Fight against forever chemicals in NC water reaches pivotal point

This summer, residents of Southeastern North Carolina are anticipating the outcome of the expert discovery phase in the legal action against chemical manufacturer Chemours , while rural water facilities in many part of the state await crucial guidance on how to filter out the devastatingly high levels of PFAS in their drinking water.

When President Joe Biden ’s administration finalized the first federal regulation on PFAS in April, $29 million of the $1 billion invested to address the pollutants widely thought to cause cancer was sent to North Carolina.

This federal money came too little too late for those residents of Wilmington who get their water from the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority. They are already paying out-of-pocket for the 2019-2022 construction of the granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration system .

“Because we’re the last straw pulling out of the lower Cape Fear River Basin, we have been the site for a lot of research to look at emerging compounds,” Ben Kearns , Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s water resources manager, told Carolina Public Press.

This unique positioning resulted in an unwelcome surprise in 2017. Researchers from N.C. State University asked whether they could test the water authority’s Cape Fear River source water for novel contaminants.

The researchers discovered extremely high levels of a group of chemicals called PFAS — commonly referred to as “forever chemicals” because they last thousands of years in water and soil — in their water.

PFAS are used to make the grease-proof, water-proof, nonstick, and stain-resistant coatings on consumer products such as cooking pans and rain jackets. Nearly every American who has been tested for PFAS has had some level in their blood.

Exposure to high levels of PFAS may lead to cancers, particularly prostate, kidney, and testicular cancer; decreased fertility, birth defects and developmental delays in children, depressed immune systems, hormonal imbalances and increased cholesterol levels and rates of obesity.

“Back in 2017, we were one of the first utilities in the country to make headlines with regards to this PFAS issue,” Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s public information officer Cammie Bellamy told CPP.

But the same year, the issue broke open statewide when it was discovered that the Chemours chemical company — which operates a plant near Fayetteville that DuPont had previously operated — was responsible for knowingly emitting PFAS into the Cape Fear River.

Since that time, additional PFAs contamination of the Cape Fear River’s tributaries by other polluters has been discovered as well.

In 2022, the PFAS level from water distributed by Fayetteville Public Works, which serves 214,137 people, was 445% over the federal limit set out in April, according to data from the water-testing company SimpleLab.

The Cape Fear is not the only river system affected. In Lumberton, a town just southwest of Fayetteville on the Lumber River, the water exceeded the limit by 650%.

Chemours and DuPont are currently facing lawsuits from both North Carolina Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein, and from Cape Fear Public Utility Authority.

This month marks the expert discovery phase of the water authority’s legal action against Chemours and DuPont.

“We’ve received no compensation from (Chemours and DuPont), we’ve received no taxpayer support for this project,” Bellamy said. “Our ratepayers have been entirely responsible cost-wise for cleaning up this contamination.”

“We’ve actually filed a lawsuit against Chemours and DuPont in an attempt to recoup some of the costs.”

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority ratepayers saw an 8% rate hike, or an increase of $5.40 per month, to fund the construction of the GAC system at Sweeney Water Treatment Plant, which cost $46 million, “in 2018 dollars,” Kearns specified.

“Carbon filtration systems are not very expensive to install,” said NC Rural Water Association executive director Heather Somers.

“The issue is that the PFAS still lives in the carbon (after filtration), and that media has to be disposed of. You have to take it into landfills that are equipped to do that, and there aren’t very many of them. Supply and demand being what it is, (the landfills) charge a lot of money to dispose of that.”

Two other primary methods of filtering out PFAS exist: ion exchange and reverse osmosis. Brunswick County’s water treatment plant, which also serves residents of Wilmington, had levels of PFAS which exceeded the legal limit by 210%, according to the SimpleLab data. Their new reverse osmosis system to filter PFAS is set to come online in late 2024.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority serves about 200,000 people, while Brunswick’s Northwest Water Treatment Plant serves 126,966. Fewer ratepayers means less money coming in, and less money coming in means less bandwidth to act preemptively on treatment technologies.

“There are legacy systems that were built when circumstances were much different,” Leila Goodwin , a member of the North Carolina State Water Infrastructure Authority, told CPP.

“For instance, if there is industry coming and going, or high population growth,” she said.

In Brunswick County, this is certainly the case. Between 2022 and 2023, Brunswick County saw a 15.7% growth rate, the fourth-highest in the state.

The construction of the reverse osmosis treatment system Northwest Water Treatment Plant is being funded with bonds issued at $167.3 million.

“Brunswick County is absorbing some of the costs for the Northwest Water Treatment Plant infrastructure enhancements — therefore all the project costs are not directly passed on through water rates,” Meagan Kascsak , Brunswick County’s communications director, told CPP in an email.

“However, the county had to start making anticipated debt service repayments in 2022 for the installation of the reverse osmosis treatment system and to construct a new raw water line to increase capacity to the plant.”

Water rates in Brunswick County increased in 2022 to account for these repayments.

“For the most part, the professionals are going to try to operate the systems and provide clean drinking water,” Goodwin said. “Nobody’s just going to walk away. It’s a public health issue.”

However, the continued effort to meet regulations could result in ever-increasing rates. “Is it going to be more expensive to maintain a car 10 years from now than it is now?” Goodwin said.

“Yeah, it is. So from that standpoint, it’s just longterm inflation. And beyond that, there are new regulations, there’s upgrades, in addition to maintenance and rehabilitation.”

But what about smaller communities with far less ratepayers? Surf City, a town 30 miles north of Wilmington, relies on two wells that serve 5,606 people combined. This is not unusual for small or rural towns in the state.

“We have no guidance from the state on what small systems should be doing,” said Somers of the NC Rural Water Association.

“The money’s there, but North Carolina has not said here’s your testing schedules, here’s how many samples you have to take and how often. The smaller systems are just going to be waiting for that exact direction before they’ll start doing very much at all (concerning PFAS).”

Of the $1 billion from that came down with the federal PFAS regulations, $7.9 million was designated to the national branch of the Rural Water Association to provide training and assistance to small public water systems to reach and maintain compliance.

“We are always ready to jump in and help as soon as that guidance (has been) given,” Somers said. “But so far it hasn’t.”