FAYETTEVILLE — Due to the spread of the coronavirus, Chemours Co. has requested and been granted approval to temporarily suspend off-site private well sampling efforts and installation of filtration systems.
The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality made the announcement in a release Wednesday afternoon. Chemours is a chemical company located in Bladen County on the Cumberland County line along the Cape Fear River, and has been accused of contaminating the river.
This will not affect deliveries of bottled water, or results being provided to residents whose wells were tested prior to Wednesday. Residents with results awaiting the filtration systems will get bottled water delivered until installations resume.
The release says maintenance of reserve osmosis and granular activated carbon filtration systems will be provided as necessary as requested by the residents, and with their permission to be on the property or to enter the premises.
Public health guidance will dictate how DEQ directs Chemours to resume well sampling and system installations, the release said.
On March 12, a meeting was planned in Cumberland County and postponed because of concerns about the virus. Presentations for that meeting are now available on the DEQ website at deq.nc.gov/CommunityInfo. Included are updates on progress and implementation of the consent order, information on the corrective action plan and updates on the private well-sampling program.
The website has information on well testing for residents in the vicinity of the Chemours Fayetteville Works Facility.
DEQ said a rescheduled date for the March 12 meeting will be announced when public health concerns are satisfactory.
Chemours is working through a consent order that involves DEQ, Cape Fear River Watch and the Southern Environmental Law Center. The settlement commits the company to speeding up plans to reduce chemicals reaching downstream public water utilities on top of paying $13 million in penalties and costs. The deal doesn’t affect lawsuits against Chemours or DuPont by residents and Wilmington’s water utility 100 miles downstream.
DuPont is the company which spun off Chemours in 2015.
Chemours in December began using its $75 million thermal oxidizer. The company made a total investment of $100 million toward emissions control technology. In the first 90 days, which are about to end, the company expected to show 99.99 percent efficiency in removing PFAS air emssions.
Testing for that will be done by Chemours and the N.C. Division of Air Quality.
In an email to the Bladen Journal on Wednesday, Chemours spokeswoman Lisa Randall said results would be sent to DEQ by the end of this week or Monday at the latest.
Chemours has been under the microscope since June 2017 when the StarNews newspaper of Wilmington was first to report contamination of the Cape Fear River by GenX. 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.
Four months later, the Wilmington newspaper report came out.
Since 2017, testing near the Chemours plant has shown the spread of contaminants through the air and in wells at residences. It has been found as much as 9 miles away on the eastern side of the Cape Fear River, and in a 2015 water sample taken just above Lock and Dam No. 1.