Water quality in question

Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, June 18, 2017.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water ...

No, don’t cue the theme from “Jaws.” We’re talking about much smaller, quieter menaces lurking in the water of the Cape Fear River. But those threats to our health show us one good reason why it’s folly to dismantle the federal Environmental Protection Agency or to neuter this state’s environmental watchdogs.

We thought we were in for some good news about water quality in the Cape Fear River, which is the primary source of drinking water for Fayetteville and dozens of other communities from Lee County down to the river’s meeting with the Atlantic Ocean. Last week we heard that concentrations of a toxic chemical found extensively along the Cape Fear basin appear to be ebbing. The compound — 1,4-dioxane — had diminished significantly in samples drawn last year along the river basin. The monitoring stations stretch from the Triad, on the Haw River, down to Wilmington. Sites in Harnett and Cumberland counties are part of the system. The chemical is widely used in paint strippers, varnishes, dyes and even cosmetics. The EPA says long-term consumption of water containing significant concentrations of 1,4-dioxane can cause cancer. The regulator began requiring municipalities to test for it in treated water in 2013.

The problem with the chemical is that it’s prohibitively expensive for water-treatment plants to remove it from drinking water. So we’ve been drinking it, for — well, we don’t really know how many years. The state Division of Water Resources last year determined that it’s coming from four areas in the Triad, which is why the heaviest concentrations have been found in the Haw. State officials believe some industrial users of the chemical are dumping it into municipal sewer systems.

Sadly, years of budget cutting, abetted by recent legislative indifference to environmental protection, have left the state unable to quickly pinpoint sources of the pollution and take action to stop it. If it’s going away without state intervention, well, it’s our lucky day.

But now we learn that another chemical — the curiously named GenX — is getting into the Cape Fear River from the Chemours plant on the Cumberland-Bladen county line. The chemical is used in the production of Teflon, but Chemours — a DuPont spinoff company — says the leakage is coming from another chemical process at the plant, which creates GenX as a byproduct. The chemical is toxic, but state and federal regulators haven’t determined just how toxic. DuPont was slapped with a $16.5 million fine by the EPA for discharges of C8, GenX’s predecessor in Teflon production. DuPont and Chemours ceased production of C8 after they also settled a $671 million class-action suit with residents in the Ohio River Valley in February.

The chemical’s source is downstream from Fayetteville’s water-treatment plant and is no threat to any water systems north of Bladen County. But the surprising thing is that our regulators know it’s dangerous, but they don’t know how much. Health regulators in the Netherlands, where the compound is also found, have rated it “a suspected human carcinogen.”

That’s enough to stir serious concerns among the communities below Fayetteville that take their water from the Cape Fear. And it’s enough, as well, for us to urge state and federal lawmakers to maintain and expand funding to protect our water supplies from threats like this. It should always be safe to drink the water.

http://www.fayobserver.com/opinion/20170618/our-view-when-is-it-really-safe-to-drink-water