States Seek Strategies as PFAS Cleanups Exceed Settlement Funds

Financial strategies to pay for PFAS cleanups across the US are needed, state officials say, because the “polluter pays” model that holds parties financially accountable for their pollution won’t generate enough money alone.

Minnesota and Ohio are among the few states to have received significant settlements from companies alleged to have caused extensive per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination. But statewide cleanups will require more money, top environmental officials from both states said in recent interviews.

“Every day that goes by, we know that more money is needed” to serve communities beyond the region the settlement was intended to cover, said Katrina Kessler, commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). The state received $850 million in 2018 from the 3M Co.

“How do you as a society provide clean drinking water to people when they have been told they have too much PFAS in their drinking water and there is no pot of money to address it, and it’s not clear that there is one responsible entity,” she said.

The $110 million settlement Ohio received in 2023 from companies tied historically to the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. is a very small down payment, said John Logue, director of the state’s Environmental Protection Agency. The money will make a pretty significant impact in the six counties the settlement focused on, but Ohio has 88 counties, he said. “The overall issue is much bigger.”

Emerging cleanup technologies may help, Logue said. But the money to use them will have to come from a mosaic of sources including settlements, state appropriations, and state revolving loan funds, he said.

Most states and the federal government have laws holding polluters financially responsible for pollution they generated. But PFAS are so ubiquitous, specific responsible parties may not exist, presenting a challenge for states. Landfill leachate, the liquid that percolates through wastes, and wastewater-generated sludge, or “biosolids,” spread on land are among those sources.

States may need to think about regionally managing small wastewater facilities that struggle to cope with the chemicals, and Congress, federal agencies, states, and other parties could think of new funding sources for PFAS, perhaps something similar to state revolving funds, Kessler said.

But, Congress hasn’t increased appropriations for state revolving funds for years, “and this current administration is proposing essentially nothing,” Kessler said. The Trump administration’s budget would end state revolving funds, saying states should be responsible for financing their own water infrastructure projects.

What’s needed is a whole of government approach, she said. “Thinking creatively and comprehensively about the breadth of the challenge, the cost to address the challenge, and how to come up with the money to address that challenge. I think that’s what’s called for at this moment.”

Costs of Cleanup

Minnesota’s settlement with 3M secured about $700 million for drinking water expenditures and $20 million for natural resource projects after legal and other expenses were paid, according to information MPCA provided.

The drinking water funds increased over time due to interest, but as of Dec. 31, 2025, $637 million has been spent or encumbered. That leaves $217 million remaining, which will run out in the coming years, MPCA said.

Using state funds, MPCA has tackled some needs outside the East Metro area of St. Paul and Minneapolis the settlement covered. These include awarding about $20.5 million for 14 design projects and spending $4.5 million for site investigations near impacted community water systems. But funding has fallen behind site investigation needs, and more $200 million more is needed to fund community drinking water expenses for PFAS contamination projects, the agency said.

And none of that addresses other sources of PFAS including wastewater facilities and landfills, Kessler said. MPCA estimates the total cost of treating PFAS entering wastewater treatment facilities statewide ranges between $14 billion and $18 billion, she said.

Ohio received $85 million from its settlement after legal costs, Logue said. Of that, $65 million will soon begin to be spent treating drinking water contaminated by the Washington Works plant in West Virginia. That factory, which was owned by historic DuPont and now belongs to the Chemours Co., released PFAS into the Ohio River that supplies drinking water, the state maintains.

About $13.6 million will be spent managing aqueous film forming foam, a PFAS-enabled fire suppressant, and about $3.4 million will be used to mitigate natural resource damages, Logue said.

‘Failure of Leadership’

Many other states, including New Mexico, haven’t gotten an infusion of settlement funds.

The Department of Defense concedes Cannon Air Force Base has contaminated the Ogallala Aquifer, the sole source of water in an eastern portion of New Mexico. The state has spent years in lawsuits and negotiations over the scope, speed, and costs of cleanups, although it and the Air Force recently announced an agreement on off-site investigations.

Still, delays mean the plume has moved, affecting more farms, residents, and property owners, reducing land value and local tax revenues, and ballooning the ultimate cleanup costs, said James Kenney, secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department.

To date, costs have been covered by the legislature using taxpayers’ dollars and fees received from facilities with hazardous waste permits, he said. But as states face higher cleanup costs, they’ll likely have to increase permit or other fees, Kenney said. “What happens in Washington around the President’s budget may actually result in businesses picking up the slack for federal disinvestment.”

Congress needs to exercise oversight and ask federal agencies with PFAS-contaminated sites why they aren’t cleaning up those sites more aggressively, he said referring to postponed actions at about 140 sites, which the Pentagon quietly posted online last year, including a six-year delay at Cannon.

The absence of discussion over ways to fund the total costs of PFAS cleanup represents a failure of leadership, Kessler said at an American Bar Association conference in April. “What keeps me up at night is the question ‘who is going to pay for this?’”