Communities Call for Stronger Rules Limiting Carcinogen In Our Waters
Public commenters at an NC Environmental Management Commission (EMC) hearing in Wilmington last week blasted proposed rules on reporting discharges of PFAS chemicals into water as uselessly weak. The rules do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for PFAS dischargers found to be in violation of those rules.
As reported by the Coastal Review, a crowd of about 230 people filled the EMC’s hearing room, and dozens of individuals took their turns to strongly criticize the proposed rules for failing to set enforceable discharge limits. Wilmington and other communities in the lower Cape Fear River basin draw their drinking water from the river contaminated by levels of the long-lived, toxic category of chemicals. Some of those speaking told accounts of personal health issues while others cited scientific warnings, to the approval of the crowded audience.
Polluters Should Pay
“As a 33-year water professional and former EMC member, I am testifying that the voluntary minimization plans, as proposed, are ineffective,” Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Executive Director Ken Waldroup told the hearing officers. “They’re essentially empty facades that do not solve the problem. These minimization plans do not remove PFAS from the Cape Fear River because all reductions are voluntary. Voluntary plans are simply ineffective. Upstream dischargers have had decades to disclose and minimize their PFAS discharges. Unfortunately, history has shown that dischargers only do so in response to effective regulation with specific mandatory limits or mitigation.”
Dr. LeShonda Wallace, member of a scientific advisory board studying PFAS exposure in area residents, testified that the proposed rules ignore science and favor the interests of corporate polluters over public health. She added, “Environmental protection and justice requires that those who cause the pollution pay to prevent it and that they pay to clean it up, and I urge the commission to reject these ineffective minimization rules and adopt enforceable, evidence-based standards that reduce pollution at the source.”
Despite Strong Data, NCGA Fails to Act
Meanwhile at the NC General Assembly last week, the NC House Agriculture and Environment Committee heard a presentation from the NC Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) about the impacts of PFAS in biosolids, the remaining sludge from waste treatment plants after the discharge of treated wastewater.
Grady O’Brien from the NC Conservation Network wrote that a 2023 DEQ study “found PFAS in biosolids from multiple wastewater plants, but by far the highest levels were in the biosolids of direct industrial dischargers who use PFAS and municipal plants that receive wastewater from industries that use PFAS. The study also detected PFAS in soils that received land application of biosolids. One notable finding is that, while there are PFAS in biosolids, the majority of PFAS loading leaves wastewater treatment plants as discharges to surface waters.”
As NCLCV reported in January, the EMC received recommendations for stronger, more enforceable standards from DEQ, but in a split vote decided to send the weaker version to public hearing.
Take Action!
Written comments on these rules are being accepted through June 15 by email to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov with the subject title “PFAS minimization” or by mail to Karen Preston, DEQ-DWR NPDES Permitting Section, 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1617.
