A $2.5 Billion Reckoning: New Jersey's Historic Settlements with DuPont and 3M

The State of New Jersey has long fought to hold corporate polluters accountable for releasing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other hazardous substances and pollutants into the State’s environment. Dema Law is helping New Jersey lead the fight, resulting in historic settlements with numerous DuPont entities and 3M valued at over $2.5 billion.

For decades, the company now known as EIDP, Inc. (formerly E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company) and related companies operated four large industrial facilities in New Jersey: Chambers Works in Salem County, the Parlin facility in Middlesex County, Pompton Lakes Works in Passaic County, and Repauno Works in Gloucester County. Their operations in New Jersey released hundreds of hazardous substances and pollutants, including heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, PCBs, Semi Volatile Organic Compounds and non aqueous phased liquids (NAPL) into the State's soil, groundwater, and drinking water, in addition to PFAS, the persistent "forever chemicals" tied to serious health risks.

Dema Law and its co-counsel firms pursued litigation on behalf of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to hold these companies accountable for the contamination and its cost to the public. In August 2026, Chief Judge Bumb of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey approved a set of Judicial Consent Orders resolving the State's claims. The settlement with the DuPont entities is valued at more than $2 billion, which the State has called the largest environmental settlement ever reached by a single state. Combined with the State’s settlement with 3M, which supplied EIDP, Inc. and other companies in New Jersey with PFAS over many decades, the approved recoveries total approximately $2.5 billion.

This case reflects Dema Law's commitment to holding polluters accountable and restoring natural resources for the communities that depend on them.