{"id":202841,"date":"2026-05-26T20:46:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/202841\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T20:46:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:46:40","slug":"forever-chemicals-settlements-to-bring-millions-to-allentown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/202841\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Forever chemicals’ settlements to bring millions to Allentown"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 The city is set to receive millions of dollars from some of the world\u2019s largest chemical makers over \u201cforever chemicals\u201d in one of its main water sources.<\/p>\n

3M in 2023 agreed to pay $10.3 billion<\/a> to settle lawsuits from hundreds of public water systems contaminated by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.<\/p>\n

Allentown stands to get more than $2.6 million from the Minnesota-based industrial giant. <\/p>\n

The money represents just two of 10 expected payments for Allentown.<\/p>\n

Memo from Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk\u2019s office to City Council<\/p>\n

That money represents just two of 10 expected payments for Allentown, according to a memo from Mayor Matt Tuerk\u2019s office to City Council.<\/p>\n

Annual payments are scheduled to continue through 2033, the memo states.<\/p>\n

And DuPont and spinoffs Chemours and Corteva, as part of a cost-sharing agreement, will pay the city almost a half-million dollars. <\/p>\n

Council this month introduced a measure to accept the money. Members are likely to pass that bill at their next meeting Wednesday.<\/p>\n

New treatment facility in the works<\/p>\n

The funding is earmarked to help pay for a $20 million facility to treat water from Crystal Spring, one of Allentown\u2019s four major water sources, according to Tuerk\u2019s memo.<\/p>\n

Sampling results from the spring exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s strict limits for PFAS in drinking water \u2014 four parts per trillion. <\/p>\n

One part per trillion is equivalent to one drop of water in 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.<\/p>\n

The Lehigh County Authority said its tests found<\/a> 3.1-4.6 parts per trillion of perfluoropentanoic acid (PFPeA) in Allentown\u2019s water, as well as up to 3.1 parts per trillion of perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA).<\/p>\n

The same forever chemicals \u2014 and three others \u2014 were detected in drinking water in the LCA\u2019s Central Lehigh Division, according to the authority.<\/p>\n

\"EPA<\/p>\n

Screenshot<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

“PFAS Explained” Environmental Protection Agency<\/p>\n

Most people in the U.S. have been exposed to some PFAS, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n

The Lehigh County Authority\u2019s draft five-year capital plan for 2026-30<\/a> says the organization\u2019s \u201cnext step is to design and construct a treatment facility for Crystal Spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project should be done by the end of 2027, according to the draft plan. <\/p>\n

A 2019 survey of the prevalence and distribution of PFAS<\/a> in Pennsylvania found about three-quarters of the 161 streams studied contained at least one form of \u201cforever chemicals.\u201d<\/p>\n

PFAS have been dubbed \u201cforever chemicals\u201d<\/a> because they are incredibly slow to break down. They have been linked to a variety of health problems, including liver and immune-system damage and some cancers.<\/p>\n

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article said DuPont was now known as Chemours\/Corteva. Those two companies were spun off from DuPont over the past decade. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 The city is set to receive millions of dollars from some of the world\u2019s largest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,89534,89535,89538,121,120,89536,89537,89539,20030],"class_list":["post-202841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-3m-payments","tag-allentown-crystal-spring","tag-allentown-forever-chemicals","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-pfas","tag-allentown-pfas-settlement-money","tag-allentown-water-pfas","tag-lehigh-county-authority"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}