The state reached a landmark settlement this week with chemical giant 3M, which agreed to pay New Jersey up to $450 million to resolve lawsuits over widespread contamination from PFAS, otherwise known as “forever chemicals.”
Shawn LaTourette, the state Environmental Protection commissioner, said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News that the settlement serves two aims.
“It serves PFAS abatement getting the treatment in place in our water systems or upon private wells that need that treatment to help get PFAS out of our drinking water where the impacts are largest,” he said. “But there are also natural resource restoration components to this settlement.”
New Jersey’s lawsuits contended the chemicals have polluted our water, soil and other natural resources throughout the Garden State, following decades of use of 3M products at the Chamber Works facility in Salem County. The current and former owners of that site, DuPont and Chemours, will still stand trial starting next week.
The 3M settlement is the largest single clean-water settlement in state history. New Jersey has now accrued more than $800 million from corporations for environmental damages stemming from PFAS contamination.
“We’ve got a lot of research to do, and we’ve got a lot of abatement to do, and we’re going to expect these folks are held to account,” said LaTourette.
