Detlef Knappe
PFAS found in blood samples of more than 1,000 people in Cape Fear River Basin
For more than a year, Laura Petersen has waited for the message to arrive. “I’m so nervous to open that letter,” she said at a meeting this week co-hosted by scientists from the GenX Exposure Study and members of the Haw River Assembly. Petersen and her family have lived in Pittsboro for 12 years. Every […]
New research confirms presence of toxic “forever chemicals” in scores of NC water supplies
GenX study shows contamination in 80% of wells tested; mice studies show liver damage from Nafion Byproduct 2 Raw water supplies for at least 169 public utilities in North Carolina contained some level of toxic PFAS, underscoring the call by scientists to regulate the 5,000-plus perfluorinated compounds as a class and and amplifying new science showing their detrimental health effects on humans.
Reverse osmosis removes PFAS better than filtration pitchers — for a price
Drinking water filters in pitchers and refrigerators reduce levels of perfluorinated compounds — PFAS — less effectively than reverse osmosis and two-stage filtration systems, according to a new study conducted by Duke University and NC State University scientists. Teams lead by professors Heather Stapleton and Detlef Knappe compared the levels of contaminants in raw water […]
What is your compost made of? Use public records to find out.
Read the two-part investigation about how a lack of federal regulations and state oversight allowed 1,4-Dioxane, a likely carcinogen, to be trucked in wastewater sludge from DAK America, a plastics plant in Fayetteville, to McGill Environmental, which used the material to make compost. Staking out a McGill Environmental truck was not how I planned to […]
15 years ago, a DEQ employee spoke up about groundwater contamination at DuPont. And nothing happened.
(Scroll down to read details of the consent order.) For state regulators, a 46-page consent order marks the end of a decades’- long shell game that Chemours/DuPont played with the Department of Environmental Quality over the company’s secret discharges and emissions of GenX and other perfluorinated compounds. But for some North Carolina residents who oppose […]
No longer able to rely on the EPA, DEQ turns to NC Policy Collaboratory for PFAS testing in drinking water
With the EPA hamstrung by the government shutdown, the NC Department of Environmental Quality has asked the NC Policy Collaboratory to sample drinking water for 26 types of perfluorinated compounds. DEQ samples weekly at five facilities — Bladen Bluffs, International Paper, Northwest Brunswick, Pender County and the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s Sweeney plant — and […]
Health goal for GenX in drinking water could be reduced; EPA accepting public comment on draft toxicity report
More people living near the Chemours plant could qualify for alternate water supplies if the EPA’s initial findings on the toxicity of GenX, released last week, are finalized. The basis for the potential switch is the EPA’s draft report proposing a chronic reference dose for GenX that translates to a health goal of 110 […]
A third of 110 private drinking water wells near Chemours tested high for GenX
NC Policy Watch has more coverage of yesterday’s meeting of the House Select Committee on River Quality. An assisting living home on Tranquility Road. Nine residences in one subdivision and three in another. Sampling from September show the extent — so far — of GenX contamination in private drinking water wells near the Chemours plant. […]
As if GenX in the water wasn’t troubling enough, now it could be in the air
When the groundwater tests for GenX came back, DEQ staff weren’t particularly surprised that nearly every monitoring well around the Chemours plant was contaminated with high levels of the compound. After all, that’s the source of GenX in the Cape Fear River and drinking water downstream. But what did surprise them is that one […]
DEQ files suit against Chemours, says it will suspend company’s wastewater permit unless demands are met
The NC Department of Environmental Quality and state justice department officials filed a civil complaint against Chemours in Bladen County Court today, asking a judge to force the company to stop discharging all perfluoronated chemicals from its Fayetteville plant into the Cape Fear River. Attorneys with the NC Department of Justice are representing the state in […]