NC Judge Raises Risk of Cancer from Drinking Water

North Carolina’s notoriously pro-polluter Chief Administrative Law Judge Donald van der Vaart has raised the risk of cancer-causing chemicals in the waters supplying drinking water to nearly a million North Carolinians.

Van der Vaart’s decision struck down permits which limited the amount of toxic chemical solvent 1,4-dioxane in the wastewater discharges of treatment plants operated by the cities of Greensboro, Asheboro, and Reidsville. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has concluded that 1,4-dioxane is “likely to be carcinogenic to humans” and that “exposure to drinking water sources from surface water that is contaminated by 1,4-dioxane released from industrial facilities contributes to the unreasonable risk” to human health. In his decision voiding the NC Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) permits limiting the toxic discharges, van der Vaart reasons that a “likely human carcinogen” is not the same as a “human carcinogen” which state law allows DEQ to regulate. 

Impact on Communities and Families

Tens of thousands of families now find themselves in the role of involuntary guinea pigs under van der Vaart’s mandated mass experiment. Will parents facing the fact that their children are being exposed daily to drinking water contaminated only with a “likely human carcinogen” take comfort from this cold legal sophistry? We doubt it.

Communities affected by the three cities’ 1,4-dioxane pollution and threatened by the court’s decision include downstream Pittsboro, Chatham County, Sanford, Fayetteville, Wilmington, Brunswick County, and Pender County, as well as Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and other communities that have arranged to buy drinking water from Sanford. It’s noteworthy that Greensboro itself receives some drinking water from Randleman Lake, a waterbody downstream of other 1,4-dioxane sources. 

The Fight for Clean Water

DEQ has 30 days from September 12 to appeal the decision. In addition, Brunswick County, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, and Fayetteville Public Works Commission had intervened in the case as downstream water users who will be affected by the increased contamination and treatment costs. They could be intervenors in an appeal as well.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) issued a news release criticizing Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) van der Vaart’s decision. 

“The law not only allows DEQ to protect our families from toxic 1,4-dioxane in our drinking water—it requires it. Asheboro, Greensboro, and Reidsville have banded together to sabotage drinking water protections for families throughout North Carolina, including laws that help stop PFAS and other toxic chemical pollution,” said Kelly Moser, senior attorney and leader of the Water Program at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Instead of using the power cities have to control pollution coming from their industries, Reidsville, Asheboro, and Greensboro have chosen to attack the laws that protect our basic right to clean drinking water, and now Administrative Law Judge van der Vaart has sided with them.”   

In a related administrative legal action, SELC is representing several environmental and community groups in a petition to EPA to revoke North Carolina’s delegated authority to issue permits under the Clean Water Act. ALJ van der Vaart’s decision in this case is among the examples noted of the state’s failure to enforce the requirements of the Clean Water Act. 

Importance of Elections

In these final weeks of the 2024 state and national election campaigns, it’s critical to connect the dots between recent election results and the failure of the Office of Administrative Hearings to enforce the protections of federal clean water law.

Van der Vaart was appointed by the new Republican chief justice the NC Supreme Court, elected in 2020. That Court gained its current 5-2 majority of Justices favorable to polluters’ legal arguments in the 2022 election. To get better results from our state’s highest court, the voters of our state are going to have to demand them at the polls, beginning this fall.

Associate Justice Allison Riggs, appointed by Gov. Roy Cooper to fill an unexpired term last year, is on this year’s ballot seeking a full term on the Court. Justice Riggs has been endorsed by the NCLCV Conservation PAC. 

This is just one of the ways in which justice is on the ballot in 2024, along with the future of our climate and our planet.