DES MOINES, Iowa — In late July 2025, Des Moines Water Works was informed that the utility would receive $9.7 million in a multi-district litigation case involving 3M and DuPont.

The lawsuit stems back from 2023, where several public water systems across multiple states took action against the two companies. Those taking part in the settlement, including DMWW, alleged that they have suffered harm from the presence of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAs) in drinking water sources. These “forever chemicals” are used in products across the board, some that resist heat, oil, stains, and are in firefighting foam. These chemicals have been linked to cancers, issues with pregnant women and infants and child development.

3M, DuPont, Tyco and BASF have to pay out $12.5 billion in the gross settlement fund, $10.3 billion from 3M, $1.185 from DuPont, $750 million from Tyco and $316.5 million from BASF.

3M is paying out the sum to Des Moines Water Works over a nine-year period, with the first payment taking place this year. That will be an estimated $1.5 million according to an estimate from the Des Moines Water Works Board of Trustees. At the meeting on Tuesday night, no action was taken on the settlement amount, but it had been made public the amount the utility would receive.

It was estimated that the initial settlement would total $17 million from 3M, but the final amount came in considerably lower than that.

“Where the flow rates and the amount of flow that each of the water producers that had submitted claims had from water sources that were contaminated and the amount of contamination so those two factors primarily are what impact settlement award,” said John Lande, DMWW legal counsel from Dickinson, Bradshaw, Fowler & Hagen, P.C. “It is not really possible to know exactly why our award deviated from the good faith estimate as much as it did, other than speculating that there were more claims with higher concentrations and higher flows than was initially anticipated.”

The funds will be used for damages sustained while trying to mitigate the PFAs in drinking water sources.

There are more utilities in cities all across the state that are slowly being awarded these settlements. The Iowa DNR has been sampling for PFAs in Iowa’s water ways since 2019. The department has a current map that shows where recent samples have neared or exceeded maximum contaminant levels. Currently there are 12 samples that are over the threshold in the state. But the Des Moines metro area does not have any recent samples that have shown PFAs by the Iowa DNR’s testing capabilities.

“What we’ve seen across the state is when we find a well that has high levels of PFAs, the communities have been taking those offline and utilizing other wells or digging new wells to replace those contaminated wells,” said Corey McCoid, the supervisor for Iowa DNR Water Supply Operations Section. “At this point, we haven’t really had anybody that’s installed treatment yet and that’s not required until 2031. So communities have some time yet to figure out what their options are.”

That timeline comes from new guidance from the Environmental Protection Agency setting new maximum contaminant levels in April 2024. By 2029 public water systems will have to implement solutions to reduce PFAs if monitoring shows that drinking water levels exceed the contaminant levels.

McCoid shared concern that smaller communities in Iowa that did not have the resources to join in the settlement may not have the resources to implement mitigation tactics for PFAs. He did add that there is a grant program that utilities can apply for, as the DNR has been given roughly $45 million from the federal government to implement these treatments.

The Iowa DNR has a drinking water portal that is accessible to the public if people want to learn more about the sampling of drinking water systems in the state.