Precedent-setting settlement fuels growing PFAS litigation and environmental accountability nationwide 

TRENTON, NJ (August 4, 2025) – Kelley Drye is pleased to congratulate New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette, and the entire State of New Jersey team on securing a landmark settlement with DuPont and related companies valued at more than $2 billion, the largest environmental recovery for a single state – and one of the largest legal recoveries of any kind – in U.S. history. 

The agreement settles the State’s case against DuPont regarding PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), also known as “forever chemicals,” contamination across the state and addresses PFAS and other contamination at and from four historical DuPont industrial sites: Chambers Works, Parlin, Pompton Lakes Works, and Repauno. DuPont’s decades-long use and discharge of PFAS has polluted drinking water and natural resources throughout New Jersey.

“We are honored to represent the State of New Jersey in its pursuit of accountability from the companies responsible for widespread PFAS contamination,” said Kelley Drye’s Environmental practice co-chair William J. Jackson, who served as lead counsel for the State of New Jersey. “This landmark settlement sets a powerful precedent for environmental protection efforts nationwide. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office continue to lead by example, with a steadfast commitment to protecting the people of New Jersey and restoring the State’s water, land, and natural resources from the long-term risks of PFAS. I am incredibly proud to work with the tireless public servants of the New Jersey DEP and AG office and the entire Kelley Drye team.”

This agreement comes just months after the Kelley Drye team assisted New Jersey secure a $450 million settlement with 3M for PFAS, and one month into the first State case in the country to go to trial for PFAS contamination, remediation, and natural resource damages.

The trial against E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (now known as EIDP, Inc.), The Chemours Company, Corteva, Inc., and DuPont de Nemours, Inc. began in Camden, New Jersey on May 19, 2025, before Chief Judge Renée Marie Bumb, U.S. District Judge for the District of New Jersey. For four weeks, the State tried five combined bench trials on statutory liability claims and defensive issues against the DuPont entities related to PFAS and other contamination discharged from DuPont’s Chambers Works site on the banks of the Delaware River. Prior to the parties reaching a settlement, the Court was set to resume with a sixth bench trial on the State’s fraudulent transfer claims related to DuPont’s 2015 restructuring and a jury trial later this the fall on the State’s common law claims and all damages.

Kelley Drye fielded six trial teams to put on the State’s case in the groundbreaking trials this summer, led by Jackson and including Partners Jennifer Barks, Geoffrey W. Castello, Levi M. Downing, Laura W. Duncan, William A. Escobar, Elizabeth N. Krasnow, Lana Rowenko, David I. Zalman; Special Counsel Melissa E. Byroade, Matthew Chakmakian, Curt D. Marshall, David M. Reap, Nancy Archer Yanochik; and Associates Daniel J. Harrison, Erin Hodge, Noah T. Joseph, Sabrina Eve Morelli, Zoe Peer Makoul, Jack Quaglino, Lauren Schadt, and a large team of other firm attorneys and professional staff. The Kelley Drye team worked on this matter with our co-counsel, New Jersey Deputies Attorney General Gwen Farley, Rick Engel, Deputy Director Paul Stofa, the larger team at the New Jersey Attorney General’s office, and our friends at the Dema Law firm and the Taft Firm. 

The settlement is valued at more than $2 billion. Foundational to the settlement is the agreement that DuPont is responsible to remediate the Chambers Works, Parlin, Pompton Lakes, and Repauno industrial sites, to address PFAS released from the Chambers Works and Parlin Sites, and to pay all costs and damages called for under the settlement. DuPont operated some of these sites for more than a century, causing massive PFAS and other contamination, and significant injuries to New Jersey’s waters and other natural resources. The remainder of the settling defendants are agreeing to stand behind the remediation and funding obligations of DuPont, ensuring that the polluter pays, not the taxpayers of New Jersey.

In addition to the settling defendants’ absolute obligations to remediate the contamination at and from these four industrial sites, the parties have agreed to establish financial assurance mechanisms at the four sites, which may total more than $1.2 billion by the terms of the agreement. Behind that, Corteva and New DuPont have agreed to create another $475 million in a “Reserve Fund” to be held in trust by a third-party. The fund will back up the primary financial assurance mechanisms and add another layer of protection for the State to ensure these obligations do not fall to the taxpayers of New Jersey.

In addition to all of this, the settling defendants have agreed to pay the State $875 million for PFAS abatement costs and natural resource damages across the State, and to reimburse and pay the State’s costs in addressing PFAS and litigating these claims.

Kelley Drye’s Environmental practice is deeply involved in PFAS litigation nationwide. Our attorneys represent 15 states and sovereign governments and dozens of water providers seeking remediation, drinking water treatment, and natural resource damages from PFAS contamination. 

The firm has a long-standing relationship with the State of New Jersey, assisting it with some of its most high-profile environmental matters. In 2024 and 2025, Kelley Drye secured settlements on behalf of the State with Solvay Specialty Polymers USA, LLC and Arkema to resolve claims for PFAS discharges from their operations in West Deptford, New Jersey. Those settlements combined with today’s settlement with DuPont and the 3M settlement, total more than $3 billion in remediation, restoration, PFAS abatement, and natural resource damages that the Kelley Drye team and its co-counsel has recovered for New Jersey.

In 2016, Jackson and the firm’s Environmental Litigation co-lead, John Gilmour, led New Jersey’s final settlement regarding contamination of the Passaic River. That settlement concluded a decade of litigation that resulted in more than $355 million in damages recoveries for the State, including $67.5 million in natural resource damages, and up to $400 million in additional remediation costs for ongoing remediation of the Passaic River.

For decades, the lawyers at Kelley Drye have been fortunate to represent public sector clients, including states, attorneys general, local governments, and other public entities, in historic and complex natural resource damages and environmental contamination cases, including the State of Louisiana in the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Spill, the single largest environmental and natural resource damages recovery in history. Together with these PFAS and other recoveries for the State of New Jersey, Kelley Drye’s Environmental Litigation team has recovered tens of billions of dollars in remediation costs, property damages, natural resource damages, lost tax revenues, and other remedies for the public. More information about Kelley Drye’s complex Environmental Litigation and Natural Resource Damages services can be found at www.kelleydrye.com.