GRAY’S CREEK — The levels are low, but the GenX news is not good again for Bladen County chemical company Chemours.
Gray’s Creek Elementary students and their parents were notified Thursday about water sample results showing low levels of GenX and two other PFAS compounds. A release from the state Department of Environmental Quality and a statement from Chemours says the chemical company will install a permanent replacement water system, and bottled water will be provided to students, faculty and staff and used in food preparation.
Chemours is responsible by a judge’s consent order for providing any public building, such as a school, that qualifies with either “under-sink reverse osmosis drinking water systems at each drinking fountain and sink that is used for drinking water or another effective system or equipment,” the DEQ release says. Chemours has six months to provide a remedy for the school.
The samples were taken in October and show GenX levels of 6 parts per trillion and total PFAS levels of 53 parts per trillion, including levels of two, individual per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances at 34 parts per trillion and 13 parts per trillion, DEQ said. The state health goal for GenX is 140 parts per trillion.
In a statement from Chemours spokeswoman Lisa Randall, the company said, “Chemours is working with Cumberland County Schools and NCDEQ to quickly determine the most effective and feasible replacement drinking water system for Gray’s Creek Elementary School. Bottled water is already being provided to students and faculty, and will continue until a permanent replacement system is installed.”
Chemours said it fulfilled a request from Cumberland County Schools for sampling at Gray’s Creek Elementary and nearby Alderman Road Elementary. There was no detection at Alderman Road.
The consent order signed by Judge Douglas Sasser in February is between Chemours, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality and Cape Fear River Watch.
Samples — showing 5 parts per trillion GenX — were first taken at Gray’s Creek Elementary on Oct. 19, 2017, shortly after news broke that the Cape Fear River was contaminated. The StarNews newspaper of Wilmington broke the story in June that year, saying GenX was being discharged into the Cape Fear. The river supplies drinking water downstream, including to Wilmington.
The effects of GenX on humans isn’t fully known. State regulation has been evolving.
GenX is a trade name for C3 dimer acid, a compound used in the manufacture of products such as food packaging and nonstick coatings. It’s also a byproduct of certain manufacturing processes. HFPO-DA, an acronym for hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid, is another name for the member of a family of chemical compounds known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
GenX is considered the safer alternative to C8, a compound the company no longer makes. DuPont, of which Chemours is a spin-off company, in December 2005 was fined $16.5 million by the EPA for failing to report C8’s substantial risk to human health and in February 2017 settled a class-action lawsuit involving water contamination in the Ohio River Valley by paying out more than $670 million.
Chemours is in the process of erecting and getting online a $75 million facility that will house a thermal oxidizer, calcium flouride system and cooling tower. The project includes an additional investment of $25 million for ongoing work until the thermolysis and water treatment is online.
The consent order says the thermal oxidizer is supposed to be in place and operational by Dec. 31. The machinery is designed to remove contaminants from the air.
Chemours, a chemical company headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, is a 2015 spinoff of DuPont. Chemours, DuPont and Kuraray are the three companies in the Bladen County work site known as the Fayetteville Works facility, which is along the Cumberland County line and adjacent to the Cape Fear River.
Chemours’ third-quarter earnings report included $1.39 billion in posted revenue.
Cape Fear River Watch is a nonprofit founded in 1993, dedicated to improving and preserving the Cape Fear River basin.
DEQ is the “lead stewardship agency for the protection of North Carolina’s environmental resources,” its website says.