GenX
Previously reported – April 2023
CFPUA files suit to make sure DuPont is held responsible for PFAS, GenX contamination
Cape Fear Public Utility Authority is taking the fight to DuPont in a lawsuit attempting to make sure all parties are held responsible for the contamination of the Cape Fear region with compounds known as “forever chemicals.” Chemours, and before them DuPont, contaminated the Cape Fear River and the surrounding region with toxic chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, for more than 30 years. The contamination began, according to CFPUA and others, in about 1980 when DuPont operated the Fayetteville Works chemical plant outside of Fayetteville. Up until 2015, DuPont dumped PFAS into the environment surrounding the chemical plant, tainting the drinking water source to roughly 1-in-15 North Carolinians as a result. CFPUA has already filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to hold DuPont and Chemours accountable for their actions, but this new lawsuit is trying make sure DuPont doesn’t escape responsibility. In the lawsuit, which was filed on Friday, CFPUA alleges DuPont used various business transactions and restructuring from 2015 to 2019 to avoid financial responsibility for the contamination of the Cape Fear River, according to a press release from CFPUA. CFPUA’s claims largely match allegations the state of North Carolina and others have levied against DuPont in lawsuits they’ve filed against the chemical giant. The groups allege DuPont knew PFAS were dangerous and that the company’s liability for dumping these compounds into the environment stretched into the billions of dollars, according to CFPUA and others’ lawsuits. CFPUA and others claim DuPont used various business transactions, including spinning off its performance chemical business into a new company called Chemours, to avoid responsibility. By spinning off Chemours and transferring its wealth to other spinoff entities and subsidiaries, DuPont’s alleged plan was to prevent CFPUA, the state of North Carolina and others from ever holding DuPont accountable, according to CFPUA and others. “Clearly the damages scared the executives such that it drove them to engage in this incredibly complex corporate shell game,” said North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein in an interview with the StarNews back in January. CFPUA alleges in its lawsuit that these transactions and restructuring allowed DuPont to “strip away” more than $20 billion in its assets over the course of a five-year period, according to CFPUA’s lawsuit. “As a result, DuPont was left with substantially fewer tangible assets than it had prior to the restructuring.” “Upon information and belief, the purpose of Project Beta was to avoid responsibility for the widespread environmental harm that DuPont’s PFAS contamination had caused and shield billions of dollars in assets from these substantial liabilities,” according to CFPUA’s lawsuit. CFPUA’s Delaware lawsuit seeks to make sure DuPont pays for the damages the public utility incurred, which it estimated to be roughly $238 million, despite the various business transactions, according to CFPUA’s lawsuit. CFPUA named Chemours, E.I. DuPont, DuPont De Nemours (commonly referred to as “New DuPont” in CFPUA and others’ lawsuits) and Corteva (another spinoff of DuPont) in its lawsuit. CFPUA’s new lawsuit was filed in Delaware because both Chemours and DuPont are headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, according to CFPUA officials. “Plaintiff brings this action to ensure the voidable transfers concocted by Defendants do not preclude Plaintiffs from recovering the amounts to which it is entitled from (CFPUA’s federal lawsuit),” according to CFPUA’s lawsuit.
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Previously reported – October 2023
Lawsuit against Chemours, DuPont moves forward following class action certification
A lawsuit against Chemours and DuPont is moving forward after a federal judge granted class action certification to over 100,000 North Carolina residents. According to Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, the residents “allege that The Chemours Company (Chemours) and DuPont Chemical (DuPont) illegally discharged toxic wastewater containing PFAS and GenX chemicals, aka ‘forever chemicals,’ from its Fayetteville Works plant into the Cape Fear River, failed to inform residents, failed to inform government officials after learning of its damaging impacts, and continued these harmful practices for decades. The plaintiffs claim that they unknowingly consumed drinking water contaminated with these chemicals, that they now suffer from and face the risk of serious health problems, and that Chemours and DuPont should pay the cost of eliminating the contamination of these PFAS chemicals from their homes.” The class certification was granted by United States District Judge James Dever III on Wednesday, Oct. 4. “The class action was first brought in 2017 in the Eastern District of North Carolina,” the announcement states. “In 2018, Cohen Milstein and Susman Godfrey were court appointed Interim Co-Lead Class Counsel. “Since filing the case, Cohen Milstein and Susman Godfrey have provided information to DEQ in support of the development and enforcement of the consent order while seeking additional relief through the class action.” This lawsuit against Chemours and DuPont joins other cases focusing on the contamination of the Cape Fear River. Earlier this year, Chemours, DuPont and Corteva agreed to a more than a billion-dollar settlement amid complaints they polluted drinking water across the country. Additionally, in March, the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority filed a lawsuit to prevent Chemours, DuPont and related companies from restructuring to avoid liability for damage caused by PFAS at the Fayetteville Works plant. The full order can be accessed here. More information about Cohen Milstein, including the class action case, can be found here.
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Previously reported – November 2023
‘Hold Chemours accountable’:
Brunswick sends letter on GenX import concerns to EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency recently authorized Chemours to import millions of pounds of GenX from a Dutch company under criminal investigation. Commissioners of Brunswick County — found by one national study to have the worst PFAS contamination among 44 municipalities — voiced their concerns about the decision Wednesday in a letter to administrator Michael Regan. Brunswick County residents, like all North Carolina and U.S. residents, deserve access to clean drinking water,” Chair Randy Thompson wrote in the letter. “All residents who source their water from the Cape Fear River and a growing number of residents who source their water from drinking water wells are affected by Chemours’ pollution and have yet to see the company fulfill NCDEQ’s 2019 Consent Order.” On Sept. 8, the EPA sent a letter to Chemours permitting the import of more than 4 million pounds of GenX from the company’s Dordrecht, Netherlands facility to the Chemours Fayetteville Works plant in Bladen County, North Carolina through Sept. 6 2024. The approval follows a class action lawsuit filed last month by Dutch criminal attorney Bénédicte Ficq against DuPont and its spinoff Chemours; the suit alleges the companies’ executives knowingly caused decades of PFAS pollution. The Fayetteville plant will use the imported GenX for “recycle and reuse.” Thompson, writing on behalf of the board of commissioners, noted Chemours’ previous improper GenX waste disposal is still present in the Cape Fear River. The Fayetteville Works’ barrier wall, to capture contamination, was completed in June — months after the consent order mandated. Thompson said weekly PFAS tests performed at the Northwest Water Treatment Plant show the prevalence of PFAS compounds in the county is still high. He argued insufficient time has passed to ensure the wall is effectively preventing PFAS from entering the river. The commissioners urged the EPA to guarantee Chemours “has significantly reduced the amount of PFAS entering the Cape Fear River before allowing more PFAS into the state.” The chair included a list of county recommendations in the letter, such as including the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality in future PFAS authorizations and to “hold Chemours accountable to future changes to health advisory levels or maximum contaminant levels.” NCDEQ was not made aware of EPA’s decision to import GenX, nor did it have any say in the matter. The letter argued Chemours’ actions have already unfairly burdened the county’s taxpayers and water customers; construction on the Northwest Water Treatment Plant’s low-pressure reverse osmosis facility — plagued by years of delays — has already cost $24,229,190. Thompson said the county has issued a total of $167.3 million in revenue bonds for the facility. He also noted GenX and other PFAS compounds have been found in private wells used by county residents. A study by the National Resources Defense Council found significant amounts of 12 PFAS compounds excluded from EPA testing methods in the county. The letter can be read here.
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Remember GenX and PFAS contaminants? Why they’re back in the news and what it means for NC
Researchers have found more types of PFAS “forever chemicals” in the Cape Fear River. The news comes as Chemours looks to import GenX from its plant in the Netherlands to Fayetteville.
Six years ago the StarNews broke the story that water in the Cape Fear River downstream of Chemours’ Fayetteville Works Plant contained high levels of previously unknown chemicals used in common everyday products like food packaging, cookware, medical devices and adhesives. The manmade per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including GenX, are frequently dubbed “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down quickly in the environment, can linger in the body, and have been tied to a host of health problems and ailments. Fast-forward to 2023 and the questions surrounding PFAS and their ongoing environmental, financial and health problems have often taken a backseat in the public realm behind pandemics, toxic politics, global conflicts and worries about a slowing economy. That has occurred even as the national scope of the contamination has grown as more and more areas around the country, including military bases where PFAS have been used in firefighting foam for decades, are found to be polluted with the chemicals. But two reports in recent weeks have brought the issue back to the forefront in the Tar Heel State. In mid-October the news website NC Newsline reported that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved plans by Chemours to restart the import of GenX from its plant in the Netherlands to Fayetteville Works, a process that the federal regulators had frozen in 2018 over concerns of “outdated data” and “inappropriate use of a combined waste stream.” A Chemours spokesperson told the Fayetteville Observer that the 4-million-pound figure was the maximum amount the company would be allowed to import over the next year, but that they will likely import far less. The chemical would be recycled and reused, reducing the amount of new GenX that would have to be produced, the spokesperson added. The announcement that Chemours could be importing more GenX into North Carolina even as the long-term fallout from decades of dumping “forever chemicals” into the Cape Fear by Chemours and DuPont, which spun off Chemours in 2015, that then made their way into local water supplies remains to be determined drew angry responses from environmentalists and community activists. On Tuesday Gov. Roy Cooper joined in, stating that the EPA’s decision should be “reconsidered and reversed.” “It is unacceptable for North Carolinians to bear the risks associated with importing millions of pounds of GenX from other countries for disposal in our air, land and water,” the governor said in a letter to the EPA. “Under the Biden Administration, the EPA has been a vital partner in our efforts to learn more about these chemicals and protect the health of our communities and we will continue to encourage them to take action.” Then two weeks ago North Carolina researchers published a peer-reviewed paper in the journal Science stating that they had discovered 11 new PFAS compounds in the Cape Fear River below the Chemours plant. The discovery was made by using a novel testing method and adds to the more than 14,000 known PFAS created by industry. “However, the exact number of unique PFAS is difficult to estimate as additional compounds are continually developed and identified,” the study states. “Furthermore, a very small percentage of these chemicals have any publicly available information on their toxicological impacts or presence in the environment.” While regulators can begin monitoring for the 11 new PFAS, more studies will be required to determine their toxicity and how long they stay in the environment. And as state and local officials have seen with GenX, in can take years for safe standards to be adopted − all the while local utilities, health officials and residents struggle with what’s already in their water and the environment. Last month a federal judge allowed more than 100,000 North Carolina residents and property owners to move forward with a class-action suit against DuPont and Chemours. The plaintiffs sued in 2017 after it became public that the companies had been discharging PFAS into the Cape Fear River, groundwater around Fayetteville Works, and air since 1980. They claim the manmade contaminants had led to them developing various diseases and are seeking punitive and compensatory damages for, among other things, the cost of replacing tainted pipes, plumbing fixtures, and installing water-purification systems. While still fighting some of the contamination allegations, DuPont and Chemours have been working to settle other legal disputes. In June, the two companies along with Corteva, an Indianapolis-based company that provides seeds and crop-protection solutions, reached a $1.19 billion settlement with a slew of public water systems over PFAS contamination. The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA) was not one of the systems that settled with the companies. The authority, which provides water and sewer service to most New Hanover County residents, has sued Chemours and DuPont to recover costs and damages associated with their PFAS contamination and its impact on the authority’s operations. That includes $43 million CFPUA spent to install eight granular-activated carbon (GAC) filters to remove PFAS contamination at CFPUA’s Sweeney Water Treatment Plant. The facility draws water from the Cape Fear and provides drinking water to about 80% of CFPUA’s customers. North Carolina legislators also are continuing to earmark state funds to deal with the PFAS crisis, including $55 million in the recently passed state budget. That amount includes $35 million to CFPUA, part of which will be used to extend water lines to private well owners.
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Previously reported – December 2023
EPA pulls plug on previously approved GenX imports
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reversed its approval for Chemours to import GenX into North Carolina. The agency announced its decision today, prompting quick responses from both state officials and the company. “It’s good that the EPA reversed this decision and I’m grateful for their quick response,” Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement. “We have been working for years in North Carolina to force the cleanup of forever chemicals to help ensure clean water, and companies like Chemours have made this effort more difficult.” Chemours in a release this afternoon said it does not discharge GenX into the Cape Fear River through its recycling process at its Fayetteville Works facility in Bladen County and that a “calculation error” had incorrectly identified the amount the company wants to import. “Our reclamation and recycling process for [GenX] is circular and more environmentally friendly than manufacturing larger quantities of new compound,” the release states. “We identified and acknowledged a calculation error in the applications to the Dutch ILT that we proactively disclosed to US regulators. The amount being imported is in fact far below the levels approved by EPA in the original permit. We are working to correct the information and will continue to engage with authorities on the path forward.” The EPA’s decision in October to sign off on Chemours importing as much as 4 million pounds of GenX from its plant in the Netherlands sparked outrage from state and local officials. GenX is one of thousands of manmade chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and is specific to Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant. Chemours is under a Consent Order with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and the nonprofit Cape Fear River Watch to drastically reduce the amount of PFAS it discharges into the environment, including the Cape Fear River, which is the drinking water source for tens of thousands of people. The company is also being held responsible for PFAS contamination in private wells throughout the Cape Fear region, which includes at least eight counties. The EPA made its decision to reverse course based on information provided by DEQ, according to a department release. “We appreciate that the EPA heard the concerns shared by the Governor and the residents directly affected by PFAS contamination from Chemours,” NCDEQ Secretary Elizabeth Biser said in a statement. “North Carolina is committed to reducing PFAS pollution and today’s reversal aligns with that goal.” The company stated that it had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in emissions controls at its Fayetteville plant. “Chemours responsibly manufactures critical products that support national and Biden Administration priorities like American manufacturing of semiconductors and decarbonizing the energy sector. Our products and our actions promote a more sustainable future, and we will continue to deliver on our commitment to reduce our environmental footprint.” In September, experts appointed to the United Nations sent letters to Chemours, Corteva and DuPont de Nemours criticizing their use of PFAS. Those UN experts said the companies likely violated the human rights of residents in the Cape Fear region. Letters were also sent to the governments of the Netherlands and the United States accusing regulators of failing to protect human health and the environment.
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EPA reverses approval of GenX waste importation after DEQ found inaccurate information
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday the reversal of its authorization for Chemours to import millions of pounds of GenX waste. It sent a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper, who expressed his disapproval of the EPA’s decision earlier this month. In the Nov. 29 letter to Gov. Cooper, EPA administrator Michael Regan noted the reversal was influenced by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s finding Chemours did not provide accurate information about export volume requested and the amount of GenX waste its Fayetteville facility could process. Regan wrote it was “different from a factor of ten from the amount the company had initially quoted” in its notification approved by the EPA. “Because information in both notifications was incorrect, the September 8, 2023 consents to the import of waste from the Netherlands into the United States are no longer valid,” Regan wrote. In a statement on the decision Wednesday, Chemours insisted its calculation error was “proactively disclosed to US regulators” and said the imported waste would be far below the amount approved in the initial permit. Chemours said its importation of GenX waste would be used for recycling; it argued this is more environmentally friendly than manufacturing new compounds. It claimed the recycled PFAS waste would not be discharged in the Cape Fear River. The Sept. 8 EPA decision permitted Chemours to import more than 4 million pounds of GenX waste for recycle and reuse from the company’s Dordrecht, Netherlands facility, which is under criminal investigation. The waste would have been shipped to Chemours Fayetteville Works plant in Bladen County, North Carolina. The import was halted after public outcry and letters were sent to the EPA from Gov. Cooper, as well as local leaders from New Hanover and Brunswick counties. Gov. Cooper issued a statement Wednesday commending the new EPA decision. “It’s good that the EPA reversed this decision and I’m grateful for their quick response,” Cooper said in a statement Wednesday. “We have been working for years in North Carolina to force the cleanup of forever chemicals to help ensure clean water, and companies like Chemours have made this effort more difficult.” The New Hanover Board of Commissioners similarly released a joint statement: “This development is a significant victory for the environmental health and safety of New Hanover County and the Cape Fear River. We commend the EPA and NCDEQ for their diligent efforts and collaboration in making this critical decision, reflecting our shared commitment to protect our community.” North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis also released a statement Wednesday celebrating the EPA’s reversal. “It is vital all North Carolinians have access to safe water, and I’ll continue my work to address the risks posed by emerging PFAS contaminants, just like we did with the historic clean water investment in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” he said.
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Previously reported – February 2024
NC ‘Forever Chemical’ Plant Violates Human Rights, U.N. Panel Says
The allegations of human rights violations linked to pollution from the factory broadens a yearslong battle over the site and over the chemicals known as PFAS.
The dumping of contaminated wastewater by a chemical plant on the Cape Fear River began more than four decades ago, making the river water unsafe to drink for 100 miles. This week, in response to a petition by community groups in North Carolina, a United Nations panel called the pollution a human rights issue. The U.N. concerns about human-rights violations, the kind of claims that Americans might be more used to seeing leveled at foreign countries, broaden the scope of a global fight over the harms from what are known as forever chemicals, or by their acronym PFAS. They are the subject of a yearslong dispute over their dangers. Chemours, the chemicals giant that took over the plant in 2015, and DuPont before it, “are completely disregarding the rights and well-being of residents” along the river, a panel of U.N. human rights experts said. The pollution continues “even as DuPont and Chemours had information about the toxic impacts of PFAS on human health and drinking water,” they said, using the acronym for polyfluoroalkyl substances, a group of chemicals, many of which are toxic. Chemours said it was “committed to responsibly manufacturing and producing products in a manner consistent with international principles.” The products it makes at its plant at Fayetteville, N.C., contributed to “vital technologies for green hydrogen, electric vehicles and semiconductor manufacturing,” the company said. Chemours is currently moving ahead with plans to expand the Fayetteville plant. DuPont has rejected claims that it bears responsibility for the Fayetteville plant, which it spun off as part of a corporate restructuring in 2015. PFAS are human-made chemicals that companies have used to make a wide range of water- or grease-resistant products including nonstick cookware, pizza boxes, water-repellent clothing, stain-resistant fabrics and carpets, firefighting foam and some cosmetics. They don’t naturally break down and instead accumulate in the environment and in the blood and organs of people and animals. Research by both chemical companies and academics have shown that exposure to PFAS has been linked to cancer, liver damage, birth defects and other health problems. A newer type of PFAS, GenX, which Chemours makes at its Fayetteville plant, was designed to be a safer alternative to earlier generations of the chemicals. New studies, however, are discovering similar health hazards. State regulators have repeatedly fined the Fayetteville plant for exceeding emissions limits, and, over the years, the Environmental Protection Agency has also issued a string of violations. In 2021, the agency started requiring chemical manufacturers to test and publicly report the amount of PFAS in household items as part of what it calls its PFAS Strategic Roadmap, a strategy to protect public health and the environment. Still, the U.N. panel, made up of special rapporteurs from its Human Rights Council, said both the E.P.A. and local regulators had “fallen short in their duty to protect against business-related human rights abuses.” That included failing to provide affected communities in North Carolina “with the type and amount of information necessary to prevent harm and seek reparation,” the panel said. The E.P.A. declined to comment. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Local environmentalists called on Chemours to halt its expansion in Fayetteville and focus on cleaning up the pollution. “We still have residents in our region who do not have access to clean, safe drinking water,” said Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear, which petitioned last year for the United Nations to open a human rights investigation. “We’re finding PFAS along our beaches, in locally grown produce and locally caught fish. It’s also in our air and rainwater,” she said. Yet “Chemours wants to expand production and make more PFAS.”
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Previously reported – April 2024
EPA head Michael Regan returns to NC,
announces new standards for ‘forever chemicals’
The federal government has set standards for so-called forever chemicals in drinking water and will provide $1 billion for testing and other protective measures, said Michael Regan, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, who spoke Wednesday morning in Fayetteville. Regan announced the measures regarding PFAS, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, at an event in front of the P.O. Hoffer Water Plant operated by the Public Works Commission, the locally owned utility. Regan served as director of North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality from 2017 until March 2021 when President Joe Biden tapped him to head the EPA. “Today I’m proud to return to North Carolina to announce the first-ever, nationwide, legally enforceable drinking water standard for PFAS,” Regan said, “the most significant action EPA has ever taken on PFAS.” He said the chemicals, which are used in products such as non-stick coating for cookware and firefighting foam, “have a place and are important for certain industries and certain practices.” But he added: “There is also no doubt that these chemicals entering into our environment in an uncontrolled manner are harmful to our families, harmful to our communities and harmful to our economy.” The new standards will require utilities to test for six different types of PFAS in drinking water; the chemicals have been linked to certain types of cancer. The new standards limit PFOA and PFOS, two common types of PFAS, to 4 parts per trillion, as well as four other types of PFAS similar to those two. The regulations could reduce the impact pf PFAS on 100 million people, Regan said. A reporter’s question to Regan at Wednesday’s event noted that the standards addressed six types of PFAS but there were thousands. “We’re starting with this six,” he said. “With this six, we have the best science and data to design these health standards.” He said the EPA would “continue until we get to all of them.”
Activist: Persistent as forever chemicals
Other speakers Wednesday were N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper; state Attorney General Josh Stein; Brenda Mallory, chairperson of the Council on Environmental Quality for the Biden Administration; Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin; Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group; and Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear and a mother whose family has been directly affected by PFAS pollution. Donovan, who brought her daughters to the EPA event, listed several activists who had raised concerns about PFAS. She said one of her fellow activists likes to say: “We are as persistent as PFAS.”
‘Preparing for this day’
The Wilmington StarNews first reported evidence of PFAS pollution in the local water supply in 2017, tracing the contamination to the Chemours Fayetteville Works plant at the Bladen and Cumberland county line. In 2019, a consent order was negotiated by Regan’s DEQ; Chemours; and the Southern Environmental Law Center, representing Cape Fear River Watch. It requires the chemical company to reduce its impact on the water, air and soil through several measures, including well-testing and providing bottled water or other replacement water to residents. Cooper and Stein highlighted the state’s role in dealing with PFAS contamination. “In North Carolina, we’ve already been preparing for this day,” Cooper said about the new standards. “Our Department of Environmental Quality is partnering with our local water systems, getting ready, taking hundreds of samples of water, providing technical assistance.” The state will propose PFAS limits for surface and groundwater, too, he said.
‘Bring some money by’
Cumberland County Commissioner Glenn Adams praised the EPA decision and said he believed it was just the beginning. The Wednesday announcement applies to the whole nation, he said. “For us, we already knew what the issue was,” he said. “Hopefully when they talk about reducing limits they’ll bring some money by. “We’ve already been talking about Gray’s Creek and Cedar Creek — it’s spreading” he said about PFAS contamination. He says the officials he heard from today appreciated that funding was needed. “It’s a health risk,” he said. “We always talk about the health risk.”
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EPA announces new PFAS standards for water utilities, but fails to address NC chemical industry
On Wednesday, the EPA announced first-time legally enforceable maximum contaminant levels (MCL) for six types of PFAS. They include:
- PFOA 4.0 parts per trillion (ppt)
- PFOS 4.0ppt
- GenX chemicals 10ppt
- PFNA 10ppt
- PFHxS 10ppt
- Mixtures of GenX, PFNA, PFHxS, and PFBS meeting a hazard index standard of 1.
“This is a very important first step, a huge move for the EPA to protect communities in our country,” Southern Environmental Law Center senior attorney Jean Zhuang told Port City Daily. Public water utilities will be required to complete initial monitoring of the compounds by 2027 and must implement solutions to reduce chemicals exceeding the MCL by 2029. After 2029, utilities with PFAS exceeding MCLs will be required to give public notice of the violation and take action to reduce them in drinking water. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is seeking federal funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to assist water utilities in funding expensive filtration technology. CFPUA installed its granular-activated carbon system in 2022, which cost $43 million. It raised its rates 8% in 2022 to help cover the costs. CFPUA spokesperson Cammie Bellamy said the utility is in compliance with the EPA’s new rules and provides updated testing results. She said the site will soon include comparisons with new PFAS maximum contaminant levels. Pender County spokesperson Brandi Cobb said Pender is also in compliance with the new standards and has been filtering PFAS compounds through its GAC system. “We appreciate having a specific regulation, as it offers clarity and guidelines on the essential measures to mitigate toxic chemicals in the water,” Pender County Utilities executive director Anthony Colon told PCD. “Nonetheless, it is concerning that the EPA places more responsibility on utility companies and their customers than on the companies responsible for introducing these chemicals into the water in the first place.” While the MCL standards place requirements on public water utilities, it remains unclear if the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality will implement the rules for companies that require pollution discharge elimination system permits. In a public comment to the EPA, CFPUA executive director Kenneth Waldroup said PFAS manufacturers should be the foremost focus of expensive regulation, not utilities. According to DEQ Deputy Communications Director Josh Kastrinsky, the agency is proposing to include the EPA’s PFAS standards in the state’s surface and groundwater standards to the Environmental Management Commission, the appointed body oversees and creates rules for DEQ. North Carolina currently does not have surface or groundwater water standards for PFAS; new standards would include PFAS in discharge permits. It’s unclear if the EPA’s new rules will affect a recent permit submitted by automotive manufacturer Lear Corporation, for instance, which included no PFAS limitations in its February draft NPDES permit for its Kenansville facility. DEQ extended the public comment period for the draft permit after a Cape Fear River Watch petition protesting the omission gained thousands of signatures. It is currently under EPA review. Kastrinksy told Port City Daily the agency is currently reviewing public comments for Lear’s draft permit and a final announcement will be made soon. “We do want to emphasize that EPA and our states need to take the next step and ensure that utilities can meet these standards — and not be too burdened — that they should begin using existing legal tools under the Clean Water Act to stop PFAS pollution at the source,” Zhuang said. Beyond Lear, she noted other known and suspected North Carolina dischargers do not have PFAS limitations in their NPDES permits, including DAK Americas’ emissions in the Cape Fear River and Colonial Pipeline, which releases in the Yadkin River watershed. “Dischargers should be tasked with implementing best available control technologies (BACT) in all cases for cleaning our waters and air,” UNCW geographer Roger Shew told PCD. “This should not be a discussion item. If the technology is available then it should be put in place — that is and should be EPA’s responsibility.” Cape Fear River Watch executive director Dana Sargent said she views the announcement as positive, but argued the EPA’s first-time PFAS regulations should have been established decades earlier. “Thousands of people have become sick or died from PFAS exposures while the chemical manufacturers who knew of the dangers 60 years ago, cozied up to the EPA, and federal and state officials, who — instead of doing their jobs to protect human health and the environment — helped make these corporations trillions of dollars, completely unregulated, for decades,” Sargent said. On March 19, Cape Fear River Watch and other local nonprofits sent a letter to EPA expressing alarm about the agency’s private, invite-only workshop on the national PFAS testing strategy with chemical industry representatives. The groups are currently suing the EPA to require comprehensive PFAS testing in North Carolina, to include 54 Chemours-specific compounds. Zhuang pressed the fact that Wednesday’s announcement only applies to a few PFAS compounds; different agencies estimate a range from 6,000 to more than 12,000 variants. She hopes for more comprehensive regulation in the future. Sargent similarly called for more expansive action: “It’s time the USA adopts the precautionary principle followed by other developed countries, which requires companies prove their products are safe before they enter the environment, rather than waiting for people to get sick and die, before beginning a decades-long process to regulate them.” She added the agency has not sought public input for its PFAS testing strategy, which Sargent believes is excessively influenced by the chemical industry. “Even now, they refuse to regulate the corporations directly by requiring them to stop the pollution at the source, but instead put the burden on utilities to either filter this dangerous filth or do the government’s job to pressure companies to stop discharging it,” she said. Powerful business groups in the state such as the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce, North Carolina Manufacturers Alliance, and the American Chemistry Council have pushed against stronger PFAS regulations. Legislators introduced a House Bill 600 provision last year to limit DEQ from imposing limits on PFAS, but withdrew it after public backlash. Industry groups also fought against Rep. Ted Davis Jr’s bill to require Chemours to pay for the public utilities’ PFAS filtration systems in New Hanover and Brunswick counties in 2022. Shew said DEQ should work with PFAS discharging companies to meet the new standards:. “And if they don’t, they should be held fiscally accountable. There should be incentive penalties to ensure they adhere to the new rules.”
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EPA announces first-of-its-kind restrictions on PFAS contamination in drinking water
The Environmental Protection Agency announced utilities will have to restrict the amount of forever chemicals in their drinking water supply by 2029. “Today is a significant step towards cleaner and safer water for all Americans,” Governor Roy Cooper said. “These new standards will give people the confidence they deserve when they turn on the tap.” The announcement was made Wednesday when state and federal leaders gathered in Fayetteville by the Chemours company’s Fayetteville Works Plant. Chemours contaminated the area’s drinking water supply by dumping forever chemicals in the Cape Fear River. According to the Environmental Working Group, North Carolina is third in the nation when it comes to PFAS water contamination. For years, local advocates have been calling for regulations. Dana Sargent is one such advocate and executive director of Cape Fear River Watch. She says the water contamination has caused numerous people living in Fayetteville and the Cape Fear region to experience health problems. “There are a ton of stories in this community of people with diseases that are directly linked to PFAs,” Sargent said. “Thyroid disorders, kidney and testicular cancers, things that you wouldn’t expect in the ages of people, and then it’s generational.” While Sargent is happy the limits are now in place, she questions why it took so long for them to pass the regulations and why they won’t actually be enforcing them for the next five years. “Our federal government knew PFAS was dangerous at least 26 years ago, and here we are in 2024 with the first regulation,” Sargent said. “They’re allowing sampling for three years. Currently, in North Carolina, we’ve had sampling for about 7. We don’t need any more sampling. We know there’s PFAs in the water. We could move forward right away with forcing the utilities to get these things filtered.” Sargent said she also wished the new restrictions put the burden on the producers of these chemicals, not the water suppliers. “I want our federal government and our state regulators to hold the polluters accountable, and that’s missing from this type of action,” Sargent said. “It’s our pocketbooks and it’s our health that’s been burdened by these companies who continue to bank off of this stuff.”
The new maximum contaminant levels are:
- PFOA 4.0 parts per trillion (ppt)
- PFOS 4.0ppt
- GenX chemicals 10ppt
- PFNA 10ppt
- PFHxS 10ppt
“These are really pretty good because it’s hard to detect those chemicals lower than those levels,” Sargent said. “The right answer would be we don’t want any PFAS contamination in our water, but there will never be a perfect filtration system.” WECT reached out to three utility companies in the area to see if they currently comply with these new restrictions. Cape Fear Public Utility Authority says all of its systems comply since they implemented a new filtration system in 2022. H2GO in Brunswick County said its systems also comply because it sources its water from Lower Peedee and Black Creek aquifers which are free of PFAS contaminants, and not the Cape Fear River. Brunswick County Public Utility says its systems do not comply with these new standards yet but should soon. The utility is in the process of building a filtration system that should help remove PFAs from the water supply. Contractors estimate the project should be completed by the end of 2024.
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With new ‘forever chemical’ standards set,
how will NC utilities clean up their water?
Filtering manmade chemicals like GenX out of public water supplies could cost billions. Utilities say their customers shouldn’t have to shoulder the costs
In a historic announcement earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its first-ever drinking water standards to protect people against toxic “forever chemicals.” Michael Regan, EPA administrator and North Carolina’s former top environmental regulator, traveled to Fayetteville to unveil the new regulations for six manmade per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including GenX. The chemicals are used in many household and everyday items, and they “have a place and are important for certain industries and certain practices,” Regan said. But decades of uncontrolled dumping of the chemical compounds into the environment, including into waterways and groundwater that serve as drinking sources for millions, and their widespread use, including in fire-fighting foam, has seen PFAS contamination and health concerns proliferate across the country. The substances are often called forever chemicals because they do not easily break down in nature or the human body. The choice of Fayetteville for the announcement was not by accident. Seven years ago, the StarNews broke the story that water in the Cape Fear River downstream of Chemours’ Fayetteville Works Plant contained high levels of previously unknown chemicals. In the years since, PFAS have been found throughout the United States and worries about the environmental, financial and health impacts of this national contamination have seen a raft of moves to protect people, punish the PFAS polluters, and learn more about the true health impacts of the compounds that have already been linked to several types of cancer. While officials, environmentalists and grassroots activists said this month’s announcement is a welcome first step to help protect people and the environment from the still largely unknown impacts from the widespread contamination, it’s only the beginning. “It’s absolutely fantastic to now have these baseline standards for our public water systems,” said Jean Zhuang, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). “But we need further steps to stop PFAS from getting into the environment in the first place, and that means going after the polluters who are profiting from producing these chemicals.” She added that existing legal tools, like the federal Clean Water Act, already give federal and state regulators the ammunition to go after these industries. But enforcement and seeing actual steps on the ground is a slow process. It took six years after Chemours, and its former parent DuPont, were found to have been dumping GenX and other forever chemicals into the Cape Fear River for decades from Fayetteville Works before a barrier wall and groundwater capture and treatment project were in place to stop more than 90% of PFAS-contaminated water from reaching the river. Then there’s the sheer volume of PFAS out there. According to the EPA, there are nearly 15,000 synthetic chemicals and little is known about the potential health impacts of most of them. “We’re starting with this six,” Regan said at the Fayetteville event. “With this six, we have the best science and data to design these health standards.” In a statement, Chemours said it was proud of its actions using the best-available technologies to eliminate almost all PFAS discharges from Fayetteville Works. “We know of no other company in North Carolina that has made such a significant investment to address emissions and legacy remediation,” company spokesperson Cassie Olszewski wrote. But Chemours did express some reservations over the EPA’s new PFAS limits in drinking water. “While we will review the final regulation, we have serious concerns with the underlying science used and the process EPA followed in developing the (maximum contaminant levels), including as commented to EPA by various parties,” the company said. “Chemours supports government regulation that is grounded in the best available science and follows the law.”
Multibillion-dollar bill
Announcing new standards to limit the amount of toxins coming out of people’s taps might have been the easy part. According to the EPA, the new rule’s requirements will be phased in over the next five years, with initial PFAS monitoring required to be finished within three years and then two additional years for capital improvements if the numbers come in too high. According to the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, more than 300 water systems in the state − including 42 large municipal utilities serving a combined three million residents − have PFAS levels that will exceed the new federal standards. While some larger municipal systems like the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA) that serves New Hanover County and H2GO that serves Brunswick County have the financial pockets to fund the monitoring and installation of PFAS filtration systems on their own before receiving any money from potential settlements with polluters, many do not. That could leave water customers footing the bill if other sources of funding can’t be secured. Recognizing this, Regan said the federal government is making billions in funding available for PFAS testing and future capital improvements to water systems to filter out toxins. North Carolina also has made funding available to help utilities deal with PFAS contaminants. But the Denver-based American Water Works Association (AWWA) fears officials are seriously underestimating the true cost to utilities of meeting the new − and future − PFAS drinking water standards. Chris Moody, AWAA’s regulatory technical manager, said a recent study found the cost of PFAS treatment nationally to be three times higher than the EPA’s estimates, potentially requiring an investment of up to $40 billion. Then there is the EPA’s aggressive five-year timeline to have all of the improvements in place, which will leave water systems competing against each other for limited resources and manpower amid a stretched supply chain. “There is a possibility that even by water systems’ best efforts many will take longer than five years to complete construction and start-up of the new facilities,” Moody said. Which brings us back to getting industry to pony up the costs of PFAS testing and system improvements. Already some major chemical producers have announced settlements topping $11 billion with states and public water providers. That list includes 3M, DuPont, Chemours, Corteva and Johnson Controls. But many cases are continuing to work their way through the courts, and not all states and utilities have agreed to settle with the companies over their PFAS dumping. Zhuang, the SELC attorney, said it was not only important to go after polluters for the PFAS contamination they’ve already caused, but use regulatory steps to stop any more toxins from entering the environment. “We are very excited about this announcement and these new drinking water standards, but there’s always more work that needs to be done,” she said.
More information
Details about the EPA’s new PFAS drinking water standards:
- For PFOA and PFOS, EPA is setting a maximum contaminant level (MCL) goal, a non-enforceable health-based goal, at zero. This reflects the latest science showing that there is no level of exposure to these contaminants without risk of health impacts, including certain cancers.
- EPA is setting enforceable MCL at 4.0 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS, individually. This standard will reduce exposure from these PFAS in our drinking water to the lowest levels that are feasible for effective implementation.
- For PFNA, PFHxS, and “GenX Chemicals,” EPA is setting the MCLGs and MCLs at 10 parts per trillion.
- Because PFAS can often be found together in mixtures, and research shows these mixtures may have combined health impacts, EPA is setting a limit for any mixture of two or more of the following PFAS: PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS, and “GenX Chemicals.
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Previously reported – August 2024
Court dismisses case challenging PFAS health advisory
The U.S. Court of Appeals this week dismissed a chemical company’s claim that the health advisory the Environmental Protection Agency issued in June 2022 for certain man-made chemicals found in drinking water was “unlawful and should be vacated.” The 3rd Circuit three-judge panel in Philadelphia heard the argument Jan. 31 and filed its opinion Tuesday. Chemours Co., which has a facility near Fayetteville, cited a section of the Safe Drinking Water Act that allows petitions for review of “any … final action of the Administrator under this chapter,” according to the ruling. “Contending that the advisory was unlawful, the Chemours Company petitioned for review of EPA’s action. We will dismiss the petition for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because the health advisory is not a final agency action,” the judges found. The EPA estimates that there are thousands of different per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, chemicals used in a range of products like home goods and in manufacturing. PFAS have been detected in surface water, groundwater, rainwater and drinking water. Exposure to some of these widely used, long-lasting synthetic chemicals may be toxic to humans. “This decision supports the very important Safe Drinking Water Act health advisory program,” EPA press secretary Remmington Belford told Coastal Review Wednesday about the ruling. The Center for Environmental Health, Cape Fear River Watch, Clean Cape Fear, Democracy Green, North Carolina Black Alliance, Toxic Free North Carolina, Natural Resources Defense Council and five residents intervened a month after Chemours filed the petition for review in July 2022. Officials with the groups released an announcement Tuesday applauding the court’s decision. “Through the years, our community has learned that when companies like Chemours are not actively hiding the science, they are usually attacking it. This is a win for public health and every resident harmed by GenX exposures. The courts got it right this time,” Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear said Tuesday in a release. “We were hopeful and cautiously optimistic; however, we’ve also seen a shift in court rulings recently that have not been friendly to environmental protections and public health. Yesterday’s verdict was refreshing,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “We believe this ruling is significant for private well owners in the region dealing with Chemours-specific PFAS contamination,” Donovan continued, adding that DEQ adopted the EPA’s GenX health advisory when it came out in 2022 and the ruling Tuesday means DEQ can keep moving forward and require Chemours to provide remedies to private well owners who have levels of GenX exceeding 10 parts per trillion. Historically it was 140 ppt. “DEQ has made addressing PFAS a priority and will continue to rely on science-based, peer-reviewed health standards to protect human health in North Carolina while implementing the Maximum Contaminant Levels set by EPA and pursuing state-level surface water and groundwater standards for PFAS compounds, including GenX,” NCDEQ Deputy Communications Director Josh Kastrinsky said Wednesday. “The Court strongly and unanimously rejected Chemours’s attempt to kill EPA’s scientific guidance on how communities can protect themselves from toxic GenX contamination in tap water,” said Sarah Tallman, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Everyone has a right to turn on their kitchen tap and have safe water, so we will continue to fight the chemical industry and others who try to block efforts to protect our health from toxic hazards.” Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent said in the release that Chemours fought this health advisory level “for the same motivation behind all their actions: money. While the court did not acknowledge their smokescreen, we are grateful they rejected Chemours’ nefarious claim.” Chemours said the ruling was merely a procedural loss. “While we are disappointed with the Third Circuit’s dismissal of our appeal on procedural grounds, the decision means the U.S. EPA’s health advisory on HFPO-Dimer Acid (HFPO-DA) is not enforceable,” Chemours Representative Cassie Olszewski told Coastal Review Wednesday. “Chemours has challenged — along with groups of drinking water providers and manufacturers — the EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Limits (MCL) for drinking water which utilize, in part, the same scientifically unsound analysis. We look forward to having the D.C. Circuit consider the merits of our arguments in connection with our pending challenge to the EPA’s MCL regulation,” Olszewski said.
Leading up to the judges’ decision
After news reports in June 2017 that several types of PFAS had been detected in the Cape Fear River, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality identified Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility as the source. Cape Fear River watch sued both the Department of Environmental Quality and Chemours, resulting in a consent order that has allowed the company to continue operating since February 2019. Since then, both the EPA and DEQ say they have been taking steps to address PFAS. “Drinking water health advisory levels are non-regulatory health-based values that are provided for informational purposes,” according to the EPA. “On June 15, 2022, the EPA published final drinking water health advisories (HAs) for perfluorobutane sulfonic acid and its potassium salt (PFBS) and hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA) and its ammonium salt (‘GenX chemicals’).” The final health advisory values were based on the final EPA toxicity assessments published in 2021, the agency said. Chemours uses HFPO-DA as a “patented polymerization aid in the manufacture of fluoropolymers,” the trade name for which is GenX, according to the company. Chemours filed the petition for review in July 2022, saying the health advisory was arbitrary and capricious and that it was otherwise inconsistent with the law, because EPA incorporated grossly incorrect and overstated exposure assumptions―in essence, EPA used the wrong chemical when making its exposure assumptions, thereby resulting in a significantly less tolerant health advisory for HFPO Dimer Acid than is warranted by the data,” according to the petition. The 3rd Circuit found that Congress enacted the Safe Water Drinking Act to protect drinking water quality and authorizes the EPA administrator to address contaminants in waters by taking various actions, such as putting a regulation in place or issue health advisories. Once EPA officials have the final toxicity assessment, exposure factors and relative source contribution, the federal agency can then publish a health advisory “to inform decisionmakers of what it deems is a safe level of the contaminant in drinking water.” In this instance, the EPA developed a health advisory. Advisories are not regulations, but “provide information’ about a safe level of a contaminant so that government officials and managers of public water systems can ‘determine whether actions are needed to address the presence of [the] contaminant in drinking water,’” the court found. In August 2022, the nonprofit organizations and five residents intervened in the case. The Center for Environmental Health represented Cape Fear River Basin community groups and individuals who have relied on the advisory to fight for health protective drinking water, Senior Legislative Counsel Tom Fox said in a release. “The Third Circuit correctly found that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction because the GenX health advisory is not a final agency action. The court rejected Chemours’ attempts to convert the advisory into a reviewable action with examples of indirect consequences of the health advisory,” Fox said. Donovan told Coastal Review Wednesday that Clean Cape Fear intervened because ‘We wanted the courts to see that the American people — especially those of us living in North Carolina, are hungry for strong enforceable protections the Biden/Harris EPA is implementing regarding PFAS. Chemours publicly claims GenX is safe but the best available science disagrees. We’re tired of Chemours attacking the EPA when it actually begins to do its job and serve the people.”
What’s next?
Chemours filed in June a similar petition for review in the Washington, D.C., circuit after the EPA issued in April the final National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for six PFAS, including perfluorobutane sulfonic acid and its potassium salt, or PFBS, and GenX chemicals, specifically, HFPO-DA. “EPA expects that over many years the final rule will prevent PFAS exposure in drinking water for approximately 100 million people, prevent thousands of deaths, and reduce tens of thousands of serious PFAS-attributable illnesses,” the agency said in April. The drinking water regulation established legally enforceable levels for several PFAS. Donovan noted Wednesday that Clean Cape Fear had learned Tuesday that the group was granted the ability to intervene in defense of EPA’s PFAS drinking water standards. “Chemours, the American Chemistry Council and other groups sued the EPA earlier this year when the first-ever federal drinking water standards for PFAS were finalized. We joined forces with EarthJustice and other contaminated community groups across the nation to intervene in that lawsuit, as well,” she said.
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Federal court backs EPA’s GenX health advisory
Last week, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a suit brought by Chemours. The chemical company, which manufactures GenX (HFPO-DA), a class of a per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, at its Fayetteville Works facility, challenged the health advisory established by the agency in 2022 for GenX in groundwater. Chemours claimed the EPA set the advisory level too low — at 10 parts per trillion — and relied on faulty research to establish it. However, the three-judge panel ruled that the advisory was not a federal regulation and, therefore, rejected Chemours’ argument that the EPA acted unlawfully when issuing a health advisory about the exposure risks of GenX in drinking water. “Through the years, our community has learned that when companies like Chemours are not actively hiding the science, they are usually attacking it,” said Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear. “This is a win for public health and every resident harmed by GenX exposures. The courts got it right this time.” In April 2024, the EPA established maximum contaminant levels for six PFAS in drinking water, out of the thousands of PFAS manufactured in the U.S. The court’s ruling means a consent order, established in 2019 between Chemours, Cape Fear River Watch, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, will remain intact — at least for now. Chemours vows to mount more court challenges. Under the consent order, Chemours is required to carry out specific tasks, such as drinking water well testing, for people who live near the site, including in New Hanover, Brunswick, Pender, and Columbus counties. That includes extending testing to one-quarter mile beyond the closest well with PFAS levels above 10 parts per trillion and annually retesting any wells sampled. Additionally, Chemours is responsible for providing clean drinking water options, such as whole-house filtration systems, to those with wells contaminated with GenX compounds above 10 ppt. For area homeowners like Wilmington resident and business owner Steve Schnitzler, whose well’s GenX level exceeded the health advisory standard when it was tested in August 2023, the court’s ruling means Chemours must keep providing safe drinking water to his home. “I have four reverse osmosis systems in my house right now that Chemours paid for and will maintain for the next 20 years so that we can have clean drinking water,” he said.
‘Forever chemicals’
There are roughly 15,000 unique per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) in the environment, according to experts. Because of their persistence in the environment, PFAS are commonly referred to as “forever chemicals.” They are present in multiple products, including cosmetics and apparel, microwave popcorn wrappers, dental floss, firefighting turnout gear and some firefighting foams. The chemicals are associated with such adverse health effects as increased cholesterol levels, kidney and testicular cancer, dangerously high blood pressure in pregnant women and decreased vaccine response in children. The two most extensively produced and studied families of compounds, PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonic acid), have been phased out in the U.S. Still, because they don’t break down quickly, they can keep accumulating in the environment and in the human body. GenX or HFPO-DA (hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid) was created as a replacement for PFOA.
PFAS Glossary
PFOA – Perfluorooctanoic acid, also known as C8, is produced, and used as an industrial surfactant, which helps things not to stick to one another in chemical processes. It also is a raw material for other forms of PFAS. PFOA was widely manufactured but has largely been phased out of production.
PFOS – Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid was a key ingredient in Scotchgard before being banned by the European Union and Canada. Several U.S. states have banned the chemical, derivatives of which were also used in cosmetics. The EPA announced in 2021 that it would regulate the presence of PFOS in drinking water.
GenX – is a derivative salt of hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA) and was manufactured by Chemours. It’s the substance initially found contaminating the Cape Fear River in 2017. GenX has been used widely in food wrappings, paints, cleaning products, nonstick coatings, and some firefighting foams.
A win for now?
Chemours plans to continue to press its case against the EPA’s position on forever chemicals and will next look to present arguments in a Washington, D.C., appeals court, according to Reuters. Looming in the background of the legal battle between Chemours and the EPA is the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. The court ruled that federal agencies such as the EPA would no longer have the authority to use their expertise to interpret ambiguous laws. Instead, judges will assume responsibility for doing so. The ruling affects the so-called Chevron Doctrine, which emerged from a 1984 Supreme Court case between Chevron Corp. and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The court ruled to defer to the experts at regulatory agencies when federal regulations were ambiguous, so long as the regulators provided a reasonable interpretation. Could the Supreme Court’s ruling handicap regulators and tip the scales and favor corporations such as Chemours in future cases? “The repeal of Chevron deference can cut both ways,” said Tom Fox, senior legislative counsel for the Oakland, California-based Center of Environmental Health. “After all, Chevron v. [Natural Resources Defense Council] in 1984 was a case brought by NRDC challenging the Reagan administration’s deregulatory actions under the Clean Air Act.” Fox said. “It could be argued that Loper Bright may make it easier to challenge deregulatory actions. It also could be argued that the court’s decision did not affect deference to agency scientific judgments. However, we have seen numerous examples of the Roberts court (and lower court judges) ignoring and/or cherry-picking facts, science, and history.” When asked what environmental groups and their supporters can do to prepare for a possible shifting legal landscape, Fox said to do their homework and stay vigilant. “I would advise public interest organizations to be strategic in bringing cases in appropriate judicial districts,” he said. “In addition, the Loper Bright decision highlights the importance of science and community involvement in agency rulemakings.” As a business owner, Schnitzler posed a question for those who place business interests above public health. “This general ‘business can do no wrong, and we have to keep allowing [corporations] to do horrible things because otherwise we’ll stifle innovation and will stifle growth,’ at what cost?” he asked.
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