The sprawling South Carolina MDL over PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ in firefighting foam has produced roughly $14B in public-water-system settlements from 3M, DuPont, Tyco and BASF, and is now pricing personal-injury liability through a bellwether program covering some 20,000 cancer and disease claims.
LATEST DEVELOPMENT · JUN 17, 2026
With the vacated kidney-cancer bellwether still unset, Judge Gergel denied South Carolina’s remand motion on April 1, 2026 and continued pressing defendants toward a global personal-injury resolution built on a special-master settlement matrix, as filings surged past practitioner counts of 23,000 claims by mid-June 2026.
BACKGROUND
Aqueous film-forming foam, used for decades to fight fuel fires at military bases and airports, contains PFOA, PFOS and related ‘forever chemicals’ that persist in groundwater and human blood. The JPML centralized federal AFFF cases before Judge Richard M. Gergel in the District of South Carolina in December 2018, and the docket split into two tracks: contamination claims by public water systems and personal-injury claims by firefighters, service members and residents. The water track largely resolved in 2023–24 through landmark settlements, 3M’s $10.3B (up to $12.5B over 13 years), $1.185B from DuPont, Chemours and Corteva, $750M from Tyco and $316.5M from BASF, which are now in the payout phase.
The personal-injury track is the live battleground. Twenty-eight bellwether cases are in work-up across kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease and ulcerative colitis, but the first trial, a kidney-cancer case set for October 2025, was vacated by Case Management Order No. 35 and has not been reset. Judge Gergel has pressed defendants to reach a global personal-injury resolution, with a court-appointed special master developing a points-based settlement matrix, while filings surged through 2026: JPML-style counts show roughly 15,000 pending cases and practitioner tallies put total filed claims above 23,000. Observers widely expect a global personal-injury resolution in 2026–27.
TIMELINE
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JUN 17, 2026OTHERFilings surge past 23,000 claimsPractitioner tallies put filed claims above 23,000 (JPML-reported pending cases around 15,000), making MDL 2873 one of the largest product-liability dockets in U.S. history.
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APR 1, 2026PROCEDURALJudge Gergel keeps South Carolina PFAS cases federal, presses settlementThe court denied South Carolina’s remand motion and continued urging 3M, DuPont, BASF, Johnson Controls/Tyco and others toward a global personal-injury resolution.
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MAR 2026PROCEDURALCourt issues Case Management Order #26B outlining second bellwether pool selectionJudge Gergel issued Case Management Order #26B setting a process to select an initial pool of 28 personal-injury plaintiffs, comprising claims of kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, and ulcerative colitis, to proceed toward case-specific discovery as a new bellwether trial pool after the original kidney-cancer bellwether was vacated.
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AUG 15, 2025PROCEDURALCourt vacates first personal-injury bellwether trialCase Management Order No. 35 took the October 2025 kidney-cancer trial off the calendar and standardized proofs for the surging personal-injury docket. No new trial date has been set.
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MAY 2024SETTLEMENTTyco and BASF settle water claimsTyco Fire Products agreed to pay $750M and BASF $316.5M, substantially completing the water-utility track at roughly $14B across defendants.
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JUN 2023SETTLEMENT3M agrees to landmark water-system settlement3M agreed to pay $10.3B, up to $12.5B over 13 years, to public water systems for PFAS testing and remediation, the largest drinking-water settlement in U.S. history.
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JUN 2023SETTLEMENTDuPont, Chemours and Corteva settle water claims for $1.185BThe three companies reached the first major public-water-system settlement in the MDL.
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DEC 2018FILINGJPML centralizes AFFF litigation in South CarolinaThe Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated federal AFFF cases before Judge Richard M. Gergel as MDL No. 2873.