Business groups rally against NC effort to make Chemours pay for PFAS clean-up
Business groups took aim Thursday at a bill that could make the chemical company Chemours pay for infrastructure upgrades to protect Wilmington-area drinking water from chemicals dumped into the Cape Fear River for decades by the company and its predecessor, DuPont.
That irritated the Republican sponsor of the bill.
At the end of Thursday’s House Judiciary Committee meeting, Rep. Ted Davis, a Wilmington Republican, raised his voice as he called upon Chemours to voluntarily pay for upgrades to drinking water filtration systems in Brunswick and New Hanover counties that will keep per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) out of drinking water.
“They should be responsible for those costs, not the people who consume the water,” Davis said.
Davis is a primary sponsor of House Bill 1095, which would allow the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality to set maximum contaminant levels for PFAS. It would also set a limit of 10 parts per trillion of a single compound or 70 ppt of total PFAS.
If contamination that reaches those levels can be linked to a single source — as DEQ has done with Chemours — the department could order the company to pay for any drinking water treatment infrastructure that would remove the chemicals as well as ongoing maintenance costs.
The legislation has the support of water utilities and DEQ, which say it would protect ratepayers from bills that are spiking because of water treatment made necessary by a single company’s contamination. Business groups like the N.C. Chamber of Commerce, N.C. Manufacturers Alliance and the American Chemistry Council stand with Chemours in opposition to House Bill 1095, arguing that it is anti-business and could have a chilling effect on growth.
David Stanley, Brunswick County’s deputy manager, illustrated the effects of rate hikes associated with infrastructure upgrades. Brunswick County officials have spent more than $100 million adding reverse osmosis water treatment to a drinking water plant because it will remove PFAS from water drawn from the Cape Fear River.
To pay for those upgrades, the county raised its water rates this year by an average of $9.85 a month. That impacts many retirees who live in the coastal county, Stanley said, people who are already struggling to pay their rent, buy food or get medicine.
“We certainly don’t believe,” Stanley said, “that the ratepayers of Brunswick County should be paying for this infrastructure as a result of what’s coming down the river.”
The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, which serves much of New Hanover County, has taken similar action, spending $43 million to build granular activated carbon filtration systems that will cost $4 million to $5 million a year to operate. CFPUA also raised rates this year, by an average of $5.37 a month.
DEQ Secretary Elizabeth Biser said Thursday that the legislation would give the agency the ability to act swiftly on PFAS compounds like GenX that are found in North Carolina.
“This is not a political issue. There is bipartisan agreement that we need to do something, that ratepayers should not bear the burden for cleaning up their drinking water when we know who is responsible for contaminating it,” Biser said.
Industry’s defense
Jeff Fritz, Chemours’ head lobbyist, questioned whether existing scientific data was sufficient to support DEQ setting maximum contaminant levels. He also asked if it was
appropriate for the agency to “undermine” ongoing lawsuits against Chemours by the utility companies; and if the General Assembly plans to act on others discharging PFAS contamination in the Cape Fear basin.
“I hope that by briefly describing many of the actions Chemours has taken, I’ll be able to demonstrate that this bill is unnecessary and that all that it calls for is already occurring under existing law and regulation,” Fritz said.
Chemours, Fritz said, has spent or has committed to spend more than $400 million in recent years to take actions including building a new thermal oxidizer that burns up most potential PFAS emissions.
“It’s not the cheap way,” Fritz said.
Shortly after the Wilmington StarNews reported on Chemours’ contamination of the Cape Fear River in 2017, company officials visited New Hanover County for a meeting with state and local officials, including Gov. Roy Cooper and then DEQ Secretary Michael Regan, who is now the EPA administrator.
There, a Chemours official said the PFAS contamination was linked to a process that Chemours and DuPont had been conducting at the facility since at least 1980. Historical PFAS contamination levels in the Cape Fear River near where Brunswick and New Hanover counties source their drinking water were about 130,000 parts per trillion, according to a 2019 N.C. State study.
In February 2019, Chemours entered into a consent order requiring it to cut GenX emissions by 99%, leading to the construction of the thermal oxidizer. The company also agreed to pay the single largest fine for any polluter in North Carolina history, a $12 million penalty plus an additional $1 million in investigative fees.
The consent order also required Chemours to provide drinking water to users of any private wells around the plant that were found to have more than 10 ppt of a single compound or 70 ppt of total PFAS. House Bill 1095 would expand those protections to public drinking water systems.
The N.C. Department of Air Quality also hit Chemours with a $305,000 fine last August after finding that the company was in violation of the emissions requirements. That followed a $200,000 fine DEQ assessed last March after the department said Chemours inadequately designed a system to treat water from a contaminated stream, letting PFAS flow into the Cape Fear River.
Ross Smith, president of the N.C. Manufacturers Alliance, told the committee that manufacturers would see DEQ setting a safe drinking water level as a sign that business certainty doesn’t exist in North Carolina.
“Businesses don’t want to site in a state where the regulatory climate is uncertain. Our state will lose potential jobs if this bill passes,” Smith said.
Disbelief and ‘corporate greed’
Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Greensboro Democrat who often works on environmental issues, expressed anger at the friction from business groups and some Republicans.
“I can’t believe we’re having this conversation,” Harrison said. “I can’t believe this bill isn’t sailing through. This is commonsense legislation that’s going to protect the health of our citizens.”
Davis also rebuffed the business community’s contention, arguing that he has been consistently recognized as pro-business by the N.C. Chamber. Chemours, Davis said, is “very, very capable of paying” for the treatment plant upgrades.
The provisions set out in House Bill 1095 are limited to PFAS manufacturers, Davis added. Entities that use PFAS like fire departments, which often use foam laden with forever chemicals, would not be subject to the enforcement procedures described in the legislation.
Chemours is the only known PFAS manufacturer in North Carolina.
“I’m not picking on Chemours. I’m not trying to put Chemours out of business. I don’t care if Chemours is in business for the rest of my life, but they are going to have to be responsible for the damage that they have caused,” Davis said
If another PFAS manufacturer were to enter North Carolina and discharge the chemicals into drinking water, Davis said, it could also be penalized.
Dana Sargent, the executive director of Cape Fear River Watch, said in a written statement that the nonprofit environmental watchdog supports the bill.
“Chemours’ vocal opposition to this bill, similar to their opposition to the lawsuits that would do the same, is rooted in the company’s historic and frankly disgusting corporate greed,” Sargent wrote, adding that Chemours could stop producing PFAS if it doesn’t want to pay to clean up contamination.
Thursday’s meeting did not include a vote on the legislation. Davis previously said that could come as soon as next week.
This story was produced with financial support from 1Earth Fund, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
This story was originally published June 2, 2022 at 5:51 PM.