- While it's being called a landmark victory, New Jersey today reached a historic environmental settlement securing an estimated $2 billion from DuPont and other related chemical companies over decades of pollution at four industrial sites across the state.

The agreement announced by the Attorney General's Office and Department of Environmental Protection marks the largest environmental settlement in New Jersey history and is aimed at cleaning up toxic PFAS or forever chemicals that have been left behind while also restoring damaged natural resources like our water and soil.

Joining me now to talk about what this deal means for residents and what comes next in holding polluters accountable is New Jersey's top environmental official, DEP Commissioner, Sean LaTourette.

Welcome, good to have you on such a big day for the state.

I know this has been something that you in particular have wanted to see through to the finish.

Why is this so significant for New Jersey?

- First of all, thank you for having me, Brianna.

This is significant for New Jersey in no small part because our state is ground zero for some of the worst impacts of PFAS forever chemicals.

Our state was home to an epicenter of PFAS manufacturing and there are also other sites in the DuPont family of companies that are also covered by this settlement.

And it's going to over time help tremendously to improve and protect public health and the environment that we all share.

- Let me just go back to basics for a moment.

Why are these forever chemicals so dangerous?

What have these communities in and around where these polluted sites have been, what have they been up against in terms of pollution and their health?

- Sure, we've all heard and lived stories like this one before, right?

Chemical company creates new wonder that's gonna make our busy and complicated lives.

- Nonstick pans.

- Yeah, it's gonna make our complicated lives a bit easier.

Right, the eggs don't stick to the pan and our clothes are more fire retardant, but these chemicals, for the same reason the eggs don't stick to the pan, they are resistant to degradation in the environment and they bioaccumulate in the body of fish and wildlife and people, right?

We all have PFAS in our blood serum to some degree and these chemicals are toxic.

Some of them cancerous, others of them disruptive to the reproductive system.

And we've gotta get these chemicals out of our water supply, circulating through our surface waters, we're finding them in drinking water systems and communities around these sites, takes for example, Chambers Works in Southern New Jersey at the foot of the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

The PFAS plume extends miles beyond just the boundary of that site.

And we see similar experiences at the other sites as well.

- Yeah, can you clarify what those sites are, where those areas are?

- Sure, we've got the Chambers Works site in Deepwater, New Jersey.

We've got the Parlin site at the border of Cheesequake Park, basically, in Old Bridge.

We've got the Rapano Works in Gibbstown and we've got the Pompton Lakes site.

- It's pretty spread out.

- Yes.

And so Rapano and Pompton Lakes were munitions manufacturing sites for the most part, but the other two, Parlin and Chambers Works, included a hefty amount of PFAS manufacturing, Teflon in particular.

And so we've got a lot of cleanup to ensure be done.

And that's what the biggest part of this settlement will do.

- So I think that's what a lot of folks wanna know, right?

How will this money be spent?

What's the breakdown, at least right now, from what you're looking at in terms of what's needed for the remediation?

- Sure, so we wound up in court with the DuPont family of companies because they weren't doing what they were supposed to do.

They weren't executing upon the remediation of these sites to the extent that they should have.

And so this settlement will ensure that at each of these four industrial sites, they carry through on their remedial obligations.

No limitations on their obligation to get the cleanup done of all the chemicals there and emanating from those sites.

And the estimated amount for that is up to about $1.2 billion, and they've got to post the financial assurance to get that done.

And then there is a $475 million securitization behind that in a reserve fund.

- What does that mean?

So just in case they're not able to come up with the cash, this steps in?

- So in the event that the Comores Company, for example, which has the cleanup obligation at three of those sites, were to find itself bankrupt, the other companies, right, the historic DuPont company, EIDP, for example, would stand behind that obligation with a $475 million reserve fund.

These cleanups will take years and years to be complete.

So in addition to that, we have an $875 million payment to the state of New Jersey, as you mentioned, over 25 years, front-loaded in the beginning.

Of that $875 million, $225 million go to natural resource restoration projects.

Think of natural resource restoration in the Delaware Bay Estuary, for example, in the area of the Chambers Works site.

We've also got $525 million for an abatement fund to help the people and communities affected by this contamination in their potable wells or in their water systems.

And then $125 million for fees and costs, penalties, punitive damages.

- So, I mean, that's a big breakdown of what is a very complex, what has been a very complex case and what will be a complex cleanup.

When might folks start to see the benefit of this?

And what does it mean?

I mean, big picture in terms of holding other polluters accountable in the future now.

- So I think first and foremost, this settlement sends the message, not unlike the settlement we struck with 3M on PFAS obligations earlier this year, or Solve A two years ago, that we expect and that the people of New Jersey deserve that you leave the place better than you found it.

You don't get to walk away and let your pollution be the problem of a water rate payer or on the backs of every taxpayer in the state.

It is your obligation.

We will enforce it.

And I think that message is loud and clear.

And also important is the reality that these chemicals, PFAS in particular, circulate so widely throughout our environment.

They're so resistant to degradation.

That's why they're called forever chemicals.

It's gonna take a long time to get them under control.

This abatement fund will help us do that.

So for example, if you're a homeowner in the 15% of New Jersey that still has potable drinking water, you're not connected to a water system and you find PFAS in your well, this abatement fund is gonna help you have treatment on your water well so that we can get the PFAS out of your water and away from your kids.

- Don't think we can understate just how big a deal it is.

Commissioner LaTourrette, thanks for coming in today.

We appreciate your insight.

- A pleasure, thank you.

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