Bill to make ‘Forever Chemicals’ manufacturers pay advances on North Carolina water systems

Written by GARY D. ROBERTSON

North Carolina’s top environmental regulator could order manufacturers of “forever chemicals” to help pay for water system cleanup improvements when they are found responsible for discharges that contaminate drinking water beyond acceptable levels, under legislation introduced by a state House committee on Tuesday.

The measure was requested by Republican lawmakers from the Wilmington area, where upstream discharges into the Cape Fear River of a class of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also called PFAS, have contributed to utilities serving hundreds of thousands of people spend large amounts to filter them. Accumulating scientific evidence suggests that such chemicals, which resist decomposition, can cause harm to humans.

One of the bill’s sponsors said it’s appropriate for companies that produced such chemicals and released them into the environment to cover the costs of cleaning up the water.

“It’s not fair that taxpayers have to foot this bill while the people who are actually responsible for making these products from scratch that made it into those utilities don’t have to foot the bill,” said Rep. Ted Davis of New Hanover County. he told the House Environment Committee. The panel approved the measure with bipartisan support.

The bill, if ultimately enacted, would certainly threaten to increase costs for The Chemours Co., which a state investigation found had for decades discharged a type of PFAS from its Fayetteville Works plant in Bladen County, entering the air , to the river and groundwater. The discharges were not widely made public until 2017.

The bill would authorize the secretary of the state Department of Environmental Quality to order a “responsible party” for PFAS contamination that exceeds established maximum levels in drinking water to pay public water systems the “actual and “necessary” costs incurred to eliminate or correct the contamination. Only a PFAS manufacturer can be a “responsible party.” The bill also makes clear that a public water system that receives rebates must reduce customers’ water rates if they were increased to pay for the reduction efforts.

PFAS chemicals have been produced for several purposes: they helped eggs slide on nonstick pans, ensured firefighting foam smothered flames, and helped clothing resist rain and keep people dry. GenX, produced at the Bladen plant, is associated with non-stick coatings.

Vials containing PFAS samples sit on a tray at a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency laboratory in Cincinnati. The Environmental Protection Agency in April announced its first limits on several common types of PFAS, so-called “permanent chemicals,” in drinking water. (Photo via AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel.)

Davis unsuccessfully pushed in 2022 to pass a similar bill, which at the time also directed state regulators to set maximum acceptable levels of “permanent chemicals.” The latest measure leaves that aside and sets action standards based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new “maximum contaminant levels” for six types of PFAS in drinking water, including GenX.

A lobbyist for Chemours told the committee that the company was being targeted by the bill, even as the company had taken steps to address the release of PFAS.

Chemours has invested in the plant to prevent the chemical from entering groundwater through an underwater wall and into the air through a thermal oxidizer, said lobbyist Jeff Fritz, and has worked closely with state environmental regulators to address contamination. pass.

“Given those actions, we respectfully ask that this bill not proceed,” Fritz said. The company has been asked to provide water filtration systems for homes with contaminated wells, for example.

The North Carolina Manufacturers Alliance opposes the bill, while the American Chemistry Council expressed concerns about the details, its representatives said. They noted how the measure would apply retroactively to expenses incurred since early 2017, based on pollution standards that were just finalized in April.

To address pollution, Brunswick County Public Utilities embarked on a $170 million construction project, Director John Nichols said, resulting in average customer rates increasing from $25 to $35 per month. And Beth Eckert of the Cape Fear Public Utilities Authority said it had incurred nearly $75 million in PFAS-related expenses to date.

“Our community of working North Carolina families has spent and continues to spend millions to address the pollution we did not cause but cannot ignore,” Eckert said.

The bill would have to be approved by both the full House and Senate during a session that could end in early summer. Elizabeth Biser, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s DEQ secretary, backed Davis’ bill starting in 2022. Department spokeswoman Sharon Martin wrote Tuesday that DEQ “supports measures that put cleanup and treatment costs where They belong: to the PFAS manufacturer that releases chemicals forever.”

Featured photo via The Chatham News + Record.

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