Chemical maker Chemours challenges EPA’s new health advisory level for GenX
Chemours is challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s health advisory level for GenX chemicals, alleging it is overly protective, based on “unsound” science and could come with significant costs.
EPA Assistant Administrator Radhika Fox announced the 10 parts per trillion advisory level along with three others during a June conference in Wilmington. For decades, Chemours exposed hundreds of thousands of residents of the Lower Cape Fear region to GenX contamination emanating from its Fayetteville Works plant.
Advocates in the region had long awaited the advisory, which is not a regulatory standard, but rather provides guidance to state health officials and regulators. North Carolina officials, for instance, have indicated that they would ratchet the state’s GenX health goal down from 140 to 10 ppt.
About an hour after Fox made her announcement, Chemours signaled in a press release that it would likely take legal action. The company’s petition, filed Wednesday in the Philadelphia-based Third Circuit Court of Appeals, asks the court to vacate the new advisory level. The chemical giant argues that EPA scientists “used the wrong chemical” in setting the advisory level, failed to issue adequate public notice and “utilized unfettered discretion” in setting the advisory level.
In a statement, a Chemours spokeswoman wrote, “The agency disregarded relevant data and incorporated grossly incorrect and overstated exposure assumptions in devising the health advisory. The EPA’s failure to use the best-available-science and follow its own standards are contrary to this administration’s commitment to scientific integrity, and we believe unlawful.”
DuPont started using GenX in place of PFOA after the EPA pushed manufacturers to phase out PFOA and PFOS, two so-called “forever chemicals” that have been linked with a litany of health impacts from certain cancers to high cholesterol and thyroid disease.
Chemours, which was spun off from DuPont in 2015, continues many uses of GenX today, including in cell phones, medical equipment and computer chips. The company notes in its petition that it uses GenX in manufacturing processes, but not in “consumer-facing uses” like carpets or firefighting foams.
The health advisory level measures how much GenX people can be exposed to over the course of a lifetime without suffering adverse health effects. But Chemours argues that the EPA based the GenX level on exposure to PFOA, which was used widely throughout the economy, not only in drinking water but in household items.
In a footnote, Chemours states that before the EPA issued the health advisory, company officials sent the agency 22 studies that show there is “no significant exposure” in consumer products, dust, firefighting foam, food or other routes of exposure.
An EPA spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan was serving as secretary of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality in 2017 when the Wilmington StarNews first reported that researchers had learned GenX and other PFAS coming from Chemours were passing through treatment systems and into the region’s drinking water supply.
As part of a 2018 consent agreement with Cape Fear River Watch and the N.C. DEQ, Chemours agreed to provide drinking water filters to anyone with GenX above health advisory levels in their well water. DEQ officials estimated that the new health advisory would trigger upgraded water treatment systems for about 1,700 households around the Fayetteville Works facility.
On June 15, DEQ sent Chemours a letter asking for a list of households that would need upgraded treatment technology, a plan to tell them about their eligibility, a plan to re-evaluate the feasibility of providing affected households with public water supply and a plan for providing upgraded treatment.
Wednesday was the deadline DEQ gave Chemours to respond to that letter.
Sharon Martin, a DEQ spokeswoman, wrote, “We expect Chemours to meet their obligations under the Consent Order and to the communities impacted by PFAS contamination and are awaiting the response to the June 15 letter.”
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 July 13, 2022 at 5:54 PM.