COLUMBUS — Ohio is finally set to distribute $65 million in funds stemming from a 2023 environmental restoration settlement with DuPont over forever chemical contamination.
The payment of the settlement money, which stemmed from a lawsuit filed in 2018 by then-Attorney General, now Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, was held up due to legal appeals but was released April 6 by the Ohio Controlling Board.
“Access to safe drinking water is essential for every Ohio community,” DeWine said in a statement, announcing the release of the funds. “These funding awards will be used to make critical improvements to local water systems that will protect public health and strengthen drinking water infrastructure for years to come.”
Settlement money will be given to Belmont, Gallia, Lawrence, Meigs, Morgan and Washington counties to support local drinking water infrastructure projects in over a dozen communities.
The landmark lawsuit accused DuPont of releasing perfluorooctanoic acid, a type of per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) chemical known commonly as PFOA or C8, into the air and the Ohio River from its Washington Works facility in Parkersburg, West Virginia, despite knowing the risks the chemical poses to environmental and public health.
Ohio was the first state to legally challenge DuPont for its use of PFOA, which was used in household items from the 1950s to 2013.
The company has been leaking PFAS into the Ohio River for decades, one of the first known polluters to do so, and is still doing so. In August 2025, a United States federal judge ordered Chemours’s Washington Works plant, formerly DuPont, to stop releasing unlawful amounts of PFAS into the Ohio River.
These new water projects will include creating new drinking water sources, connecting smaller water systems to larger regional systems, installing treatment infrastructure to remove PFAS from public water systems and connecting private wells with PFAS to public water sources.
Related content:
Forever chemicals, once a hidden threat, may lurk in groundwater, soil
Not the end: Testing, support could help farmers navigate PFAS
