court documents.
