On Friday, three major chemical companies agreed to contribute $1.19 billion to a fund to settle lawsuits filed by water utilities across the country alleging they contaminated drinking water supplies with perfluorinated and polyfluorinated chemicals.

The announcement comes amid a growing number of lawsuits filed by state governments, environmental advocacy groups, water utilities, and others alleging that Chemours, DuPont, and Corteva are poisoning the environment and causing illness in people who have been exposed to PFAS for long periods.

Seven years after the Wilmington Star first published a story about GenX compounds deposited by Chemours, a DuPont subsidiary, in the Cape Fear River, the settlement has been met with skepticism by many in the environmental community.

"I'm very concerned about this because the lawyers are going to make a lot of money off of contaminated communities and it's easy for the big chemical companies to get off," said Dana Sargent, executive director of Cape Fear River Watch, an environmental advocacy group based in Wilmington.

In 2018, Cape Fear River Watch sued Chemours for discharging the chemical companies GenX into the Cape Fear River. The action resulted in a consent order between Cape Fear River Watch, Chemours, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

The order requires Chemours to develop and execute PFAS remediation plans for affected Lower Point Fell River Basin communities to remediate contaminated air, soil, and water

The area includes New Hanover, Brunswick, Columbus, and Pender counties. Like many critics, Sargent argues that the money pledged represents only a fraction of what is needed to address the national problem.

Sargent said: "This settlement falls far short of the amount needed to make up for the damage they have caused. They are standing out; Their stock has gone up because their shareholders see it as a liability issue.". "To the best of my knowledge, I am grateful that Lower Cape Fear Utilities did not participate in this settlement."

Since the 1940s, perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFAS) - known as a "permanent chemical" because of its persistence in the environment and the human body - has been used to make products that are resistant to oil and water, as well as products that are heat resistant and reduce friction.

More than 12,000 PFOS compounds are almost universally present in non-stick cookware, cosmetics, cleaning products, dental floss, waterproof clothing, and textiles, as well as some firefighting foams and firefighting gear.

While there is no conclusive evidence that PFAS poses a risk to human health, a growing body of research suggests a link between long-term exposure to permanent chemicals and diminished antibody response to infection in adults and children, elevated cholesterol levels, reduced growth in infants and fetuses, and kidney and testicular cancers in adults.