State officials have announced an environmental settlement with Delaware-based E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co. worth almost $2 billion.

The settlement comes in the form of a roughly $1 billion cleanup of PFAS and other substances at four sites in New Jersey, along with an $875 million financial payment to the state.

According to state Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who with Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette announced the agreement Aug. 4, it is the largest environmental settlement by a single state ever obtained.

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are synthetic chemicals used to make a variety of household, consumer and industrial products. They are known as “forever chemicals” because they do not degrade or break down over time. They are classified as likely carcinogens.

The news release on the settlement lists the four cleanup sites as Pompton Lakes Works, in Pompton Lakes and Wanaque, Passaic County; the Parlin site, in Sayreville, Middlesex County; the Repauno site, in Greenwich Township, Gloucester County, and the Chambers Works, in Pennsville and Carney’s Point, Salem County.

The state maintains that with this settlement “New Jersey will recover over approximately $3 billion from lawsuits it has commenced since 2019 to compensate the state and remediate the damage caused by PFAS and other pollutants.”

Other settlements contributing to this number were a May 2025 agreement with 3M to pay up to $450 million for PFAS contamination at the Chambers Works and Parlin sites and throughout the state, along with a 2023 settlement with Solvay Specialty Polymers under which the company will spend $393 million to ensure the remediation of contamination and compensate the public for PFAS contamination near Solvay’s facility in West Deptford, Gloucester County.

“Polluters who place profit above public well-being by releasing poisonous PFAS and other contamination in our state can expect to be held responsible to clean up their mess and fully compensate the state and its citizens for the precious natural resources they’ve damaged or destroyed,” LaTourette said.

Under the settlement, the $875 million from Dupont entities will be held in a dedicated trust account managed by the DEP and will be used to address contamination issues, including drinking water treatment.

Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.