West Virginia has been ground zero for PFAS contamination — but not PFAS compensation.
This week has brought reminders of that.
On Monday came a reminder that West Virginia lags billions of dollars behind other states in collecting money from settlements with manufacturers of PFAS — cancer-linked chemicals that build up in the human bloodstream and have been especially prevalent in Ohio River Valley water samples.
New Jersey state officials announced a $2 billion-plus settlement with manufacturers of PFAS, an acronym for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
“This pollution resulted in decades of damage to the state’s natural resources,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, a Democrat, said in a video statement announcing the settlement, in which the companies — including Chemours and DuPont — agreed to fully clean up contamination at four New Jersey sites and to pay $875 million over 25 years in natural resource and other damages.
On Thursday, a federal judge excoriated Chemours in an order requiring it to stop discharging a certain type of PFAS beyond levels allowed in its water pollution control permit at its Washington Works facility in Wood County, near Parkersburg.
“Chemours has treated its permit more as full permission to act without constraint,” U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin wrote in the order, finding that Chemours “boldly violates” its permit and has left the public “exposed to real and ongoing harm.”
DuPont, Chemours and Corteva, the latter two being spinoff companies of the former, agreed to fund abatement projects in New Jersey that include drinking water treatment. They also agreed to establish a remediation funding source of up to $1.2 billion to keep cleanup work from tapping into public funds.
West Virginia was not among the 30 states in which attorney generals have initiated litigation or settled lawsuits against PFAS manufacturers for contaminating water supplies and other natural resources as of December 2024, according to Safer States, a national alliance of environmental health groups and coalitions.
That’s despite West Virginia being the epicenter for contamination from perfluorooctanoic acid, one of the most common PFAS, known as PFOA. In 1951, DuPont began using PFOA to make Teflon-related products at the Washington Works facility. The chemical discharged into drinking water supplies.
People living in the area experienced increased rates of testicular and kidney cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis and pregnancy-induced hypertension.
PFAS have been found in drinking water samples from public water systems throughout the state, many at levels far beyond proposed federal standards.
West Virginia Attorney General’s Office spokeswoman Kallie Cart said Tuesday the office is “conducting a comprehensive review of PFAS contamination sources and responsible parties, working closely with environmental scientists and public health experts.”
“This evaluation includes examining the role of chemical manufacturers, industrial facilities, and other entities that may have contributed to PFAS contamination in West Virginia,” Cart said in an email.
Cart declined to identify any of the public health experts or scientists she cited, or the purposes of the review.
“For ethical, strategic and legal reasons, it would be unwise for us to respond further,” Cart said.
John “JB” McCuskey took over as attorney general in January, succeeding now-Gov. Patrick Morrisey, a fellow Republican who did not bring PFAS manufacturer-targeted litigation akin to other states during his 12-year tenure as attorney general before becoming governor.
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Morrisey spokesman Drew Galang was noncommittal when asked Morrisey’s stance on suing manufacturers for PFAS pollution in West Virginia and whether West Virginia should have sought recovery for damages for PFAS contamination while Morrisey was attorney general.
“Governor Morrisey is committed to protecting West Virginia’s environment and will always consider actions against those who harm our waterways,” Galang said in an email Tuesday. “As Attorney General, Governor Morrisey had an excellent track record holding companies accountable and will continue to do so. We also do not publicly speculate about legal matters.”
Galang did not respond when asked for instances of Morrisey holding companies accountable as attorney general.
Judge Cited 'Governmental Indifference'
Other states, led by both Democrats and Republicans, have been more aggressive than West Virginia in seeking damages for PFAS pollution and rewarded for it — even for pollution coming from West Virginia.
In 2023, Ohio state officials announced a proposed $110 million settlement — 80% of which they said would address pollution from the Washington Works plant near Parkersburg — Chemours said it, along with DuPont and Corteva, reached to resolve the state’s claims relating to the manufacture and sale of products containing PFAS and state claims regarding aqueous film-forming foam, a fire suppressant in which PFAS have typically been used.
Although Ohio officials indicated DuPont’s manufacture of Teflon products stopped after 2013, PFAS contamination from Washington Works has remained an environmental health concern.
In December 2024, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop reported discharges from Chemours’ Washington Works facility into the Ohio River exceeding permit limits.
It was that lawsuit that led to Goodwin’s order in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia Thursday.
The Little Hocking Water Association, Inc., a southeastern Ohio nonprofit water provider serving 12,000 people, later joined the lawsuit as an intervenor-plaintiff after telling the court its 45-acre well field is the catchment reservoir for “the mother lode of PFAS contamination” coming from Chemours’ Washington Works facility, 1,300 feet across the Ohio River.
The Ohio River is a drinking water source for more than five million people.
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Chemours’ own reports have shown frequently high levels of PFAS discharged from the Washington Works site.
Greater Cincinnati Water Works treatment superintendent Jeff Swertfeger said in federal court testimony filed in the case in February 2025 his organization was concerned elevated PFAS levels reported from Chemours discharges at its Washington Works plant may pose an increased health risk to Kentucky and Ohio communities that use the Ohio River as a drinking water source.
In February, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition cited state Department of Environmental Protection discharge monitoring reports to allege Chemours exceeded its average monthly limit in November 2024 for hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid, a PFAS known as HFPO-DA, at two outlets into the river by 454% and 166%, respectively. The pollution spike was so large it was noticeable 270 river miles downstream in Cincinnati’s drinking water intake, according to the court filing.
“Congress has vested citizens with the power to enforce environmental protections in the face of governmental indifference,” Goodwin wrote in his Thursday order. “That enforcement power exists precisely for cases like this one.”
Chemours spokeswoman Jess Loizeaux said Thursday the company was disappointed in Goodwin’s ruling, strongly disagreed with its characterizations, and planned to appeal the decision.
“Chemours is committed to manufacturing its essential chemistries responsibly to minimize impact to the environment and ensure the well-being of our neighbors,” Loizeaux said.
Loizeaux said Chemours is operating and monitoring granular activated carbon treatment systems, which are designed to filter harmful chemicals from contaminated water, that the company installed at 10 public water systems surrounding Washington Works.
Loizeaux said sampling results from those public water systems confirm the drinking water is within the current maximum contaminant levels and is safe for consumption.
West Virginia Rivers Coalition deputy director Autumn Crowe hailed Goodwin's order in a statement Thursday evening.
“This is a victory for public health and the Ohio River,” Crowe said.
A U.S. Geological Survey study released in 2022 revealed levels of PFOA or another PFAS known as PFOS (perfluorooctanesulfonic acid) levels above what was then a federal health advisory level 17.5 times higher than the EPA’s current drinking water standards for both in raw water samples at 37 sites in West Virginia. Eighteen were in counties that border Ohio.
Chemours, which was spun off from DuPont in 2015, took over the Washington Works site that year.
N.J. got $475M fund promise to protect taxpayers
New Jersey, Morrisey’s native state, secured its $2 billion-plus settlement in response to a 2019 lawsuit alleging DuPont knowingly concealed the true nature of chemicals it discharged at a facility in Salem County, the state’s westernmost county.
DuPont dumped vast quantities of PFAS compounds it knew persist indefinitely in the environment and pose a substantial threat to human health to maximize profits from Teflon and other consumer products, New Jersey alleged.
The defendant companies agreed with New Jersey to fully clean up contamination at sites in four counties.
In addition to the up-to-$1.2 billion remediation funding source, they agreed to set up a separate reserve fund of $475 million New Jersey officials said will ensure that if any of the companies goes bankrupt or otherwise don’t fulfill their responsibilities to the state, taxpayers won’t have to foot the bill.
New Jersey officials’ announcement of the settlement with DuPont along with Chemours and Corteva, two DuPont spinoff companies, came less than three months after the state’s Department of Environmental Protection reached a proposed settlement of up to $450 million with another PFAS manufacturer, St. Paul, Minnesota-headquartered 3M.
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The settlement set a payment schedule consisting in part of payments of $275 million to $325 million from 2026 to 2034, including first-year payments of $43.45 million for natural resource damages at a Salem County site and additional payments over that span for statewide PFAS contamination damages and abatement.
W.Va. not among states with own PFAS standards
The stakes for state oversight of PFAS has been heightened by the Trump administration signaling it plans to back off on that oversight.
The EPA in May announced plans to rescind PFAS regulations it finalized under the Biden administration last year for HFPO-DA, also known as GenX chemicals, and weaken its first ever national, legally enforceable drinking water standard for PFAS, released last year.
The EPA set enforceable maximum contaminant levels last year of 4 parts per trillion for what have been two of the most common PFAS, known as PFOA and PFOS — what the agency has said are the lowest levels feasible for effective implementation.
The agency plans to keep those maximum contaminant levels but extend the compliance date by two years for public drinking water systems, from 2029 to 2031.
The EPA plans to issue a proposed rule this fall and finalize the rule in spring 2026.
“Delaying protections ignores decades of research and fails to hold polluters accountable,” West Virginia Rivers Coalition executive director Jennie Smith told the Gazette-Mail in May.
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Meanwhile, West Virginia’s state-level protections pale in comparison to those in many other states.
West Virginia is not among the 16 states listed by Safer States as having adopted guidance, health advisory or notification levels for certain PFAS chemicals, or the 11 states it lists as having enforceable standards like maximum contaminant levels for certain PFAS in drinking water.
In March, the EPA terminated a $1 million grant it awarded to the state under the Biden administration in 2023 to support developing and piloting a community engagement process to inform PFAS action plans.
The DEP intended to use it for PFAS action plans to identify and address sources of PFAS in raw water sources of public water drinking water systems.
The DEP planned to work mainly with the West Virginia Rivers Coalition to develop the PFAS action plans.
The EPA said in a March 12 memorandum to the DEP it was terminating the grant “in its entirety effective immediately on the grounds that the award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”
The EPA told the DEP the grant was inconsistent with its priorities because it funds programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion, environmental justice or other initiatives that conflict with its policy under the Trump administration of not funding such measures.
But the West Virginia Rivers Coalition announced last month the grant was restored.
A 2023 West Virginia state law, House Bill 3189, requires that for each public water system for which measured PFAS in treated water is above detection levels and above applicable EPA drinking water human health advisories, the DEP would have to write a PFAS action plan to address PFAS sources for the public water system’s raw water sources. The first 50 such plans must be completed by the end of 2025 under HB 3189, and the remaining plans must be done by the end of 2026.
© 2025 The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, W.Va.). Visit www.wvgazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
