Our state steps us, finally, for clean water

Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, September 7, 2017.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen North Carolina environmental regulators do what they should do: Crack down on water pollution.

But that’s happening now, ending a brief and disturbing era when the regulators allied themselves with industry instead of with the people they should protect.

The get-tough action is happening in our backyard, down on the Cumberland-Bladen county line, where state officials have ordered Chemours to stop dumping possibly carcinogenic chemicals into the Cape Fear River. The company’s wastewater discharge permit may be in danger of revocation, which could force the DuPont spinoff to shut down.

The problems with the Chemours plant came to light when researchers found the chemical GenX in the Cape Fear, and in the drinking water of some communities that draw their water from the river. A state investigation began early this summer, and Chemours subsequently agreed to stop discharging GenX — a chemical used in the production of Teflon — into the river.

GenX is a substitute for another chemical, called C8, that was long used in manufacturing Teflon and other DuPont products. What’s happening in North Carolina will sound familiar to some West Virginia residents who live around Chemours’ Parkersburg, West Virginia, plant. Beginning in the late 1990s, residents in that area alleged that the plant’s C8 had leaked into wells and waterways, causing health problems for humans and animals. Documents were found showing that DuPont knew about C8?s possible health risks in the 1950s and 1960s. A science panel found a probable link between C8 exposure and several illnesses, including testicular and kidney cancer. About 3,500 personal-injury lawsuits were filed against DuPont and Chemours. In February, the companies settled a class-action lawsuit for $670 million. Dupont also agreed to pay for filtering affected communities’ water and for continuing medical monitoring.

DuPont introduced GenX as a safer alternative to C8, but researchers haven’t come to a definitive finding about its effects on humans. But GenX has been found to cause testicular, pancreatic and liver cancer in animals. That seems reason enough to keep it out of drinking water until its full effects on humans has been determined.

The state also has begun the process to suspend the company’s discharge permit. Without it, Chemours can’t release any wastewater into the river. “North Carolinians deserve clean waters,” Gov. Roy Cooper said in Fayetteville Tuesday, “and this company was discharging into the river chemicals that it misrepresented on its permit. The state was right to take action to stop this and protect the water.”

We hope the action doesn’t stop there. GenX and its relatives aren’t the only pollutants in the Cape Fear, which was listed this year by American Rivers as one of America’s 10 most endangered rivers. The clean-water advocacy group based the designation primarily on the amount of waste running into the river from factory-farming operations. The listing came out before the GenX discovery became public. It seems a pretty safe guess that the river will be back on the list next year as well. State regulators need to redouble their efforts to diminish all the pollution flowing into the river, whether it comes from farms, from the mystery source pouring cancer-causing 1,4-dioxane into the upper Cape Fear basin, or the GenX coming from the Chemours plant.

We’ve got a big problem here, and it needs big solutions.

http://www.fayobserver.com/opinion/20170906/our-view-state-steps-up-finally-for-clean-water