FAYETTEVILLE — For the third time this year, Chemours has been found in violation of a court order.

And, like the times before, the multi-billion-dollar chemical giant has responded that the issue has been fixed.

The Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air Quality, in a release on Friday, said Chemours exceeded the facility-wide GenX annual air emissions limit. A response that includes a timeline of events leading to the exceedance and a detailed plan of action for compliance is due to DAQ by Sept. 10 from the No. 2 contributor to the Bladen County tax base.

“This issue was quickly resolved when the carbon was replaced in this unit, and emissions have returned to their usual low levels,” a statement from the company said, according to an Associated Press report. “However, the data results from that one emissions sampling caused an exceedance of the site’s calculated 12-month rolling air emission allowance.”

The statement also said Chemours was proactive on this issue, and would take a corrective action for a long-term fix. However, the complaint found issues with the chemical company’s math.

The violation says Chemours submitted a report on April 28. After review, the state determined Chemours’ methodology for calculating its emissions to be “not appropriate.” The company resubmitted the report, and the new numbers showed Chemours violated its GenX air emission limits in March, April, May and June of this year.

The company faces a fine of up to $25,000 per day for being out of compliance. Chemours, based in Wilmington, Delaware, had second-quarter net income of $66 million — $25,000 of $66 million is just under four-one-hundredths of 1 percent — with net sales up 51 percent year-over-year to $1.7 billion. In 2020, the company had net income of $219 million.

GenX has been detected in a number of area wells. It’s also been detected in the air. The company has invested more than $100 million in environmental improvements, including building a $75 million thermal oxidizer with efficiency to control PFAS emissions exceeding 99.999 percent.

PFAS is an acronym for a family of chemical compounds known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. This includes GenX.

According to Friday’s release, Chemours’ GenX emission limit is 23.027 pounds per year. “This limit equates to a 99 percent reduction from GenX emissions in 2017,” the release said.

The plant site has been under the microscope since June 2017 when it was reported GenX was being released into the Cape Fear River. Since that time, further examination has revealed release of the chemical compound in ground water that supplies area residents’ wells and through the air.

The river is the source of drinking water in the fast-growing Wilmington area. Cape Fear River Watch and Chemours entered into a consent order in 2019, part of which requires Chemours to reduce its air emissions of GenX compounds by more than 99 percent.

Earlier this year in March, DEQ fined Chemours, saying it wasn’t keeping manmade “forever chemicals” out of the river. The fines — $198,929.16 — imposed were for violations related to the company’s failure to properly construct and install water treatment measures at its Fayetteville Works plant.

It also had “several instances of noncompliance” in January, and a write-up in June 2020 for improper disposal of materials.

Lawsuits have been numerous, and show no signs of letting up.

In February, it was learned that DuPont, Chemours and Corteva reached agreement in 2020 resolving their legal disputes in a $4 billion settlement. The pact attempts to protect all three against “potential legacy PFAS liabilities,” a joint statement from the three CEOs said.

Chemours is a 2015 spinoff from DuPont. Corteva was the Agriculture Division of DowDuPont until becoming an independent company on June 1, 2019.

The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously June 21 to hire three law firms to investigate potential claims against Chemours. Seagle Law of Asheville, Baron & Budd of Washington, D.C., and Crueger Dickinson LLC of Wisconsin will advise the county on whether to pursue action.

County Attorney Rick Moorefield told his board that Baron & Budd and Crueger Dickinson litigated approximately 90 percent of the nation’s environmental suits. According to Baron & Budd’s website, the firm handled a case on behalf of more than 150 water providers and 17 states concerning drinking water contaminated with methyl tertiary butyl ether.

Alan Wooten can be reached at 910-247-9132 or awooten@bladenjournal.com. Twitter: @JournalBladen.