To protect drinking water, North Carolina regulators are asking a state court to order Chemours to stop fluoroether pollution from its plant outside of Fayetteville.
If the court grants the request of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the facility, which makes Nafion ion-transporting polymers and other fluorochemical products, could face at least a partial shutdown.
According to the agency’s April 9 court filing, Chemours for an unknown period of time discharged industrial process wastewater into the open ditch, bypassing the facility’s wastewater treatment plant.
HFPO-DA is also found in groundwater beneath the plant and up to 11 km from the plant in the reverse direction of groundwater flow.
DEQ’s request to the court is a legal backstop to an April 6 warning letter the department sent to Chemours regarding the Fayetteville plant emitting to the atmosphere HFPO-DA and two related fluoroethers that hydrolyze into HFPO-DA.
One of those chemicals is GenX, a surfactant used as a polymerization aid to manufacture fluoropolymers.
In the letter, DEQ says it will modify the company’s air pollution permit to bar emission of the fluoroethers unless Chemours demonstrates that its emissions do not end up tainting groundwater.
DEQ also says the plant’s air emissions of HFPO-DA and related compounds are greater than Chemours previously reported.
Last June, the company told DEQ it released about 30 kg of HFPO-DA-related compounds in 2016.
Chemours began capturing its wastewater for disposal elsewhere last year.