Deal reached for Chemours to stop remaining GenX chemical pollution of Cape Fear River

FAYETTEVILLE — North Carolina regulators and an environmental group reached a tentative agreement in their lawsuit with the Chemours Co. on how Chemours will curb its remaining PFAS and GenX “forever chemicals” contamination of the Cape Fear River, the parties announced Thursday afternoon.

The main supplier of drinking water in the Wilmington area, the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, said late Thursday it was not included in the negotiations, and it is unhappy that it knew nothing of the proposed deal until it was contacted by the state earlier in the day. The utility gets its water from the river.

The parties are the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, the Cape Fear River Watch environmental organization and Chemours. The proposed deal would be an amendment to the terms of a previous lawsuit settlement regarding Chemours’ long discharge of PFAS chemicals into the river and the air from its plant on the Cape Fear River south of Fayetteville.

“Today’s actions lay out exactly how Chemours will clean up the residual contamination they’ve caused that continues to impact communities along the Cape Fear River,” DEQ Secretary Michael S. Regan said in a news release.

The amendment would address pollution getting into the Cape Fear River from contaminated groundwater on Chemours’ property, from contaminated surface waters there and from rainwater that picks up PFAS chemicals when it lands on the site.

The DEQ said it will take public comment on the settlement’s proposed addendum for 30 days and consider those comments before submitting it to a judge in Bladen County Superior Court.

Under the original agreement, Chemours stopped the intentional discharge of the PFAS pollutants into the water and spent $100 million to build a system to remove PFAS from the air emissions at its Fayetteville Works plant. These remedies did not address the groundwater and surface waters.

The settlement amendment announced Thursday spells out goals and deadlines for Chemours to install additional equipment and infrastructure to filter and treat the groundwater and surface waters. The company is to remove 99% of the PFAS contamination.

Health effects

PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and GenX is a type of PFAS. PFAS materials are used in the manufacturing process of many consumer, commercial and industrial products. They are known as “forever chemicals” because they are slow to break down.

The substances also are thought by researchers to be a danger to human health, based on human and animal studies, the federal Environmental Protection Agency says on its website. The effects on people have been increased cholesterol, with other findings related to infant birth weight, immune system effects, cancer and thyroid hormone disruption, the EPA says.

In 2017, the StarNews in Wilmington reported that the GenX chemical was discovered in the area’s drinking water and it was tied to the Chemours factory. The plant is about 70 miles inland from the coastal city and upstream of the community’s drinking water intake on the Cape Fear River.

Following that reporting, further research found contamination in the well water at homes and schools in Cumberland, Robeson and Bladen counties near the factory. Chemours has been providing bottled water and water filter systems to some of the properties near its plant.

The updated deal

Under the terms of the new agreement for Chemours to stop its remaining PFAS pollution, it must:

• Install interim measures to capture 80% of the PFAS discharges from groundwater, surface waters and storm water. This is set to be in four stages, with deadlines in November, February, March and April.

• Construct a permanent measure by March 15, 2023. This is to be a subsurface barrier wall approximately 1.5 miles long, plus equipment to remove at least 99% of the PFAS in the water.

The DEQ said penalties for failing to achieve these and other goals are:

• Up to $10,000 per day if the interim measures aren’t finished in time.

• $150,000 plus $20,000 per week if the barrier wall is not finished on time.

• $500,000 if the barrier wall fails to do its job during a demonstration test, plus $100,000 for each time if it fails follow-up tests.

The plaintiffs and Chemours hailed the deal.

“This plan will ensure that contaminated groundwater, streams, and runoff no longer pollute the river and don’t reach communities downstream,” said Kemp Burdette of Cape Fear River Watch. “Along with a reduction of PFAS in air emissions from the facility and a complete elimination of process water discharges into the river that were part of the earlier consent order, these commitments get us closer to a goal of a clean Cape Fear.”

Chemours said anti-pollution efforts in North Carolina are part of a program to eliminate 99% or more of its PFAS emissions at all of its facilities worldwide.

“When viewed in their totality, the actions being taken by Chemours in North Carolina to address and control PFAS emissions from our Fayetteville Works site and remediate existing environmental matters far exceed known actions taken by any other company in the state,” the company said.

But the water utility for Wilmington and New Hanover County said the new deal caught it by surprise.

“It is disappointing that we and our customers have once again been excluded by the State from these discussions about a subject that is of vital interest to our community,” Executive Director Jim Flechtner of the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority said in a statement on the utility’s website.

“We have seen no evidence this or any of the steps proposed so far by Chemours will sufficiently improve water quality to the same level that the State has set as the standard for private well owners around Chemours’ site,” Flechtner said. “We continue to be frustrated that our customers continue to be treated differently than people near the plant.”

Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@fayobserver.com and 910-261-4710.