By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – While the state has received an initial payment of almost $8 million from the 3M Company’s nationwide PFAS settlement of public drinking water systems claims, a key legislator said the money will never make up for the harm.
Attorney General John M. Formella announced the payment of $7,960,660.29 on Wednesday.
The funds will be deposited in the N.H. Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund for distribution to eligible public drinking water systems across the state.
State Rep. Rosemarie Rung, D-Merrimack, whose district has been particularly hard hit by PFAS contamination said, “While I’m pleased that New Hampshire is finally seeing a financial settlement from PFAS manufacturers, no amount of their money will make up for the health impacts their chemicals have had on our residents.
“Soil and water contamination from their ‘forever chemicals’ impacts every corner of the Granite State,” Rung said.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte said: “Our state is a national leader in holding polluters accountable and promoting access to safe, clean drinking water for our citizens. I’m proud to see New Hampshire receive this first settlement payment today, and I thank the hardworking men and women at the Department of Justice and Department of Environmental Services who fought for it. We will continue to address PFAS contamination and ensure a healthier future for all of New Hampshire.”
Formella said he was proud to announce this initial influx of funds.
“New Hampshire has led the charge against these emerging health threats, and we will continue to hold those responsible accountable,” Formella said. He noted the payment is the first installment of New Hampshire’s approximately $56 million allocation (before payment of attorneys’ fees and litigation costs) of settlement funds from Phase One of the 3M settlement, with an additional allocation of funds scheduled in Phase Two sometime after 2026. A second, larger, Phase One payment is expected near year-end with subsequent smaller annual payments continuing through 2033.
In October 2024, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics announced plans to demolish its Merrimack manufacturing building where textile coating operations resulted in air emissions of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that contaminated groundwater in surrounding communities.
Saint-Gobain informed NHDES that structural steel removed from the building was recycled and that demolition debris from portions of the building significantly impacted by PFAS contamination was disposed of at an out-of-state hazardous waste landfill.
In January of this year, a federal court ruling granted class action status to part of the ongoing lawsuit against Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics.
The 3M settlement announced Wednesday is a result of the State’s ongoing litigation against the manufacturers of PFAS and aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), currently pending in Merrimack County Superior Court and in a multi-district litigation (MDL) in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.
Separate water provider settlements in the MDL with the DuPont entities (E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company n/k/a EIDP, Inc., DuPont de Nemours, Inc., The Chemours Company, The Chemours Company FC, LLC, and Corteva, Inc.), the Tyco defendants (Tyco Fire Products, LP and Chemguard, Inc.), and the BASF Company are awaiting allocation by the Court. The State anticipates an allocation of $6 million-10 million from these additional settling defendants.
New Hampshire filed suit in 2019 on behalf of the citizens of the State, including all public water systems, against the PFAS and AFFF manufacturers. These settlements cover just one category of damages sought by New Hampshire, and the State will continue to seek full recovery for the damages caused by the manufacture and sale of PFAS and AFFF by the defendant companies.