Southeastern North Carolina Deserves Billions From DuPont & Chemours

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Today, North Carolina settled a six-year lawsuit for natural resource damages against Chemours, DuPont, and Corteva for their 40 years’ worth of forever chemicals pollution to our air, soil, water, and food supply. While the reported settlement numbers vary from $590 million to $455 million, one thing is obvious to us, this settlement is missing BILLIONS if it is truly meant to recover the costs associated with allowing irresponsible polluters to treat our region like a PFAS sacrifice zone.

Clean Cape Fear co-founder Emily Donovan issued the following statement:

"We are one of the most severely PFAS-contaminated communities in the country, and it’s more than just our tap water. The Chemours Fayetteville Works facility spent decades releasing over 250+ different forever chemicals into the Cape Fear River. Our beaches, farms, backyard gardens, honey, fish and other wildlife were all contaminated at extreme levels. We are thrilled 11 counties will receive important funds to address clean drinking water. However, it doesn’t sound like much is left over for the state’s other natural resources like our soil, river sediment, fish and beaches.”

We applaud Cape Fear Public Utility Authority for continuing its legal fight separately to get its ratepayers properly compensated for years of self-paying to treat Chemours pollutants. Because of constant pressure from Wilmington area residents CFPUA has become a national leader in filtration of these dangerous forever chemicals. People power works.