The decision will impact more than 400 private wells with emerging contaminant GenX contamination Chemour, a spinoff of DuPont and producer of Teflon, announced it will stop providing bottled water to residents near the company’s Fayetteville, N.C., plant whose well water is contaminated with emerging contaminant GenX below the state’s current provisional health goal, 140 ppt.
Previously, the company had a bottled water pickup site at the plant for residents with GenX drinking water contamination, but moving forward they will deliver bottled water to residents with contaminant levels above the threshold.
According to the Fayetteville Observer, this decision will impact the approximately 400 private wells surrounding the plant with detectable levels of GenX below 140 ppt.
164 private wells have been tested to show levels above 140 ppt and will continue to receive bottled water from Chemours.
The Teflon producer has been under criticism since June 2017 when emerging contaminant GenX was discovered in the Cape Fear River.
GenX is a short-chain polymer that was developed to replace PFAS in the production of items such as non-stick cookware and firefighting foam.
However, much remains unknown regarding the health and environmental impacts of the emerging contaminant.