Chemours and DuPont, its former owner, have agreed to pay $671 million to resolve multidistrict litigation in Ohio federal court alleging DuPont improperly released cancer causing chemicals into the Ohio River. There were over 3,400 lawsuits in the multidistrict litigation pending against DuPont over the contamination. 

The case dates back to a 2001 class action, which alleged DuPont contaminated the drinking supply of 70,000 people. The settlement was reached after three trials awarded damages to plaintiffs who said DuPont’s decades of releasing former Teflon ingredient C8, or PFOA, into air and water from its plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

The settlement comes five weeks after a federal jury in Columbus, Ohio, awarded truck driver Keith Vigneron $10.5 million in punitive damages for his testicular cancer, which Vigneron blamed on releases from the Parkersburg plant.  The jury had previously awarded Vigneron $2 million in compensatory damages.

Chemours and DuPont will each pay $335.35 million for the cases, plus each will pay up to $25 million a year for potential future claims.  For the next five years, Chemours pays the first $25 million in new claims, and DuPont pays the next $25 million.  The settlement also resolves all indemnification obligations between Chemours and DuPont for all of the claims.