More questions than answers remain more than a month after the public learned a suspect chemical had contaminated the Cape Fear River.
By Catherine Clabby Six weeks after his customers learned an industrial chemical called GenX had contaminated the Wilmington drinking water supply he manages, Jim Flechtner was still briefing his bosses on new questions related to the pollution.
A complex backstory Neither the EPA nor North Carolina regulates GenX or related chemicals that EPA scientists first detected in the Cape Fear in 2012.
However, in 2009 the EPA did require DuPont Co., and later its spin off Chemours Co., to prevent GenX from escaping from any manufacturing processes with “99 percent efficiency.” EPA obtained that consent order after concluding that GenX and similar compounds, introduced to replace similar chemicals, could be toxic to people and the environment.
“There’s no requirement to capture emissions of that chemical but we put abatement technology in place and we did that in November of 2013.” Even if that is the case, observers such as the SELC’s Carter wonder how the company or DEQ, if the state agency was aware that GenX was being discharged, could have allowed any of the suspect compound to reach the river.
Shifting waters In addition to questions, new developments regarding GenX contamination in the Cape Fear keep cropping up.
That news didn’t sit well with Mike Brown, chairman of the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority who works in commercial real estate.
“We are very discouraged that this additional GenX discharge was not identified sooner.” Looking forward While trying to sort out how the GenX contamination developed, the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority is also working to reduce the risk of Fayetteville Works site releasing GenX or sister chemicals in the future.
The utility has asked DEQ for information on any GenX chemicals released from the Chemours site.
Knappe has observed some of those chemicals in the Cape Fear.