PFAS Lawsuit Update Today: Settlements, Deadlines, and EPA Rollback

The PFAS lawsuit landscape as of mid-2026 breaks into two very different tracks. Public water systems have more than $14 billion in approved settlements and face hard claim deadlines in July and August 2026. Individual personal injury plaintiffs — more than 15,200 of them — are still waiting for a first trial, which was pulled from the October 2025 calendar and has not been reset. On top of that, the EPA has proposed loosening parts of the 2024 drinking water rule that drove much of the regulatory pressure behind these cases.

Water System Settlements Already Approved

Four settlements have been finalized in MDL 2873, consolidated before Judge Richard M. Gergel in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. They cover public water systems that detected PFAS in their drinking water sources, and together they exceed $14 billion.

The 3M settlement received final approval on March 29, 2024.{¹} 3M will pay between $10.5 billion and $12.5 billion over a period extending through 2036, with payments beginning in the third quarter of 2024.² The company did not admit liability.

A separate $1.185 billion settlement with DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva was approved on February 16, 2024, with Judge Gergel calling the terms “fair.”³ Chemours is responsible for roughly half the total, DuPont contributes about $400 million, and Corteva about $193 million.⁴

Two more settlements received final approval on November 22, 2024: $750 million from Tyco Fire Products, a Johnson Controls subsidiary, and $316.5 million from BASF Corporation. Judge Gergel found both “fair, reasonable, and adequate.”⁵ BASF paid about $312.5 million in March 2025, after an earlier $4 million in administration costs in July 2024.⁶ Neither settlement includes an admission of wrongdoing.

One boundary worth keeping clear: these four settlements resolve only public water system claims. Personal injury claims, property damage cases, and lawsuits brought by state attorneys general are not covered.³

Claim Deadlines Coming in Summer 2026

If you work for a water utility, the near-term calendar matters more than the headline numbers. Several deadlines land in 2026 for Phase 2 systems — those that had not yet detected PFAS or detected it after June 2023. Missing a deadline means losing both the right to settlement funds and the right to sue 3M or DuPont over PFAS later.⁷

July 1, 2026: Deadline for Phase 2 baseline PFAS testing under the 3M settlement. Results must be submitted within 45 days of receipt and no later than this date.⁸
July 31, 2026: Deadline to submit Phase 2 Action Fund Claims Forms for 3M and the Phase 2 Public Water System Claims Form for both 3M and DuPont.⁹
August 1, 2026: Deadline for Phase 2 Special Needs Fund Claims for both 3M and DuPont.⁹
December 31, 2030: Final deadline for Phase 1 and Phase 2 Supplemental Fund Claims across all defendant settlements.⁹

Claims can be filed online at participation.pfaswatersettlement.com or mailed to the claims administrator, EisnerAmper, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Claimants must submit PFAS test results from an accredited laboratory covering at least the analytes required under the EPA’s fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule. Individual award amounts will not be calculated until the administrator analyzes all submissions after the deadlines close.⁸

The Natural Resources Defense Council has warned that billions could go unclaimed, saying many smaller Phase 2 systems may miss deadlines or rely on poorly informed third-party firms to handle the paperwork.¹⁰

Money Is Already Moving

Phase 1 payments began reaching municipalities and public water providers in the summer of 2025.¹¹ New Hampshire received an initial 3M payment of roughly $7.96 million in September 2025, the first installment of an estimated $56 million Phase 1 allocation, with a second, larger payment expected near the end of 2025 and smaller annual installments running through 2033.¹² Sacramento, California, has secured approximately $10.4 million.

Personal Injury Cases: Still Waiting for a Trial

Individual plaintiffs are on a slower track. More than 15,200 personal injury cases are pending in MDL 2873 as of early 2026, with roughly 500 new filings arriving each month.¹³ There is no global settlement.

The court has designated six priority health conditions for personal injury claims: kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, thyroid cancer, ulcerative colitis, and liver cancer.¹⁴ To qualify, plaintiffs must have one of these diagnoses and show direct exposure to aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) or residence in an area with contaminated drinking water.

The first bellwether trial was originally set for October 20, 2025, and was limited to kidney cancer with up to three individual plaintiffs.¹⁵ Judge Gergel postponed it indefinitely to allow filing and vetting of a backlog of claims.¹⁴ As of May 2026, the trial remains off-calendar and a new date is still being negotiated.¹³

Twenty-eight personal injury bellwether cases have been selected: eight kidney cancer, eight testicular cancer, eight thyroid disease, and four ulcerative colitis. All are moving through case-specific discovery.¹³ The court is also running compliance reviews under its case management order and dismissing plaintiffs who fail to provide required fact sheets. With no verdict and no global deal, projected payouts remain speculative.

Kidde-Fenwal Bankruptcy

One defendant is in a different posture. Kidde-Fenwal, Inc., which sold an AFFF product called National Foam from 2007 to 2013, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on May 14, 2023, facing more than 4,400 lawsuits and over $1 billion in estimated liability against total assets of about $318 million.¹⁶ In September 2023, the bankruptcy judge extended the deadline for Kidde-Fenwal to file a reorganization plan, and creditors have argued the proceedings should not shield parent company Carrier Global or predecessor Raytheon from contamination claims.¹⁷

EPA Proposes Rolling Back Parts of the 2024 Drinking Water Rule

In May 2026, the EPA proposed two significant changes to the PFAS drinking water standards it finalized in April 2024.

First, the agency proposed pushing the compliance deadline for its PFOA and PFOS maximum contaminant levels — both set at 4.0 parts per trillion — from April 2029 to April 2031. Water systems would have to request the extension, and any system with PFOA or PFOS at or above 12 parts per trillion would be required to put short-term mitigation measures in place during the extension.¹⁸

Second, the EPA proposed rescinding the MCLs for four other PFAS compounds: PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA (GenX), and a hazard index for mixtures including PFBS. The agency said its 2024 approach of issuing regulatory determinations and drinking water standards at the same time was procedurally “unlawful” under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which it now reads as requiring a determination first and a separate rulemaking after.¹⁹ The EPA cited the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which cut back judicial deference to agency statutory interpretations, in support of its revised reading.

Comments on both proposals are open until July 20, 2026, with a virtual public hearing on July 7.¹⁸ The PFOA and PFOS standards themselves are not being withdrawn, and the agency said it will continue to defend them in court.

The Separate Challenge From Water Associations

The 2024 rule is also being challenged in court. The American Water Works Association and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies sued the EPA in June 2024, arguing the agency failed to use the best available science by finalizing standards before results came in from its own Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule.²⁰ The associations say they support PFOA and PFOS standards but contend the rule has procedural flaws and a flawed cost-benefit analysis. In January 2026, the court rejected the Trump administration’s request to partially vacate the regulations for the four non-PFOA/PFOS compounds.⁷ Final briefs were filed in March 2026, and the case is pending.

State Action Is Picking Up

States are not waiting on the federal picture. In April 2026, the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board voted unanimously to classify discarded AFFF containing PFAS as hazardous waste, the first such designation in the country.²¹ The rule follows House Bill 140, passed in 2025, and gives the New Mexico Environment Department authority to require cleanup after AFFF deployments and to require inventory reporting from facilities storing the foam, including military bases, airports, and oil and gas sites. One driver is the state’s position against the U.S. Department of Defense, which operates Cannon Air Force Base and Holloman Air Force Base; a state study found PFAS in the blood of 99.7% of participants living or working near Cannon.²²

Several state consumer product deadlines are approaching:

July 1, 2026 (Connecticut): Manufacturers must notify retailers before selling apparel, cosmetics, and other products with intentionally added PFAS.
September 15, 2026 (Minnesota): Mandatory reporting for products with intentionally added PFAS.
December 19, 2026 (New York): Prohibition on selling menstrual products with intentionally added PFAS.
January 1, 2027: Sales prohibitions on intentionally added PFAS take effect in New Mexico and Rhode Island across various product categories, and California tightens its textile PFAS threshold to 50 parts per million.²³

1
3M. 3M Settlement With Public Water Suppliers to Address PFAS
2
Manufacturing Dive. 3M PFAS Water Supply Contamination Settlement Final Approval
3
ASDWA. Judge Approves Settlement Requiring DuPont Chemours and Corteva to Pay $1.1 Billion in PFAS Contamination Suit
4
DuPont. Chemours DuPont and Corteva Reach Comprehensive PFAS Settlement With US Water Systems
5
ConsumerNotice.org. Judge Approves Major PFAS Settlements for BASF Tyco Fire Products
6
BASF. Risks From Litigation
7
National League of Cities. PFAS Settlement Deadlines Updated How to Secure Your City’s Share of Funding
8
PFAS Water Settlement. 3M Frequently Asked Questions
9
PFAS Water Settlement. PFAS Water Settlement Home
10
NRDC. PFAS Settlement Money Water Utilities Poised Evaporate
11
National League of Cities. How PFAS Settlements and Litigation Are Helping Communities Close Infrastructure Funding Gaps
12
New Hampshire DOJ. New Hampshire Receives First PFAS Settlement Payment Nearly $8 Million 3M Company
13
MDL Update. MDL 2873 Aqueous Film-Forming Foams
14
Fox 9. 3M PFAS Trial Delayed More Health Claims Filed
15
Society of Environmental Journalists. First US Trial Over PFAS Injuries Focus Kidney Cancer
16
MGM Law. Fire Control Business Kidde Fenwal Files for Bankruptcy Amid Rising PFAS Litigation
17
ELG Law. Kidde Fire Fighting
18
EPA. Proposed PFOA and PFOS Compliance Extension Rule
19
Federal Register. Rescission of Regulatory Determinations and Removal of Related Provisions for Four PFAS Substances
20
AMWA. PFAS Litigation Information
21
Source NM. New Mexico Environment Officials Adopt Rules for Firefighting Foams Containing PFAS
22
KRQE. NMED Now Able to Require Cleanup of Firefighting Foam Containing Forever Chemicals
23
DLA Piper. 2026 Mid-Year PFAS Update