Cape Fear River Watch
EPA okays Chemours request to export GenX from the Netherlands to Fayetteville Works plant
The Chemours Fayetteville Works plant can import up to 4 million pounds of GenX from the company’s Netherlands facility over the next year, according to an EPA letter authorizing the shipments — 220 times the amount exported in 2014. The GenX will originate at the Chemours plant in Dordrecht. The facility could export as many […]
In lawsuit against the EPA, North Carolina environmental, public health groups get their day in court over PFAS dispute
Every day for more than 10 years, Richard Myers II unknowingly drank water contaminated with toxic PFAS. In the 1980s and ‘90s, when Myers was a student at UNC-Wilmington, DuPont – later spun off as Chemours – was pumping those chemical compounds into the Cape Fear River. From there, PFAS entered Wilmington’s drinking water supply and flowed from the taps of hundreds of thousands of people, including Myers.
Chemours estimates 1,545 more NC households with GenX-contaminated wells could be eligible for alternative water
Chemours estimates it would be required to provide alternative water supplies to an additional 1,545 households in North Carolina whose private wells are contaminated with GenX – the result of more stringent EPA recommendations, an NC Department of Environmental Quality official said today. Currently, Chemours provides alternative water supplies to 245 well owners in North […]
DEQ rejects Chemours’ proposed GenX groundwater cleanup plan
Company now says it’s too expensive to remove PFAS compounds, including GenX, to comply with consent order
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality has rejected a groundwater cleanup plan proposed by Chemours, which would have left at least 70 square miles contaminated with the chemical GenX.
DEQ proposes $13 million penalty on Chemours; draft consent order up for public comment
We don’t know what gifts Chemours is grateful for this Thanksgiving (a $275 million profit in the third quarter?) but a penalty imposed by state environmental regulators isn’t one of them. At 7:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving Eve, the NC Department of Environmental Quality announced a 39-page proposed consent order between the agency and Chemours in […]
Chemours hit with yet another lawsuit over GenX, fluorinated compounds contamination
Cape Fear River Watch, a nonprofit group in Wilmington, is suing Chemours in federal court over the company’s discharges and emissions of GenX and other fluorinated compounds. If a judge rules in favor of CFRW, the company could be fined hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in civil penalties. The Southern Environmental Law […]
EPA hosting key community forum on GenX, PFAS, PFOS in Fayetteville today; public can comment from 3 to 8 p.m.
Policy Watch will live tweet the highlights of the daylong event @ncpolicywatch and @lisasorg . Seven top EPA officials. Three division directors from the Department of Environmental Quality, plus Secretary Michael Regan. Even one of the top brass from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many of the major regulators and community watchdogs in […]
In settlement with environmental groups, DEQ changes complaint process about swine farms
The NC Department of Environmental Quality says it will be more transparent about how it handles citizens complaints against industrialized livestock farms, including those that have been cited for violations as the result of those complaints. DEQ is implementing the new complaint investigation process as part of a settlement agreement with several environmental groups and […]
Former Wilmington mayor: “We’re here to express our outrage” over GenX contamination in drinking water, Cape Fear
[dropcap] J [/dropcap] ust steps outside the door of the Coastline Conference Center in Wilmington, the Cape Fear River moseys on its last 35 miles of its journey to the Atlantic Ocean. But the 300-plus people inside the conference center no longer trust the Cape Fear as their source of clean drinking water. GenX, an […]
After DEQ starts water sampling, Chemours announces it will eliminate GenX from discharge into the Cape Fear
Beginning tomorrow, the Chemours company will “capture, remove, and safely dispose of wastewater” that contains the byproduct GenX generated at its manufacturing plant in Fayetteville. The company announced late this afternoon that it would eliminate discharge containing GenX into the Cape Fear River, a drinking water supply. GenX has been detected in the Cape Fear […]
Duke Energy settles lawsuit over Sutton plant; submits post-hurricane Plan of Action for Lee
Duke Energy has settled a lawsuit with three environmental groups by contributing $1 million to a fund that will be used to protect the Lower Cape Fear Basin at and below the Sutton plant in Wilmington. Under the terms of the agreement, the utility will also provide up to $250,000 in matching funds raised by […]