$12.5 Billion 3M PFAS Settlement: Paul Napoli Secures Largest Drinking-Water Recovery in U.S. History

For generations, aqueous film-forming foam was the go-to suppression agent at military installations, commercial airports, and industrial fire-training sites across the United States. It extinguished fuel fires fast. But the chemistry behind that effectiveness carried a hidden cost. The foam contained per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a class of synthetic compounds that resist breakdown in soil, water, and the human body. Over decades, those compounds leached from training grounds and spill sites into groundwater, then into the distribution systems that deliver drinking water to millions of American households.

Public water utilities began detecting PFAS in their supply wells and treatment plants. Removing the contamination required costly filtration upgrades and long-term monitoring programs that strained municipal budgets. Utilities from coast to coast filed suit against the manufacturers that had produced and sold AFFF products for decades. The federal cases were consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina as In Re: Aqueous Film-Forming Foam Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2873, assigned to Judge Richard M. Gergel.

Judge Gergel appointed a leadership structure to manage litigation on behalf of thousands of plaintiff water systems. Paul J. Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik was named a court-appointed co-lead plaintiffs' counsel, placing him at the command of one of the most complex environmental tort dockets in federal court history. In that role, Napoli oversaw discovery, expert strategy, and settlement negotiations across multiple defendant tracks simultaneously.

3M Company, a primary manufacturer of PFAS-based firefighting foam chemistry, was among the largest targets. Negotiations produced a settlement agreement announced in June 2023 under which 3M committed to pay between $10.5 billion and $12.5 billion, with the final figure scaling based on participation by eligible water systems. The settlement class covered public water systems that had detected PFAS at any level or that anticipated doing so. Judge Gergel granted final approval on March 29, 2024. Payments are structured to run from the third quarter of 2024 through 2036. The agreement does not resolve personal injury claims or state natural resource suits against 3M.

The 3M settlement was one of four major AFFF recoveries the co-lead team secured in MDL 2873. Law360 recognized Napoli as a 2024 Environmental MVP, citing the four settlements with 3M, Tyco Fire Products, DuPont and its spin-offs, and BASF Corporation, collectively representing billions of dollars directed toward PFAS remediation at public water systems nationwide. At $12.5 billion, the 3M agreement stands as the largest recovery ever obtained for drinking-water contamination in United States legal history.