Wilmington PFAS & GenX Water Contamination: Your Family’s Legal Rights in New Hanover County
You just learned your well water has forever chemicals in it. Not a trace level — more than 75 percent of the private wells tested in your part of New Hanover County came back above the health-based limit for PFAS compounds. The governor came to Wilmington to announce $17 million to connect more than 300 homes to clean public water, and that investment is real and necessary. But the grant addresses tomorrow’s water. It does nothing about the years your family has already been drinking, cooking with, and bathing in water carrying chemicals that do not break down — not in the environment, and not inside your body.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm. We handle toxic tort cases, and we are writing this for one person: someone in New Hanover County who just heard about the grant announcement, who has a private well that tested positive, and who is sitting at a kitchen table right now wondering whether those years of contaminated water have anything to do with a diagnosis, a symptom, or a fear they have been carrying. They do. And your legal rights are entirely separate from the lawsuit the State of North Carolina has already filed against the companies responsible.
The $17 Million Announcement and What It Means for Your Family
On March 5, 2026, Governor Josh Stein stood at the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s Sweeney Water Treatment Plant in Wilmington and announced $17 million in grants to extend public water lines to more than 300 homes whose private wells are contaminated with PFAS and GenX. The funding comes through the EPA’s Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities program, administered by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. The announcement also highlighted $192.8 million in total state support for CFPUA’s Southside Water Reclamation Facility replacement and over $1.4 billion in broader water infrastructure investments.
“When families turn on the tap, they deserve to know that their water is clean and safe.”
That is what Governor Stein said in Wilmington. He is right. But the grant program is about infrastructure — connecting homes to a treated public water supply. It is not about accountability for the years of exposure that already happened. It is not about medical monitoring for the conditions PFAS is associated with. It is not about compensation for a family whose water was contaminated without their knowledge or consent. And it is not about the property value you may have lost because your well carries a chemical label no buyer wants to hear.
The governor also noted that when he was Attorney General, he sued DuPont and Chemours for contaminating the Cape Fear River with forever chemicals, and filed lawsuits against more than a dozen PFAS users and dischargers across North Carolina. Those cases remain in the courts. That state litigation is important — but it is the State of North Carolina’s case, seeking remedies on behalf of the public. It does not file your individual claim. It does not preserve your evidence. It does not test your blood. And it does not compensate your family for the specific harm you have suffered.
That is a separate fight. And it is yours to bring.
What PFAS and GenX Actually Are — and Why They’re Called “Forever Chemicals”
PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. They are a family of thousands of synthetic chemicals used in industrial processes, firefighting foam, non-stick coatings, stain-resistant fabrics, and food packaging since the mid-twentieth century. They are called “forever chemicals” for a precise chemical reason: the carbon-fluorine bond that defines them is one of the strongest in organic chemistry. The environment cannot break it. The human body cannot break it. Once PFAS enters a water supply, a river, a food chain, or a bloodstream, it stays — for years, for decades, potentially for a lifetime.
GenX is a specific PFAS compound — technically, HFPO-DA (hexafluoropropylene oxide-dimer acid) — that was developed by Chemours as a replacement for PFOA (one of the older, more studied PFAS compounds). The name “GenX” comes from the marketing of a new generation of fluoropolymers. But GenX is not a solution to the PFAS problem. It is a newer version of the same class of chemistry, with many of the same persistence and bioaccumulation properties, and it is the signature contaminant in the Cape Fear River Basin.
Here is what makes PFAS different from most other water contaminants, and why the legal and medical stakes are so high:
PFAS compounds are bioaccumulative. They build up in the body over time. Unlike many waterborne chemicals that pass through, PFAS binds to proteins in the blood and concentrates in the liver and kidneys. The human half-life of some PFAS compounds — the time it takes for the body to eliminate half of what it holds — is measured in years. Not days. Not weeks. Years. That means every glass of well water you drank added to a load that your body is still carrying.
The federal government recognizes this danger. In April 2024, the EPA finalized National Primary Drinking Water Regulations setting enforceable limits for PFOA and PFOS at 4.0 parts per trillion — a concentration so small it is roughly equivalent to a single drop of chemical spread across twenty Olympic swimming pools. The EPA set the health-based goal — the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal — at zero. Zero. The agency’s own scientific determination is that there is no amount of PFOA or PFOS in drinking water that carries no health risk.
That is the regulatory backdrop against which the Cape Fear contamination sits. More than 75 percent of sampled private wells in the affected areas of New Hanover County exceeded health-based drinking water standards for certain PFAS compounds. These are not marginal exceedances in a few isolated wells. This is widespread, residential-scale contamination of the water people have been drinking in their own homes.
How Contamination from 100 Miles Upstream Reached Your Well
New Hanover County sits at the mouth of the Cape Fear River in southeastern North Carolina. Wilmington is its county seat and the largest municipality in the region. The Cape Fear River Basin is the state’s largest watershed, draining roughly 9,000-plus square miles across central and eastern North Carolina before emptying into the Atlantic near Wilmington. Everything that enters that river upstream — industrial discharges, runoff, groundwater contamination — travels downstream to the families at the mouth of the basin.
The primary source of PFAS and GenX contamination in this watershed traces to the Chemours Fayetteville Works facility, located in Bladen County approximately 100 river-miles north of Wilmington. The facility has been a fluoropolymer production site for decades — first under DuPont’s ownership, then under Chemours after the 2015 corporate spinoff. The discharges from this facility traveled down the Cape Fear River and into the groundwater systems that feed private wells throughout the basin.
There are two distinct exposure pathways for families in New Hanover County, and both matter:
The first is municipal water. CFPUA’s Sweeney Water Treatment Plant draws raw water from the Cape Fear River and serves the greater Wilmington area. Before 2022, the plant did not have granular activated carbon filtration designed to remove PFAS. That means if you were on CFPUA municipal water before the new filters came online in 2022, you were drinking Cape Fear River water that carried upstream industrial discharges. The utility has since stated that the new filters effectively remove GenX and other PFAS from public drinking water — but the years of exposure before that treatment was installed are the injury.
The second is private well water. If you are one of the more than 300 households identified in the grant program, your well draws from groundwater that has been contaminated by PFAS migration from the river and atmospheric deposition. More than 75 percent of sampled wells in the affected areas exceeded health-based standards. You have been drinking a documented contaminant without knowing it was there.
Both pathways trace back to the same industrial source. Both carry the same chemicals. Both expose your family to the same health risks. And both give rise to the same legal claims against the same corporate defendants.
The Health Effects: Six Conditions the Science Links to PFAS
The medical science on PFAS is not speculative. The most significant body of evidence comes from the C8 Science Panel — a group of independent epidemiologists appointed as part of a class-action settlement between DuPont and residents of the Mid-Ohio Valley who were exposed to PFOA-contaminated water from a DuPont plant in West Virginia. The panel spent years studying the health effects of PFOA exposure in a large human population and published its findings in 2012.
The C8 Science Panel found a “probable link” between PFOA and six specific health conditions:
Kidney cancer — including renal cell carcinoma, the most common form. The panel found a probable link between PFOA exposure and kidney cancer in the studied population. In 2024, the International Agency for Research on Cancer — the world’s leading cancer-science authority, part of the World Health Organization — classified PFOA as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning it is carcinogenic to humans based on sufficient evidence. That is the highest classification IARC assigns. It is the same category as asbestos, benzene, and tobacco smoke.
Testicular cancer — the C8 panel found a probable link between PFOA and testicular cancer. IARC’s assessment noted that the human evidence for testicular cancer was among the findings supporting the Group 1 classification.
Thyroid disease — the panel found a probable link between PFOA and thyroid disease, including altered thyroid hormone levels that can affect metabolism, energy, and development.
Ulcerative colitis — a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. The panel found a probable link between PFOA and ulcerative colitis, adding a gastrointestinal autoimmune condition to the list of PFAS-associated diseases.
Pregnancy-induced hypertension — including preeclampsia, a serious complication of pregnancy that can threaten both mother and child. The panel found a probable link between PFOA and pregnancy-induced hypertension.
High cholesterol — the panel found a probable link between PFOA and elevated cholesterol, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.
PFOS, a closely related PFAS compound, was classified by IARC as Group 2B — possibly carcinogenic to humans.
Now, here is the honest limit we must state plainly: a “probable link” finding from the C8 Science Panel is a general-causation determination — it means the science panel concluded that PFOA exposure is probably linked to these conditions in the studied population. It does not automatically prove that your specific diagnosis was caused by your specific exposure. That is the difference between general causation (the chemical can cause the disease) and specific causation (the chemical caused your disease). Proving specific causation is the hardest part of any PFAS personal injury case, and it is where the defense will fight hardest. But the general-causation science is strong, and the IARC Group 1 classification for PFOA is a powerful piece of that proof.
If you or a family member has been diagnosed with kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, or pregnancy-induced hypertension — and you have been drinking contaminated well water in New Hanover County — you need to understand that the science connecting those conditions to PFAS exposure is not a theory. It is the conclusion of an independent scientific panel and the world’s leading cancer authority.
The Defendants: Chemours, DuPont, and the Corporate Restructuring Shell Game
The corporate structure behind the contamination of the Cape Fear River Basin is a textbook example of what we call the shell game — the deliberate layering of corporate entities that separates the company that profited from the contamination from the company that holds the liability.
Here is the structure as it relates to the Fayetteville Works facility:
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company — the original DuPont — operated the Fayetteville Works for decades. During those years, fluoropolymer production at the facility discharged PFOA, GenX, and other PFAS compounds into the Cape Fear River and into the air. DuPont’s own internal research — documented in other PFAS litigation — reportedly showed awareness of PFAS health risks and environmental persistence well before public disclosure.
The Chemours Company was created in 2015 as a spinoff from DuPont. Chemours took over the Fayetteville Works facility and assumed certain environmental liabilities related to the site. The spinoff itself is the shell maneuver — DuPont separated its performance chemicals business, including the facility that generated the contamination, into a new company. Whether that corporate restructuring fully shields DuPont from liability for the decades of discharges that occurred under its watch is a question that litigation is answering right now.
DuPont de Nemours and Corteva are products of the later DowDuPont merger and split. Liability for legacy PFAS contamination has been allocated among these entities by agreement — but that internal allocation does not bind plaintiffs who were never party to it.
The State of North Carolina, when then-Attorney General Stein filed suit, named both Chemours and DuPont as defendants. The state also filed lawsuits against more than a dozen additional PFAS users and dischargers for polluting communities across North Carolina. Those cases remain pending in the courts.
What this means for you: the companies responsible for the contamination of your well water are not small, undercapitalized operations. Chemours and DuPont are major chemical manufacturers with substantial assets. Chemours has already demonstrated a willingness to resolve PFAS claims in other contexts — including multi-billion-dollar settlements with public water providers in the AFFF firefighting foam litigation. Those settlements were for water system remediation, not for personal injury, but they show that the companies understand the scale of their PFAS exposure and are prepared to pay to resolve it.
The corporate restructuring does not end the case. It makes naming the right defendants — and tracing liability through the corporate family tree — part of the work. That is what we do.
Your Legal Rights Are Separate from the State’s Lawsuit
This is the single most important thing this page can tell you: the State of North Carolina’s lawsuit against Chemours and DuPont is not your lawsuit. It does not protect your rights. It does not preserve your evidence. It does not test your blood. It does not compensate your family.
The state’s case seeks remedies on behalf of the public — environmental cleanup, penalties, injunctions, and natural resource damages. Those are important remedies. But they are not personal injury compensation. They are not medical monitoring for you. They are not property damage for your home. They are not wrongful death damages if you lost a family member to a PFAS-associated cancer.
You have your own legal rights, and they are independent of anything the state is doing. Those rights include:
Personal injury claims — if you or a family member has been diagnosed with a condition linked to PFAS exposure (kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, pregnancy-induced hypertension), you may have a claim for medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages.
Medical monitoring claims — even if you have not been diagnosed with a PFAS-associated disease, the documented exposure to contaminated well water at levels exceeding health standards may support a claim for the cost of routine medical surveillance. Medical monitoring covers the screenings, blood work, imaging, and specialist visits that can catch PFAS-associated conditions early, when they are most treatable. Whether North Carolina recognizes medical monitoring as a standalone cause of action, or whether it must be pursued as part of a broader personal injury claim, is a question that depends on current state law and the specific facts of your case.
Property damage claims — PFAS contamination of your well and groundwater may have diminished your property value. The cost of well remediation, connection to public water, and alternative water supply may also be recoverable.
Wrongful death claims — if you lost a family member to a PFAS-associated malignancy, and that disease can be tied to the documented exposure from contaminated well water, a wrongful death claim may be available to the estate and the surviving family members.
If you are trying to understand how a toxic tort case like this is built, our toxic tort claim practice page explains the framework we use to evaluate and pursue these cases. And if your family has lost someone to cancer that may be connected to PFAS exposure, our wrongful death claim resource covers the specific machinery of a death case under North Carolina law.
The Evidence Clock: Why Blood Serum Testing Cannot Wait
Of everything this page tells you, this section may matter most. The evidence that connects your body to the contaminated water is on a clock — and the $17 million grant program is going to make that clock run faster, not slower.
Here is why: PFAS compounds are persistent, but they are not permanent in the human body. They do decline — slowly, over a period of years — once exposure stops. The human half-life of PFOA is estimated at approximately two to four years. For PFOS, it is longer. For GenX, the elimination kinetics are less well studied, but the compound does leave the body over time.
When you connect your home to clean public water through the grant program, your ongoing exposure to PFAS from your well water stops. That is the entire point of the grant — and it is a good thing for your health. But it also means your blood serum PFAS levels will begin to decline. The longer you are on clean water before your blood is tested, the lower your measured levels will be — and the less accurately those levels will reflect the dose you actually accumulated over the years of drinking contaminated well water.
Blood serum PFAS testing is the single most important piece of evidence in your case. It is the biomarker that directly measures your individual exposure dose. It is what connects the contaminated well water to the chemicals in your body. And it is most accurate when it is done while you are still on the contaminated water, or as soon as possible after you switch.
If you wait — if you connect to public water first and think about legal rights later — your blood serum levels will have already started dropping. The defense will argue that your lower levels mean your exposure was less severe than you claim. The truth is that your exposure was severe; the passage of time simply made it harder to measure. But a jury does not hear the truth — it hears the number on the lab report.
This is why the preservation letter and the blood serum testing recommendation go out the day you call. Not next month. Not after the water line is connected. The day you call.
Here is the full evidence picture — what exists, who holds it, and how fast it can disappear:
Private well water sampling data — held by NCDEQ, CFPUA, and possibly independent laboratories you hired. This data establishes the contamination levels in your specific well, the spatial distribution of contamination in your area, and the temporal duration of your exposure. Early sampling records may already be archived or difficult to retrieve without formal public records requests. Preserve every test result you have received.
Blood serum PFAS concentration testing — available through specialized laboratories. This provides direct biomarkers of your individual exposure dose. It is essential for specific causation linkage to any diagnosed condition. Critical time pressure: levels decline once exposure ceases. As you connect to clean public water, your levels will drop. Current baseline testing is the most accurate window to document historical exposure.
Chemours Fayetteville Works discharge records, monitoring reports, and internal corporate communications — held by Chemours and DuPont. These demonstrate the timeline of discharges, the company’s knowledge of PFAS health risks, and any concealment or failure to disclose. They are subject to corporate document retention schedules. Litigation holds in the existing state and federal cases may preserve some records, but private plaintiffs should issue preservation demand letters promptly.
CFPUA Sweeney Plant treatment performance data and raw water intake monitoring records — held by the utility. These establish the timeline of municipal water contamination and the effectiveness of the granular activated carbon filtration installed in 2022. They are generally maintained per regulatory requirements but should be formally requested.
NCDEQ enforcement records, consent orders, and compliance correspondence with Chemours — government records that demonstrate regulatory knowledge of the contamination and any corporate noncompliance history. These support negligence per se and punitive aggravation theories. They require public records requests and formal discovery to access comprehensively.
Residential medical records — held by your doctors, hospitals, and specialists. If you have a PFAS-associated diagnosis, your medical records link the exposure to a specific injury and establish the damages baseline. Medical records are generally preserved by providers, but older records can be purged under retention schedules. Gather them before witness memory fades and before older records are destroyed.
North Carolina Law: The Rules That Govern Your Claim
Every state’s tort law is different, and using the wrong state’s rules on a North Carolina case is a serious error. Here is what North Carolina law means for your PFAS contamination claim.
Contributory negligence. North Carolina is one of only a handful of jurisdictions that still follows the pure contributory negligence standard. Under this doctrine, if a plaintiff is found to have contributed in any way to their own injury, they can technically be barred from recovery. In the context of a PFAS contamination case, this poses minimal exposure — you had no knowledge that your well water contained forever chemicals. You could not have avoided a risk you did not know existed. But the doctrine is why the defense will look for any fact they can characterize as your fault, and it is why having a case built on the company’s conduct — not your water consumption habits — is so important.
Statute of limitations. North Carolina generally requires personal injury claims to be filed within three years. The critical question for PFAS cases is when that clock starts. For diseases that hide for years or decades before manifesting, the law may not start the clock on the date of exposure — it may start it when you discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, that your illness was connected to the contaminated water. This is called the discovery rule, and it is what makes a PFAS diagnosis you only recently received potentially still within the filing window. But the discovery rule has limits, and some states impose an outer deadline (a statute of repose) that can cut off a claim even before discovery. Whether North Carolina’s limitations framework preserves your claim depends on the specific facts of your exposure, your diagnosis, and when you learned of the connection. This is not something to guess about — it is something to have a lawyer evaluate quickly.
Punitive damages. North Carolina allows punitive damages — the kind meant to punish a defendant that knew of a danger and consciously disregarded it. The state subjects punitive damages to statutory limitations, but those limitations typically operate per defendant per claim, meaning they do not cap the aggregate exposure across hundreds of affected residents. The extensive corporate knowledge base demonstrating that PFAS manufacturers were aware of health risks and environmental persistence for years before public disclosure is the engine of a punitive damages theory. Internal corporate documents showing what Chemours and DuPont knew, and when they knew it, are what transform an ordinary negligence case into one that asks a jury to punish.
Expert testimony. North Carolina follows a Daubert-style reliability standard for expert testimony, which governs the admissibility of toxicological causation evidence. This means your toxicologist, epidemiologist, and treating physicians must present reliable, methodologically sound opinions on general causation (PFAS can cause kidney cancer) and specific causation (your PFAS exposure from contaminated well water caused your kidney cancer). The defense will challenge every link in that chain. Building a case that survives Daubert requires the right experts, the right methodology, and the right dose reconstruction — all of which start with the evidence we preserve on day one.
What a PFAS Contamination Case Is Worth
We are not going to tell you your case is worth a specific dollar amount, because the value of a toxic tort claim depends entirely on the facts of your individual exposure, your diagnosis, your medical history, and the strength of the specific-causation proof. What we can give you is the honest framework — the tiers of value and what drives them.
Medical monitoring claims for asymptomatic exposed residents. If you have documented PFAS exposure from contaminated well water but have not been diagnosed with a PFAS-associated disease, your claim may be valued at the lower end of the range. Medical monitoring covers the cost of routine surveillance — kidney imaging, blood work, thyroid panels, colonoscopies — designed to catch PFAS-associated conditions early. These claims are real and compensable, but they do not carry the value of a personal injury claim because the disease has not manifested. Settlement values for medical monitoring-only claims in mass tort contexts typically fall at the lower end of the range.
Individual personal injury claims with diagnosed PFAS-associated conditions. If you have been diagnosed with kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, or another condition the science links to PFAS exposure, your claim carries significantly more value. These cases include past and future medical expenses, lost wages and earning capacity, pain and suffering, and the full human cost of a disease you should never have developed. The specific-causation proof — linking your individual disease to your PFAS exposure rather than to background risk — is the primary value driver. The stronger the dose reconstruction (from well water data and blood serum testing), the stronger the specific causation, and the higher the value.
Wrongful death claims. If you lost a family member to a PFAS-attributable malignancy, the claim includes the value of the life itself, the financial support the family lost, the companionship that was taken, and the conscious pain and suffering the decedent experienced before death. Under North Carolina’s wrongful death framework, the personal representative of the estate brings the claim for the benefit of the surviving family members. These are the highest-value cases, and they are also the cases where the evidence clock is most unforgiving — because the person who carried the exposure in their blood is no longer here to be tested.
Property damage claims. PFAS contamination of your well may have diminished your property value and created costs for well remediation, connection to public water, and alternative water supply. These are economic damages that can be documented and recovered.
Across all tiers, the defendants in these cases — Chemours and DuPont — are deep-pocket companies with established PFAS litigation history and demonstrated willingness to resolve claims in other jurisdictions. The aggregate mass tort value across the 300-plus affected households and the broader Cape Fear exposure population is substantial. But the value of any individual case is driven by the strength of the specific evidence: your well water data, your blood serum levels, your medical records, and the expert testimony that ties them together.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. What we can tell you is that the framework for valuing these cases is well established, and the companies on the other side have shown they understand the math.
The Corporate Defense Playbook — and How We Answer Each Move
Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm before coming to this side of the table. He sat in the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue claims. He knows the playbook because he helped write it. Here are the moves the corporate defendants will run in a PFAS case — and the counter to each one.
Play 1: “Everyone has PFAS in their blood — you can’t single us out.”
This is the defense’s opening move in nearly every PFAS personal injury case. It is true that PFAS is ubiquitous in the modern environment — most Americans have detectable levels in their blood. But ubiquitous does not mean uniform. Your well water tested above health-based limits. Your exposure was elevated, documented, and tied to a specific, identifiable source — the Chemours Fayetteville Works facility, 100 river-miles up the Cape Fear River. Blood serum testing can show whether your PFAS levels are elevated above background, and hydrogeological fate-and-transport modeling can trace the contamination from the facility to your well. The defense’s job is to blur your specific exposure into the general background. Our job is to make the specific exposure visible, measurable, and undeniable.
Play 2: “You can’t prove your cancer came from our chemicals.”
This is the specific-causation attack, and it is the hardest fight in any PFAS case. The defense will argue that kidney cancer, testicular cancer, and thyroid disease have many causes, and that you cannot prove yours came from PFAS rather than from smoking, diet, genetics, or bad luck. The counter is a combination of dose reconstruction (how much PFAS you were exposed to, for how long, from what source), biomonitoring (what your blood serum levels show), differential diagnosis (ruling out other plausible causes), and the general-causation science (IARC Group 1 classification for PFOA, C8 Science Panel probable-link findings). No single piece of evidence wins a specific-causation fight. The case is built by layering them — and by having the right experts present them in a way a jury can follow.
Play 3: “The state is already suing us — you don’t need your own lawyer.”
This is the channeling argument, and it is designed to make you think the state’s lawsuit covers your individual harm. It does not. The state’s case seeks environmental remediation, penalties, and natural resource damages on behalf of the public. It does not file your personal injury claim. It does not test your blood. It does not preserve your medical records. It does not compensate your family for a cancer diagnosis or a lost loved one. Your rights are independent, and waiting for the state’s case to resolve means watching the evidence clock run out while the state’s case — which may take years — works its way through the courts.
Play 4: “We had permits to discharge.”
The defense will argue that the facility operated under environmental permits and that the discharges were legal at the time. Having a permit does not immunize a company from tort liability for the consequences of its discharges. A permit sets regulatory limits; it does not grant permission to poison your well water. And when internal corporate documents show the company knew its discharges contained chemicals that were dangerous to human health — chemicals that persist forever and bioaccumulate in the body — the permit defense starts to look like what it is: a regulatory technicality next to a conscious choice.
Play 5: “The statute of limitations has already run.”
For a disease that did not manifest until years or decades after the exposure began, the defense will argue the clock started long ago and has already expired. The discovery rule — which may toll the accrual of a claim until the plaintiff knew or should have known of the injury and its cause — is the answer. But the discovery rule is not automatic, and its application depends on the specific facts of your case and the current state of North Carolina law. This is not an argument to lose sleep over before you call a lawyer — it is an argument a lawyer evaluates and, if the facts support it, defeats.
Play 6: “Connect to public water and move on.”
This is the minimization play — the suggestion that the grant program solves your problem and there is nothing left to do. Connecting to clean public water addresses future exposure. It does not compensate for past exposure. It does not fund medical monitoring for diseases that may already be developing. It does not restore your property value. It does not hold anyone accountable for the years your family drank contaminated water without knowing it. The grant is a public health intervention, not a legal remedy. You need both.
What to Do Right Now: Your Evidence-Preservation Roadmap
If you are reading this page and you live in New Hanover County with a private well that has tested positive for PFAS, here is what to do — in order, starting today.
1. Get blood serum PFAS testing — before you connect to public water, or as soon as possible after. This is the most time-sensitive step. Your blood serum PFAS levels are the most accurate right now, while your exposure is ongoing or recent. Once you switch to clean public water, your levels will begin to decline. The defense will use that decline to argue your exposure was less severe than you claim. The sooner you get tested, the more accurately your results reflect the dose you actually accumulated. Ask your doctor about PFAS blood testing, or call us and we can help you understand the testing options available.
2. Preserve every well water test result you have received. Pull together every letter, report, email, or document you have received from NCDEQ, CFPUA, an independent laboratory, or any other source regarding the PFAS contamination in your well. These documents establish the contamination levels, the date of testing, and the spatial distribution of contamination in your area. Do not assume the government or the utility will keep these records indefinitely — early sampling data may already be archived or difficult to retrieve.
3. Document your water source history. Write down how long you have lived at your current address, how long you have been on well water, when you first learned about the PFAS contamination, and what alternative water sources (if any) you have used. This timeline is foundational to your exposure claim.
4. Gather medical records for any PFAS-associated diagnoses. If you or a family member has been diagnosed with kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, pregnancy-induced hypertension, or any other condition you believe may be connected to PFAS exposure, gather the medical records now. Older records can be purged under hospital retention schedules. Get them before they are gone.
5. Do not sign anything from the company, its insurers, or its lawyers. If you receive a letter, a release, a settlement offer, or any document from Chemours, DuPont, their insurance carriers, or their legal representatives, do not sign it. Do not give a recorded statement. Do not answer questions about your health or your water use over the phone. Anything you say can and will be used to reduce the value of your claim. Call a lawyer first.
6. Do not post about your case on social media. The defense monitors social media. Posts about your health, your water, your property, or your legal intentions can be taken out of context and used against you. If you are considering a claim, stop posting about anything related to your water, your health, or the contamination until you have spoken with a lawyer.
7. Call us at 1-888-ATTY-911. The consultation is free. The call is confidential. We do not get paid unless we win your case. And the first thing we do — the day you call — is start the evidence-preservation process. We send the letters that freeze the records before they can be destroyed. We help you understand the blood serum testing timeline. We evaluate your legal rights under North Carolina law. And we tell you honestly whether you have a case worth pursuing — because if you do not, we will tell you that too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue if my well water tested positive for PFAS in New Hanover County?
Yes — if your well water tested positive for PFAS at levels exceeding health-based standards, you may have legal claims against the companies responsible for the contamination. The primary defendants are The Chemours Company, which operates the Fayetteville Works facility in Bladen County, and DuPont, the historical corporate parent that operated the facility during earlier periods of discharge. Your claims may include personal injury (if you have a PFAS-associated diagnosis), medical monitoring (for the cost of routine surveillance), and property damage (for well contamination and property value diminution). Your right to sue is separate from and independent of the State of North Carolina’s lawsuit against these companies.
Is the state’s lawsuit against Chemours and DuPont the same as my case?
No. The state’s lawsuit — filed by then-Attorney General Josh Stein — seeks remedies on behalf of the public, including environmental cleanup, penalties, and natural resource damages. It does not file individual personal injury claims for residents. It does not test your blood. It does not compensate your family for a cancer diagnosis, medical monitoring costs, or property damage. Your individual claim is a separate legal action that you bring through your own attorney. The state’s case and your case can proceed in parallel, but the state’s case does not protect your individual rights.
How long do I have to file a PFAS contamination claim in North Carolina?
North Carolina generally requires personal injury claims to be filed within three years. The critical question for PFAS cases is when the clock starts. For latent diseases that do not manifest until years after exposure, the discovery rule may mean the clock does not start until you knew or should have known that your illness was connected to the contaminated water. If you were recently diagnosed with a PFAS-associated condition and only recently learned that your well water was contaminated, your claim may still be within the filing window. But statutes of limitations are unforgiving, and the specific deadline for your case depends on your individual facts. This is something to have a lawyer evaluate immediately — not something to wait on.
What health conditions are linked to PFAS exposure?
The C8 Science Panel — an independent group of epidemiologists — found “probable links” between PFOA exposure and six conditions: kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, pregnancy-induced hypertension, and high cholesterol. In 2024, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified PFOA as a Group 1 carcinogen (carcinogenic to humans) and PFOS as a Group 2B carcinogen (possibly carcinogenic). If you have been diagnosed with any of these conditions and you have been drinking contaminated well water, the science connecting your condition to PFAS exposure is substantial — though proving that your specific disease was caused by your specific exposure requires expert analysis and dose reconstruction.
Should I get my blood tested for PFAS?
Yes — and the sooner, the better. Blood serum PFAS testing measures the actual concentration of forever chemicals in your bloodstream. It is the most direct evidence of your individual exposure dose. But PFAS levels decline over a period of years once exposure stops — meaning once you connect to clean public water, your levels will begin to drop. The most accurate testing is done while you are still on the contaminated water, or as soon as possible after you switch. The longer you wait, the lower your measured levels will be, and the harder it becomes to prove the full extent of your historical exposure. If you are considering testing, call us — we can help you understand the process and the timeline.
How much is a PFAS contamination case worth?
The value of a PFAS case depends on the facts of your individual exposure and diagnosis. Medical monitoring-only claims for asymptomatic exposed residents generally settle at the lower end of the range. Individual personal injury claims with diagnosed PFAS-associated conditions — kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis — carry significantly more value, including medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and future care costs. Wrongful death claims for family members who died from PFAS-attributable malignancies carry the highest value. Property damage claims for well contamination and property value loss are separately recoverable. The specific-causation proof — linking your disease to your PFAS exposure — is the primary value driver, which is why blood serum testing and well water data are so critical. We cannot promise a specific dollar amount, but we can give you an honest evaluation of what your case is worth based on your facts.
Will connecting to public water through the grant program affect my legal case?
Connecting to clean public water is the right thing to do for your health — and it does not end your legal rights. The grant program addresses future exposure by providing access to treated public water. Your legal claims address past exposure — the years you already spent drinking contaminated well water — and any diseases that may have developed or may develop as a result. However, connecting to public water does start the clock on your blood serum PFAS levels declining, which is why we recommend getting blood serum testing done before or as soon as possible after you connect. Do not let the grant program make you think there is nothing left to do legally. The grant solves the water problem going forward. Your legal claim addresses the harm that has already been done.
What if I don’t have cancer but I’ve been drinking contaminated water?
You may still have a claim — specifically for medical monitoring. Medical monitoring is a recognized category of damages in toxic tort litigation that covers the cost of routine medical surveillance designed to catch PFAS-associated conditions early. Even without a current diagnosis, the documented exposure to contaminated well water at levels exceeding health standards may support a claim for the cost of ongoing screenings — kidney imaging, blood work, thyroid panels, and other surveillance appropriate to your exposure profile. Whether North Carolina recognizes medical monitoring as a standalone cause of action, or whether it must be pursued as part of a broader claim, depends on current state law. The point is that you do not need a cancer diagnosis to have a legal right worth pursuing.
Can I still sue if I already switched to public water?
Yes. Switching to public water does not extinguish your legal rights for the years of exposure you already experienced. The contamination of your well water occurred over a period of years, and the chemicals that entered your body during that time are still there — declining, but still present. What switching to public water does affect is your blood serum testing timeline. The sooner after switching you get tested, the more accurate the results. But the legal claims for past exposure, medical monitoring, property damage, and any diagnosed conditions survive the switch. What matters is preserving the evidence — well water test results, blood serum levels, medical records — and filing within the statute of limitations.
How do I pay for a lawyer for a PFAS contamination case?
We work on contingency. That means we do not charge an hourly fee. We do not bill you for our time. We advance the costs of the case — the expert witnesses, the document demands, the filings, the depositions — and we are paid only if we win your case, as a percentage of the recovery. If there is no recovery, you owe us nothing for our time. The consultation is free. The first call costs you nothing. And the first thing we do — the day you call — is start working to preserve the evidence that is on a clock. You can reach us at 1-888-ATTY-911, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You will speak to a live person, not an answering service.
Why Attorney911
Ralph Manginello has spent 27-plus years in courtrooms, including federal court. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer — and that training is not just a biographical detail. It is how he reads a case. He approaches corporate document discovery the way an investigative reporter approaches a story: looking for the internal memo that shows what the company knew, the safety study that was buried, the warning that was never sent. In a PFAS case, the internal corporate communications between Chemours and DuPont — showing what they knew about the health risks of the chemicals they were discharging into the Cape Fear River, and when they knew it — are the engine of both liability and punitive damages. Ralph’s job is to find those documents and put them in front of a jury. You can read more about Ralph on his attorney bio page.
Lupe Peña is a former insurance-defense attorney. He spent years inside a national defense firm — the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue claims from people exactly like the families reading this page. He knows the defense playbook because he helped write it. Now he sits on your side of the table. He knows how the other side values a PFAS claim, what evidence they fear, what arguments they plan to make, and where their defenses crack under pressure. And he conducts full consultations in Spanish — Hablamos Español — because every family in New Hanover County deserves to understand their rights in the language they think in. You can read more about Lupe on his attorney bio page.
We take cases in North Carolina working with local counsel where required. We do not claim an office in North Carolina, and we will not pretend to be something we are not. What we are is a trial firm with 27-plus years of courtroom experience, a former insurance-defense insider who knows how the other side prices claims, and the resources to take on chemical manufacturers the size of Chemours and DuPont.
The call is free. The consultation is confidential. We do not get paid unless we win your case. And the evidence clock is running — your blood serum PFAS levels are declining with every month you spend on clean water, and the well water sampling data that documents your exposure is aging out of retrieval range.
Call us at 1-888-ATTY-911. Or contact us through our website. We answer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — a live person, not a machine.
The $17 million grant will give your family clean water going forward. Your legal claim addresses what was taken from you during the years you did not know what was in the tap. Those are two different problems. We handle the second one.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. This page is legal information, not legal advice. Contacting the firm is free and confidential. Hablamos Español.