Cooper Administration Speaks on EMC Stalling PFAS Rules

A May 10 news release from Gov. Roy Cooper’s office gets straight to the point and is blunt about it: “The Republican-controlled Environmental Management Commission [EMC] is stalling efforts to regulate PFAS in North Carolina’s ground and surface water.” 

The release points out that new Republican appointees to the EMC are acting at the behest of a leading business lobby well-known for fighting against stronger environmental health standards, and in the process are delaying rulemaking needed to “protect the health and financial well-being of North Carolinians.” 

DEQ Explains Need for Rules

NC Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Secretary Elizabeth Biser explained the need for state rules forcing polluters to reduce toxic and long-lived PFAS in their wastewater discharges. Biser wrote that she was “deeply disappointed” by the EMC committees’ delay in starting the rulemaking. She points out that over 300 public water systems serving more than 3 million North Carolinians are using water contaminated by PFAS in excess of national drinking water safety standards adopted by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). DEQ staff have already given three separate informational presentations to the EMC, detailing the need for limits on PFAS in wastewater discharges in order to cost-effectively clean up drinking water. 

Journalists across North Carolina have connected the dots between last year’s state legislation removing control of the EMC from Gov. Cooper’s appointees, and the delay in new rules to clean up drinking water sources. The new EMC is controlled by appointees from pro-polluter Republican legislative leaders and other Republican elected officials, and they are refusing to act on the issue. 

Responsibilities of NC Government

DEQ Secretary Biser explains that it’s the EPA’s role to set safety standards for drinking water—but then it’s North Carolina’s role to set the pollution discharge limits needed to ensure that public drinking water sources can meet those limits. Otherwise, she points out, polluters are protected from the cost of cleaning up their mess, while families and other businesses who use the contaminated water are stuck with the bills to try to fix it.

We believe elected officials who don’t take these responsibilities seriously should be held accountable for their failures, and replaced by voters with candidates who will protect people’s health instead of polluters’ profits.

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