FAYETTEVILLE — The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday told a roundtable gathering of elected officials a study on the effects of GenX should be released this winter.

EPA, federal, state and Cumberland County leaders met at the office of Congressman Richard Hudson. Included were EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, EPA Region 4 Administrator Mary Walker, state Rep. John Szoka and some Cumberland County leaders that included County Manager Duane Holder and county commissioners Marshall Faircloth, Mike Boose and Jimmy Keefe.

“One of my biggest areas of concern is the toxicity of GenX,” said state Rep. John Szoka. “We need answers as to how toxic GenX is, and what it does to people, and what does it do to livestock and crops.

“Wheeler said that by midwinter the EPA study on the effects of GenX should be released, and I am looking forward to that because we need answers as to, ‘What is it really doing to us?’”

The effects on humans from GenX is, so far, inconclusive. Many believe it causes cancer.

Wheeler said during the roundtable discussions a mention was made of securing federal funding to help with getting water to residents. He said he would investigate the options to put that into motion.

Since a judge’s order was put into place, residents around the plant — including in Bladen County — have continually complained about water not being delivered, lack of accommodation of those with physical limitations, and bottles that are ruptured. The problem has escalated to the point that vouchers are now being distributed so that those with issues can get their own.

Wheeler said he wasn’t aware of the problems but would look into it.

The morning gathering was also an opportunity for the EPA to announce a competition, featuring a $50,000 prize, called the Innovative Ways to Destroy PFAS Challenge. The destruction must take place without incineration.

PFAS is an acronym for more than 5,000 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances identified worldwide, several of which have been and are linked to Chemours, the Cape Fear River and a number of residences in Cumberland and Bladen counties. The river supplies drinking water to several municipalities downstream, including Wilmington.

Chemours is in Bladen County, at the Cumberland County line.

“EPA researchers and staff are harnessing the power of crowdsourcing to identify ways to destroy PFAS through nonincineration methods,” Wheeler said. “The agency is offering up to $50,000 for the best design concept to safely destroy the chemical.

“One thing that we have been working on aggressively is identifying more ways to identify PFAS in the environment and more ways to destroy it.”

Wheeler acknowledged that the same technologies cannot be used across the board for “detection of the over 600 different PFAS compounds in commerce in the last 20 years. Each one is different.”

PFAS are also called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down over time. Chemours makes them for uses in hundreds of products that are waterproof or heat- and stain-resistant. It includes GenX, the contaminant discovered in the Cape Fear River that was first reported in June 2017 by the Wilmington newspaper, The StarNews.

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 the PFAS chemical compound family.

Wheeler said the EPA is continuing to look across the state for other hot spots or problems. So far, they haven’t found any.

“We are aggressively going out to look to solve this problem,” he said.

Emily M. Williams can be reached at 910-247-9133 or ewilliams@bladenjournal.com.