Enquirer Consulting Group

PFAS Cleanup Money and the Firms Holding the Contracts

Prepared for Ryan, Myconaut | October 2026

As of Oct 2, 2026, every figure from the public source named beside it

You asked for concrete market numbers on PFAS demand. This page counts two things: the public cleanup money already committed, and the engineering and consulting firms holding the federal PFAS contracts. Your site describes research into how fungi may contribute to the breakdown of pollutants in soil, so the page marks which money pays for drinking water and which pays for contaminated sites.

Emerging contaminant water money in the 2021 infrastructure law

10 billion dollars

Three EPA lines in the 2021 law. Drinking water and wastewater systems, not contaminated sites.

Spent by the Defense Department on PFAS investigation and cleanup

2.6 billion dollars

2017 to 2023, at and around its bases and former defense sites.

Defense Department PFAS costs it says are still to come

more than 9.3 billion dollars

Fiscal 2025 and beyond. The department's own estimate, not committed money.

Federal PFAS contracts held by engineering, remediation and consulting firms

2.2 billion dollars

740 awards across 188 firms and joint ventures. A floor: see how it was counted.

Public money already committed

Each line is a figure a primary source states, with the year and what it pays for. The lines are different kinds of money, so read the overlap notes before adding any of them together.

Each line links to its source. Amounts are as the source states them, in dollars.
Kind	Line	Amount, dollars	Year	What it covers
Federal, committed by law	Emerging contaminant grants for small or disadvantaged communities	5 billion	Fiscal 2022 to 2026, 1 billion a year	Grants through the states to public water systems in small or disadvantaged communities, for emerging contaminants including PFAS. Drinking water.
Federal, committed by law	Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, emerging contaminants	4 billion	2021 infrastructure law	Set aside inside the drinking water revolving fund for emerging contaminants. Drinking water.
Federal, committed by law	Clean Water State Revolving Fund, emerging contaminants	1 billion	2021 infrastructure law	Set aside inside the clean water revolving fund for emerging contaminants. Wastewater and stormwater side.
Federal, spent	Defense Department PFAS investigation and cleanup	2.6 billion	2017 to 2023	Investigation and cleanup at active bases, National Guard sites, formerly used defense sites (about 1.9 billion) and closed bases (about 700 million), at and around those sites.
Federal, spent	Defense Department research into new PFAS treatment	about 250 million	Through fiscal 2023	Research and development into innovative ways to treat PFAS in all media.
Federal, estimate only	Defense Department PFAS costs still to come	more than 9.3 billion	Fiscal 2025 and beyond	The department's own estimate of future investigation and cleanup costs. Not committed, and expected to rise.
State settlement	New Jersey: settlements with the DuPont entities and 3M	about 2.5 billion	Court approval announced Aug 7, 2026; payments over 25 years	Up to 795 million for PFAS abatement statewide, up to 365 million for natural resource damages, and remediation funding sources of up to 1.2 billion for four industrial sites. Includes 3M's share of up to 450 million.
State settlement	Minnesota: settlement with 3M	850 million	Settled Feb 20, 2018	About 720 million, after legal and other expenses, for drinking water and natural resource projects in the Twin Cities east metro.
National settlement, private money	3M settlement with US public water suppliers	up to 10.3 billion	Final approval Mar 29, 2024; paid over 13 years	Present value commitment to public water suppliers that detect PFAS. Up to 12.5 billion in nominal payments if the cap is reached. Drinking water.
National settlement, private money	DuPont, Chemours and Corteva settlement with public water systems	1.185 billion	Announced Jun 2, 2023	A settlement fund for PFAS drinking water claims of public water systems. Drinking water.

Where these totals overlap

The three EPA lines add to 10 billion dollars and are separate from the Defense Department money. On USAspending, EPA grant awards under those three programs whose description names PFAS or emerging contaminants come to about 6.1 billion dollars so far: that is the same money being paid out, not extra, and a few of those awards may also carry general revolving fund money. New Jersey's 2.5 billion includes 3M's share of up to 450 million, so that 450 million is not a separate line. The two national settlements are private money paid to water systems; a system can draw on them and on the EPA lines for the same plant, so the public and private lines should not be added into one market total. The Defense Department holds 92% of the contract dollars further down, and that is the same money as its spending and plans above, not on top of it.

The Defense Department's PFAS lines, year by year

Million dollars, as the department reported them to Congress in May 2024. Active bases, National Guard sites and formerly used defense sites; closed bases are counted separately.

Every column through fiscal 2023 is actual spending; 2024 and 2025 on are estimates. The department estimates at least another 2 billion for 116 closed base locations on top of this table. Source: the Defense Department's PFAS report to Congress, as reproduced by the Government Accountability Office in February 2025.
Work	Through fiscal 2021	Fiscal 2022	Fiscal 2023	Fiscal 2024, estimate	Fiscal 2025 on, estimate	Total
Investigate	673.1	352.1	339.5	142.3	989.7	2,496.7
Cleanup	351.1	62.3	82.7	55.3	6,100.0	6,651.4
Total	1,024.2	414.4	422.2	197.6	7,089.7	9,148.1

Who holds the federal PFAS contracts

Prime contracts under engineering services, remediation services and environmental consulting whose description names PFAS or emerging contaminants. The top 25 of 188 firms and joint ventures, by dollars obligated.

All 188 are in the firms file below. Joint ventures are kept as their own lines, so a firm's share of a joint venture is not added to its own line.
#	Firm (parent as recorded)	Entities holding the awards	Awards	Obligated, million dollars	Share	Main awarding branch
1	AECOM	AECOM INTERNATIONAL INC.; AECOM SERVICES, LLC; AECOM TECHNICAL SERVICES, INC.; AMENTUM ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY, INC.; URS GROUP, INC.	64	227.6	10.3%	Department of the Army
2	JACOBS ENGINEERING GROUP INC	CH2M HILL, INC; CH2M HILL, INC.	100	212.7	9.7%	Department of the Navy
3	TETRA TECH, INC.	TETRA TECH INC; TETRA TECH, INC.	70	145.1	6.6%	Department of the Navy
4	RESOLUTION CONSULTANTS - AN AECOM-ENSAFE JOINT VENTURE	RESOLUTION CONSULTANTS - AN AECOM-ENSAFE JOINT VENTURE	47	94.0	4.3%	Department of the Navy
5	BRICE ENGINEERING, LLC	BRICE ENGINEERING, LLC	11	86.0	3.9%	Department of the Army
6	WESTON - ER FEDERAL SERVICES, LLC	WESTON - ER FEDERAL SERVICES, LLC	2	73.8	3.4%	Department of the Army
7	EA ENGINEERING, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY, INC., PBC	EA ENGINEERING, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY, INC., PBC	15	65.6	3.0%	Department of the Army
8	LEIDOS, INC.	LEIDOS, INC.	11	64.6	2.9%	Department of the Army
9	S C & A INC	S C & A INC	1	52.8	2.4%	Environmental Protection Agency
10	FPM-AECOM JV1	FPM-AECOM JV1	5	51.0	2.3%	Department of the Army
11	BEM SYSTEMS INC	BEM SYSTEMS INC	3	46.7	2.1%	Department of the Air Force
12	SES CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL LLC	SES CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL LLC	3	46.3	2.1%	Department of the Army
13	SES CONSTRUCTION AND FUEL SERVICES LLC	BRISTOL ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTIONS LLC	2	44.2	2.0%	Department of the Army
14	ARCADIS N.V.	ARCADIS U.S., INC.	7	43.9	2.0%	Department of the Army
15	ONEIDA NATION	ONEIDA TOTAL INTEGRATED ENTERPRISES LLC; SUSTAINMENT & RESTORATION SERVICES, LLC	14	42.7	1.9%	Department of the Army
16	AECOM ARCADIS PFAS JV	AECOM ARCADIS PFAS JV	3	39.9	1.8%	Department of the Army
17	SC COMPANIES, INC.	STANLEY CONSULTANTS, INC.	1	39.6	1.8%	Department of the Army
18	HALFF ASSOCIATES, INC.	HALFF ASSOCIATES, INC.	6	38.8	1.8%	Department of the Army
19	AEROSTAR ENVIRONMENTAL AND CONSTRUCTION LLC	AEROSTAR ENVIRONMENTAL AND CONSTRUCTION LLC	8	34.0	1.5%	Department of the Air Force
20	SERES-ARCADIS SB JV2 LLC	SERES-ARCADIS SB JV2 LLC	4	32.2	1.5%	Department of the Army
21	TANAQ ENVIRONMENTAL LLC	TANAQ ENVIRONMENTAL LLC	9	29.3	1.3%	Department of the Army
22	GEOSYNTEC JACOBS A JOINT VENTURE	GEOSYNTEC JACOBS A JOINT VENTURE	8	29.0	1.3%	Department of the Navy
23	BERS-WESTON SERVICES JVA LLC	BERS-WESTON SERVICES JVA LLC	5	28.4	1.3%	Department of the Army
24	PARSONS GOVERNMENT SERVICES INC.	PARSONS GOVERNMENT SERVICES INC.	1	26.6	1.2%	Department of the Army
25	MSE GROUP LLC	MSE GROUP LLC	2	24.7	1.1%	Department of the Army

Who holds the federal PFAS research contracts

Prime contracts under research and development codes whose description names PFAS or emerging contaminants. The top 10 of 138, by dollars obligated.

328 awards and 215.8 million dollars in all; every one is in the files below.
#	Firm or institution (parent as recorded)	Awards	Obligated, million dollars	Main awarding branch
1	TRUSTEES OF THE COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES	12	20.3	Department of the Army
2	GSI ENVIRONMENTAL INC.	14	14.4	Department of the Army
3	EA ENGINEERING, SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY, INC., PBC	2	14.1	Environmental Protection Agency
4	APTIM HOLDINGS LLC	16	10.5	Environmental Protection Agency
5	BAY WEST LLC	1	10.0	Department of the Army
6	PEGASUS TECHNICAL SERVICES, INC	17	9.8	Environmental Protection Agency
7	TETRA TECH, INC.	5	7.7	Department of the Army
8	GEOSYNTEC CONSULTANTS, INC.	8	7.0	Department of the Army
9	CDM FEDERAL PROGRAMS CORPORATION	9	5.9	Department of the Army
10	ARCADIS N.V.	10	5.3	Department of the Army

Other federal awards naming PFAS

Grants outside EPA whose description names PFAS or emerging contaminants: research and health money rather than cleanup contracts.

The six largest of 23 agencies; all non EPA grants naming PFAS total 686.7 million dollars.
Awarding agency	Grants	Awarded, million dollars
National Institutes of Health	245	305.3
National Science Foundation	250	155.6
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention	15	66.3
National Institute of Food and Agriculture	71	56.0
National Institute of Standards and Technology	22	29.5
Department of the Army	27	20.4

What the numbers say

The biggest public line is water money, not soil money.

The 10 billion dollars in the infrastructure law pays public water systems for drinking water and wastewater. Cleanup at contaminated sites sits in the Defense Department lines and in state settlement money such as New Jersey's remediation funding for four industrial sites.

Most of the Defense Department's cleanup is still ahead.

As of June 2024, 580 installations needed further investigation, 370 of them had started the remedial investigation and feasibility study step, and no installation had started the cleanup phase. Of the department's estimate for fiscal 2025 on, 6.1 billion is cleanup and about 1 billion is investigation.

Soil goes to landfill today, and the department is paying for alternatives.

The Government Accountability Office reports that at defense installations, soil is often sent offsite for disposal through landfilling, and that the department had put about 250 million dollars through fiscal 2023 into research on new ways to treat PFAS in all media.

Three groups hold 27% of the contract dollars.

AECOM, JACOBS ENGINEERING GROUP INC and TETRA TECH, INC. hold 27% of the 2.2 billion dollars in the contracts table. The Defense Department awarded 92% of it, and the Army alone, which includes the Corps of Engineers, 58%. 62 of the 188 lines are joint ventures.

Nearly half the awards are still study work.

352 of the 740 contract descriptions name investigation, inspection or sampling work only. 114 name removal, treatment, mitigation or another cleanup action, and they carry about 571 million dollars.

Yours to keep: every firm (CSV), every award behind the tables, with its USAspending link (CSV), and the money lines with their sources (CSV).

Denominators, definitions and sources

Money lines: each figure is as stated on the source linked in its row, read Oct 2, 2026. The EPA lines come from EPA's emerging contaminant grant page and its infrastructure law fact sheet. The Defense Department lines come from the Government Accountability Office report GAO 25 107401 (February 2025), which reproduces the department's May 2024 report to Congress. The state lines come from the New Jersey Attorney General (Aug 7, 2026 and May 13, 2025) and the State of Minnesota's 3M settlement site. The national settlement lines come from the companies' own releases (3M, Apr 1, 2024; DuPont, Jun 2, 2023).
Contracts: USAspending.gov award search API, read Oct 2, 2026. Keywords PFAS, PFOS, PFOA, polyfluoroalkyl, perfluoroalkyl, emerging contaminant, emerging contaminants; contract award types A to D (blanket purchase agreement calls, purchase orders, delivery and task orders, and definitive contracts, so parent vehicles are not counted twice); awards with activity between Oct 1, 2017 and Sep 30, 2026. The search returned 791 awards under NAICS 541330, 562910 and 541620; 51 were dropped because their description did not actually name PFAS or an emerging contaminant (the search also matches place names such as Rheinland Pfalz), leaving 740. The research table uses NAICS 541715, 541712 and 541714 the same way. Dollars are the award's total obligated amount as USAspending reports it, net of any deobligations.
Why the contract figures are a floor: only awards whose description names PFAS or an emerging contaminant are counted, and many PFAS task orders are described only by site or by phase; only three industry codes are counted; only prime awards are counted, so subcontracts held by smaller firms are not; Defense Department awards appear on USAspending after a delay, so the most recent months are short; and state, city and utility contracts are not on USAspending at all.
Firms are grouped by the parent name USAspending records for each award holder, which can lag a change of ownership. Names are as filed. The study and cleanup split in the last section reads the award descriptions for words such as investigation, sampling, removal and treatment; it is a reading of the wording, not a count of work done.
Other federal awards: the same keyword search on grant award types 02 to 05, read Oct 2, 2026; EPA grants are left out of that table because they are the infrastructure law money already counted above.

If a line here raises a question, reply on the thread, or write to my colleague Ben, who is your point of contact from here: ben@enquirerai.com.

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