The move means hundreds of families with lesser levels of contamination will have to start buying water or go back to drinking their well water.
Chemours will stop giving out bottled water at its Fayetteville Works plant on Aug. 23, according to spokeswoman Lisa Randall.
The location was meant for residents whose wells were being sampled and those with wells that have levels of GenX at or above the state’s provisional health goal of 140 parts per trillion, Randall said.
Since Thursday, Chemours officials have been giving residents who pick up water at the plant a letter from plant manager Brian Long, according to Randall.
The letter cites a statement from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services that says the health goal is a “non-regulatory, non-enforceable level of contamination below which no adverse health effects would be expected over a lifetime of exposure.” The letter said Chemours wants to be a responsible member of the community and a good neighbor.
“Should there be a change in the provisional health goal, eligible residents would receive home delivery of bottled water,” Randall said.
State officials have been investigating Chemours since news broke in June 2017 that researchers had discovered GenX in the Cape Fear River.
Tests have shown that 164 private wells around the plant have levels of GenX above the 140 parts per trillion health goal, according to Michael Scott, director of the state Division of Waste Management.
About 400 others have levels of the compound below 140 parts per trillion, he said Tuesday at a meeting hosted by the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss GenX and similar compounds.
GenX was not detected in about 220 wells that were tested, Scott said.