Chemours has been directed by the state to provide bottled water to seven more well owners near the company’s Fayetteville Works facility and the General Assembly has overridden a Gov. Roy Cooper veto on GenX legislation.
Last week, the state directed Chemours to provide bottled water to eight well owners.
In Raleigh on Wednesday, lawmakers overrode Cooper’s veto of a wide-ranging environmental bill that provides a little money — but not enough according to the governor — to address the little-studied chemical discharged into the Cape Fear River.
Returning to Raleigh for the third time since completing their primary annual work session in June, the Republican-controlled state House and Senate voted separately to approve the measure over Cooper’s objections.
Chemours discharged the chemical for years into the river until recently.
The bill “does not take any protections of our rivers and streams away,” Yarborough said before the House’s 70-44 override vote. “The governor’s veto does nothing to affect that situation.” With no debate, the Senate voted 30-9 for the override.
With Wednesday’s votes, the legislature had overridden eight of them.
A House committee approved a new measure Wednesday morning that contains the Guilford County pilot but is written in a way so that the measure isn’t subject to Cooper’s veto stamp.