For years, communities along North Carolina's Cape Fear River drank water quietly poisoned by synthetic chemicals that neither the earth nor the human body can shed. Now, in a settlement reaching as high as $590 million, three of the nation's largest chemical manufacturers — Chemours, DuPont, and Corteva — have been made to reckon with the long arc of that contamination. The agreement does not compel an admission of guilt, but it does compel something perhaps more consequential: the beginning of repair, and a precedent that other states may soon invoke.
Chemours settles North Carolina PFAS dumping case for $455M
Residents of North Carolina communities relying on contaminated water sources from Cape Fear River and other affected waterways faced exposure to PFAS chemicals linked to health risks.