Water Contamination Lawsuit: PFAS Settlements and Injury Claims

A water contamination lawsuit today almost always means one of two things: a claim tied to PFAS “forever chemicals” consolidated in federal multidistrict litigation in South Carolina, or a Camp Lejeune claim brought by someone exposed to contaminated water at the North Carolina Marine base. The PFAS litigation has already produced more than $14 billion in settlements for public water systems and is now moving toward trials on personal injury claims for cancers and other diseases. The Camp Lejeune track covers roughly 408,860 administrative claims and about 3,718 federal lawsuits, with settlements ranging from $100,000 to $550,000 per person.¹

Who Can File a PFAS Personal Injury Claim

Individuals who drank from a PFAS-contaminated water supply and later developed a qualifying illness may be eligible. The MDL in South Carolina recognizes six “listed claims” for personal injury: kidney cancer, testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, liver cancer, and thyroid cancer.²³⁴

A viable claim needs three things: proof of exposure, a qualifying diagnosis, and evidence connecting the two. In practice that means medical records with a confirmed diagnosis and treatment history, exposure evidence (residence or work history near a contamination site, water quality reports, military service records, or employer logs showing proximity to aqueous film-forming foam), and expert support linking the diagnosis to PFAS.⁵

Eligible plaintiffs tend to fall into four groups: residents who lived near contaminated water sources, military personnel stationed at affected bases, firefighters who used AFFF or wore PFAS-containing gear, and workers at plants where the chemicals were manufactured or used.⁶ Statutes of limitations vary by state, and many states apply a discovery rule that starts the clock when a person learns of the injury or its cause rather than when exposure occurred.⁵

A ruling in Hardwick v. 3M Co. raised the bar at the pleading stage: individual plaintiffs must now show a “plausible pathway” explaining how each named defendant’s product delivered PFAS to their body, rather than relying on generalized exposure.⁷

Private Well Owners

The large 3M and DuPont class settlements cover public water systems only. Homeowners on private wells are excluded and generally must pursue separate litigation. Private wells are not monitored like public systems, so contamination can go undetected for years. Attorneys handling these cases have advised owners to consult counsel before independently testing their water, so results and chain of custody are preserved for use in litigation.⁸

What the PFAS Settlements Already Cover

The multibillion-dollar deals announced in 2023 and 2024 resolved claims brought by water utilities for testing and cleanup costs. They did not resolve any personal injury claim. An individual who got sick is not compensated by these settlements, and water utilities are the only class members.

3M agreed to pay between $10.5 billion and $12.5 billion over 13 years, with a pre-tax present value of $10.3 billion and payments beginning in the third quarter of 2024. The court granted final approval on March 29, 2024, and the class covers every active public water system in the United States that has detected PFAS at any level or that may detect it in the future.⁹ DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva together agreed to pay $1.185 billion into a water-supplier fund, with the settlement effective April 17, 2024.¹⁰ Tyco Fire Products agreed to $750 million in April 2024 and BASF to $315.5 million in May 2024, both receiving final approval on November 22, 2024.¹¹ A separate $875 million agreement between Chemours, DuPont, Corteva and the State of New Jersey, announced in August 2025, resolves state environmental claims and is structured over 25 years.¹²

2026 Deadlines for Water Utilities

The settlements are divided into two phases. Phase 1 covers systems that detected PFAS before June 2023; Phase 2 covers those that detected it afterward (and, for the 3M settlement, serve more than 3,300 people). Missing a Phase 2 deadline means forfeiting the right to collect and, in most cases, the right to sue 3M or DuPont over drinking water contamination later.¹³

March 31, 2026: testing claims deadline (3M settlement).
June 30, 2026: final claims form deadline for the DuPont settlement.
July 1, 2026: baseline testing data submission deadline (3M settlement).
July 31, 2026: Action Fund claims form deadline (3M settlement).
August 1, 2026: Special Needs Fund claims forms for both 3M and DuPont settlements.

Claims go through the official settlement portal or by mail to the claims administrator in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Systems generally have 45 days after detecting PFAS to file, absent extraordinary circumstances.¹⁴

Where Personal Injury Cases Stand

The federal consolidation is MDL No. 2:18-mn-02873-RMG, before Judge Richard M. Gergel in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.¹⁵ As of May 2026, 15,232 cases remain pending out of roughly 19,800 filed.³ Named defendants include 3M, DuPont, Chemours, Corteva, Tyco Fire Products, BASF, Arkema, Dynax, Kidde-Fenwal, AGC Chemicals Americas, and Carrier Global.¹⁶

The court selected 28 personal injury bellwether cases covering the four core conditions now in discovery. A trial previously set for October 20, 2025 was vacated when the court issued Case Management Order No. 35 in August 2025 to manage a flood of new filings, and a new trial date is under negotiation. A “Science Day” on liver and thyroid cancer was held in June 2025, with expert report deadlines set for those conditions.² Attorneys involved have said they expect a potential global personal injury resolution in 2026 or 2027, with individual claim values projected between $200,000 and over $1 million depending on severity.³

The Filing Window Has Closed; Later Filings Face Stricter Rules

Under Case Management Orders 35 and 37, the court ran a filing facilitation window from March 1, 2025 to September 10, 2025. During that window, plaintiffs could bundle up to 150 unrelated claimants on a single short-form complaint. Cases filed after the window closed face materially stricter requirements: complete medical records must be served within 90 days and expert disclosures within 120 days of filing. Noncompliant cases can be dismissed, with refiling permitted only within the MDL under the terms of CMO 35.²¹⁷ A new claimant filing in 2026 should expect to produce complete medical records and expert support quickly after filing.

Camp Lejeune: A Separate Track

Marines, their families, and civilian workers exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina between the 1950s and 1980s file under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act, enacted as part of the PACT Act signed August 10, 2022. The act opened a two-year window for administrative claims against the Navy. By the August 2024 deadline, 408,860 claims had been filed, and the window to file new administrative claims is now closed.¹

As of early 2026, 3,718 victims had also filed lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, where four federal judges oversee the litigation. The Department of Justice introduced a voluntary settlement option in September 2023 offering between $100,000 and $550,000 per individual depending on length of exposure and illness severity. By March 2026, DOJ had approved settlements for 2,353 victims, with approved offers totaling $691.3 million and cumulative payouts of roughly $708 million.¹¹⁸

Twenty-five “Track 1” bellwether cases covering bladder cancer, kidney cancer, leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and Parkinson’s disease are expected to go to trial later in 2026, pending resolution of pretrial motions on expert testimony. In March 2026 a federal judge struck reports from a DOJ expert, finding her revisions too extensive to qualify as corrections, and the judges have ruled against government motions to delay.¹

Federal Rules Shaping the Cases

On April 10, 2024 the EPA finalized the first national drinking water limits for six PFAS compounds, setting maximum contaminant levels of 4 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS and 10 parts per trillion for PFHxS, PFNA, and HFPO-DA (GenX chemicals). Public water systems must complete initial monitoring by 2027 and install treatment to meet the limits by 2029.¹⁹²⁰²¹

On July 8, 2024, EPA’s designation of PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under the Superfund law (CERCLA) took effect, triggering “strict, retroactive, joint and several” liability for potentially responsible parties and giving EPA cost-recovery authority to compel polluters to investigate and pay for cleanup.²²

State and Local Suits

State attorneys general and local water districts are pursuing their own cases alongside the federal MDL. California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued 3M, DuPont, and other manufacturers in November 2022, seeking funds for statewide water treatment, environmental testing, medical monitoring, and safe disposal. In January 2024, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong filed two suits against 28 manufacturers, alleging the companies buried internal research dating to the 1950s and formed a “Fire Fighting Foam Coalition” in 2001 to protect their products from regulatory scrutiny.²³ In April 2024, fifteen California cities and water districts filed Orange County Water District v. AGC Chemicals Americas, targeting eight manufacturers to recover groundwater cleanup costs.²⁴ The set of defendants keeps widening to include AFFF users, consumer product companies, and retailers selling PFAS-containing goods under their own labels.⁷

1
Roll Call. Victims of Camp Lejeune’s Tainted Water Inch Closer to Amends
2
U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. Case Management Order No. 35
3
MDL Update. Aqueous Film-Forming Foams MDL 2873
4
National Kidney Foundation. Forever Chemicals (PFAS) and Kidney Health
5
Drugwatch. PFAS Water Contamination Lawsuits
6
Drugwatch. PFAS Water Contamination Settlements
7
Hinshaw & Culbertson. An Updated Primer on PFAS Claims, Regulation, Litigation, and Insurance Coverage Issues
8
Greenstein & Pittari, LLP. Long Island PFAS Lawsuit: Check Your Eligibility
9
3M Investor Relations. 3M Settlement With Public Water Suppliers to Address PFAS
10
PFAS Water Settlement. DuPont Frequently Asked Questions
11
Keller Rohrback. AFFF PFAS Liability Litigation
12
Chemours. Chemours, DuPont, and Corteva Reach Agreement With the State of New Jersey
13
National League of Cities. PFAS Settlement Deadlines Updated: How to Secure Your City’s Share of Funding
14
PFAS Water Settlement. 3M Public Water Systems Settlement
15
U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. MDL 2873 Information Page
16
TorHoerman Law. Which AFFF Manufacturers Are Named in the AFFF Lawsuits
17
Nigh Goldenberg Raso & Vaughn. Case Management Order No. 37
18
Miller & Zois. Camp Lejeune Lawsuit Settlement
19
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)
20
Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies. PFAS Litigation Information
21
NRDC. PFAS Settlement Money for Water Utilities Poised to Evaporate
22
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Designation of PFOA and PFOS as CERCLA Hazardous Substances
23
Connecticut Attorney General. AG Tong Sues 28 Chemical Manufacturers for PFAS Contamination
24
FBM. Fifteen California Cities and Water Districts File a Lawsuit