RALEIGH, NC (WECT) – Leaders at Cape Fear Public Utility Authority will review a proposed agreement reached between the NC Department of Environmental Quality, Cape Fear River Watch and Chemours over the company’s discharge of GenX and other compounds into the water supply.
The utility also plans to comment to NCDEQ regarding the proposed consent order announced this week.
The full release from CFPUA says: "Cape Fear Public Utility Authority was not part of any negotiation or discussion related to the draft consent order that NCDEQ released Wednesday.
While the draft document appears to address some important issues surrounding future PFAS contamination, it does not appear to consider or address how downstream utilities and their customers have been affected and the possible lingering effects of the broad spectrum of PFAS contamination.
We have not received a response from NCDEQ concerning our November 13 email transmitting a report by UNCW researchers describing additional PFAS compounds they identified in the Cape Fear River.
The proposed consent order would require Chemours to provide permanent drinking water for residents with water wells that have GenX levels above 140 parts per trillion and pay a $12 million civil penalty.
By Dec. 31, 2019, install a thermal oxidizer to control all PFAS from multiple process streams, demonstrate PFAS reductions at an effectiveness of 99.99 percent efficiency and a 99 percent reduction facility-wide for GenX emissions compared to the 2017 baseline level.
Submit and implement a plan for sampling all process and non-process wastewater and stormwater streams to identify any additional PFAS.
Notify and coordinate with downstream public water utilities when an event at the facility has the potential to cause a discharge of GenX compounds into the Cape Fear River above the health goal of 140 parts per trillion.
"This is the largest fine ever by DEQ: 99% reduction in emissions, health study funded by Chemours, safe water for people around the plant whose wells are spoiled, groundwater remediation and more.” Public comments on the proposed order will be accepted until Dec. 21 and can be submitted electronically to comments.chemours@ncdenr.gov or mailed to Assistant Secretary’s office, RE: Chemours Public Comments, 1601 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1601.

The populations of Genieri, a village located in the Lower River region of the western Gambia, recently witnessed the laying of the foundation stone for phases I and II of their Genieri Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (G-WASH) project.
In the west of Gambia is Genieri, a village where more than 1,200 people live.
The population of this village had repelled the assault of jihadist Foday Kaba Dumbuyaa in the 19th century.
Another form of heroism….
In the absence of a public water utility capable of relieving these women, the people initiated the Genieri Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (G-WASH) project.
It is for this reason that they massively came on November 21, 2018 to attend the laying of the foundation stone for the first phase of the water project.
Community funding The work has been entrusted to Sky Light Electricity and Water Management Company.
The financing was entirely provided by the people.
It should be noted that 15% of the natives of this village live abroad, mainly in the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States.
After the completion of phases I and II of the project (ongoing), phase III, dedicated to sanitation, will have to be launched.

It requires Chemours to dramatically reduce GenX air emissions, provide permanent replacement drinking water supplies and pay a civil penalty to DEQ.
“People deserve access to clean drinking water and this order is a significant step in our ongoing effort to protect North Carolina communities and the environment,” said DEQ Secretary Michael S. Regan.
I appreciate the hard work of DEQ’s dedicated and talented staff to help achieve this result.” The order requires Chemours to pay to DEQ a $12 million civil penalty and an additional $1 million for investigative costs.
The consent order includes specific conditions to ensure the protection of human health and the environment.
Among its many requirements, the order states that Chemours must: Provide permanent drinking water supplies in the form of either a public waterline connection or whole building filtration system for those with drinking water wells with GenX above 140 parts per trillion or applicable health advisory.
Provide, install and maintain three under-sink reverse osmosis drinking water systems for well owners with combined PFAS levels above 70 parts per trillion or any individual PFAS compound above 10 parts per trillion.
By Dec. 31, 2019, install a thermal oxidizer to control all PFAS from multiple process streams, demonstrate PFAS reductions at an effectiveness of 99.99 percent efficiency and a 99 percent reduction facility-wide for GenX emissions compared to the 2017 baseline level.
Submit and implement a plan for sampling all process and non-process wastewater and stormwater streams to identify any additional PFAS.
Notify and coordinate with downstream public water utilities when an event at the facility has the potential to cause a discharge of GenX compounds into the Cape Fear River above the health goal of 140 parts per trillion.
Comments on the proposed order will be accepted until Dec. 21.

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 23rd Nov, 2018 ) :The Sindh Government would takeover, operate and maintain all the Reverse Osmosis (RO) drinking water plants in Thar Coal Block-II.
Thar Foundation will bear all the expenses to operate and maintain these plants at international standards.
The endeavor will benefit approximately 10,000 local population in Thar Coal Block-II and adjacent areas by providing them safe drinking water complying to WHO standards.
In the first phase, eight RO Plants located in Thar Coal Block-II area have been handed over to Thar Foundation, which were earlier being operated by a GoS appointed contractor.
In a letter issued to Thar Foundation by Sindh Public Health Engineering Department, all RO plants located in Thar Coal Block-II shall be fully repaired and maintained by Thar Foundation on its own expenses.
Thar Foundation has been established by the Sindh Government together with Companies engaged in Thar Coal projects to improve the lives of the real stakeholders of Thar coal project, the residents and communities of Tharparkar.
Terming the move of provincial government in the right direction to address the drinking water scarcity in Thar, Shamsuddin Ahmed Shaikh, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Thar Foundation said they want to partner with Sindh Government in uplifting the human development of Thar in all aspects.
He said, "We aspire to adopt and implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in an accelerated model for the entire tehsil of Islamkot � thereby making it Pakistan’s first SDG-compliant tehsil by 2024 � six years ahead of the global timeline," he said.
He further said that they are already running around a state of the art RO plants successfully, serving 25,000 inhabitants of the area since last two years.
"If Sindh Government hands over all the RO Plants of Taulka Islamkot, approximately 100 in total to Thar Foundation at a market-based operating cost, we will prove our capacity and commitment to deliver the desired results," he said.

Many people in Australia do not have access to safe drinking water.
In our research and conversations with residents and water operators in remote Indigenous communities, we have been told that their water is not safe to drink, and that they have no reasonable or practical alternatives and no help.
Hearing from the locals One Indigenous custodian from Katherine, NT, told us that the levels of PFAS from fire-extinguisher foam were high in their soil and water.
Over in the Kimberley, WA, an traditional owner said, "our water is contaminated with nitrates … They say the level is … too high for babies under three months and pregnant women … now the whole community (150 people) cart water from this one tap for drinking and cooking.
Community representatives told us, "[We were told] we should not drink it, and then they said it was safe and that the high lead had come from our pipes and not the mine … a monitoring group said that our fish are toxic with lead from the mine, so we stopped fishing and started worrying … We can’t live with this contamination anymore.
Safe water for all Treating drinking water can be different and difficult in remote locations compared to cities.
Only now are government agencies and water utilities starting to realise that there are no "one size fits all" or simple technological fixes for treating water in remote areas.
Sometimes the simplest technologies are going to be longest-serving as they can be fixed, will not be damaged in cyclones, and can be operated by one person.
And they addressed the "technology factor" by upgrading the technology for water disinfection.
Innovation and attention is required to achieve the United Nations’ Resolution to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all – especially in our remote communities.

PLAINFIELD TWP., MI — After nearly a month without running water, a north Kent County family will likely have it again just in time for Thanksgiving.
County health officials denied them a permit to dig a new well because the neighborhood aquifer is contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances called PFAS — pollution from Wolverine World Wide’s nearby, decades-old House Street tannery waste dump site.
The state and Kent County both have regulations that forbid putting water-drinking wells in areas of known contamination.
Until then the Hula family, like days past, is without running water.
Finally, 18 days after officials were notified, Terry Hula got a call saying they were "expediting" a solution.
DEQ spokesperson Scott Dean said he expects the Hula family to have running water on Wednesday.
Family hopeful to host Thanksgiving dinner if water restored Over the past week neighbors aware of the Hula family’s troubles offered them everything from finished basements to stay in to spare keys to their homes, Terry Hula said.
Dean said he couldn’t "speak to" that and referred those questions to the Kent County Health Department.
A week later, DEQ gave Wolverine a deadline to "commit to providing the water tank and water hauling for the Hulas," Dean said.
Unlike the Hula family’s situation, residents and school children had running water as they awaited a long-term solution.

Jamie Caccia says water quality certainly has been a hot topic of discussion in Pasadena for the past few days.
She is among the residents who had no idea the latest testing of the town’s drinking water showed unacceptable levels of trihalomethanes (THMs), a disinfection byproduct created during the chemical reaction between chorine and organic material in the water.

City spokesperson Richard Stevens said in a release that Clarkville Gas & Water (CGW) crews worked for 21 hours Sunday and Monday to repair the 12-inch sewer main line that failed near the intersection of Trenton Road and Stillwood Drive.
As required by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), signs will be posted on a nearby creek to meet public notification requirements and a sewer overflow report has been submitted as required.
Stevens said the break was 18-feet deep and under a large entrance wall for the Timber Springs subdivision.
A 6-inch high-pressure gas main, a 2-inch gas main and a 12-inch water main all were in the same area, and care had to be taken during excavation to minimize potential damage to other utilities, CGW officials said.
A gas-leak technician arrived at 1:47 a.m., diagnosed the sewer problem and called in a sewer crew to investigate.
The water/wastewater supervisor was on the scene at 2:47 a.m. Sunday and the Wastewater Collections System Manager and a sewer construction crew mobilized and responded at about 3 a.m. to begin repairs in accordance CGW Sewer Overflow Response Plan.
An emergency locate for underground utility lines was called in to Tennessee 811.
During excavation, the crew damaged and repaired a 2-inch gas main that was not mapped.
The wall and some trees had to be demolished in order to access the sewer main below it.
“Seven crew members responded and were on the clock by 3 a.m. Sunday.

Drinking water standards to be beefed up after Havelock North gastro crisis It comes following the biggest ever review into the network.
Source: 1 NEWS The Health Minister is tightening up drinking water standards, including the testing for bacteria, following the Havelock North water contamination over two years ago that left 5000 people sick in a gastro outbreak.
"The bottom line is public safety.
A high reading doesn’t necessarily mean drinking-water is unsafe but can serve as an indicator of potential issues, he said.
He’s also considering a change to testing for E.Coli.
At the moment drinking-water suppliers test to determine if E. Coli is present in water and then carry out a second test if the initial test is positive.
This means a delay of up to two days before authorities know if there is a contamination.
Dr Clark says this should eliminate the need to carry out a second test, as the initial test will be able to determine both the presence of these bacteria and also how prevalent they are.
There will be consultation on changes affecting testing for E.coli and other coliform bacteria, which will include talking to testing laboratories which don’t provide this form of testing to ensure they will have the capacity to provide this service into the future, he said.
The paper on the future of the three waters system details proposals for a system-wide reform of regulation of drinking water, along with a new risk management regime for sources of drinking-water.

The data shows that water utilities in the Garden State have racked up at least 226 contamination violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act since Flint became synonymous with tainted tap water and put other water systems under a spotlight.
The state’s largest city, Newark, acknowledged last month that the treatment program it was deploying to stop lead from leaching into drinking water in the city was "no longer effective," according to NJ.com.
But the health-based violations elsewhere in the state mostly swirl around excessive levels of bacteria or, ironically, inordinate amounts of disinfectants meant to cleanse the water of biological contaminants.
“Most of the violations that you see are coliform testing and disinfection byproducts," said Anthony Matarazzo, director of water quality for New Jersey American Water, the state’s largest private provider.
Explore the map below to see which water utilities were cited for delivering tainted water.
Three months later the system was considered "compliant" again with the arsenic rule.
The Safe Drinking Water Act is a federal law passed in 1974 that sets standards on drinking water supplies in America.
EPA data shows there have been nearly 34,000 contamination violations of the SDWA — impacting the water delivered to 1 in 8 Americans — across the country since April 2014, when the city of Flint started drawing water from the Flint River.
Another 3,800 major monitoring violations of the SDWA were rolled up in New Jersey since Flint, meaning that these utilities were failing to properly test for dangerous manmade and naturally occurring chemicals or to document those procedures.
"If you don’t do that not only are you going to fall off meeting your current goals but you’ll be less able to meet new challenges when you do identify them.” Russ Zimmer: 732-557-5748, razimmer@app.com, @russzimmer