Administrative Watch: “Emerging Contaminants” Pose Rising Challenge to Clean Water
“GenX” is no longer just the abbreviation for the generation preceding the Millennials.
The term GenX has just rocketed into public awareness in southeastern North Carolina as the short name of a potentially hazardous contaminant discovered in drinking water supplies in New Hanover, Brunswick, and Pender counties. It’s understood to be entering the Cape Fear River in the discharge of an industrial plant on the Cumberland/Pender county line.
Two state departments (Health and Human Services, DHHS, and Environmental Quality, DEQ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are now involved in an unfolding debate over safe exposure levels and regulatory responsibilities.
GenX is a serious water quality and health concern, but it is far from alone. Hexavalent chromium in groundwater supplies continues to be both a hazard and a hot topic of debate over exposure limits and mitigation plans. The Haw River in central North Carolina is tied up in more than one such contaminant debate. Without doubt, as testing programs grow in scope and sensitivity more items of concern will be flagged, in more places.
For an enlightening discussion of these growing concerns, see Lisa Sorg’s article in NC Policy Watch last week.
Concerned citizens should keep this area of growing concern in mind when we hear legislative debates over professional staffing needed for our environmental regulatory agencies. Without adequate monitoring, research, and enforcement staff, the public may never know about such problems, their impacts, and how to mitigate them—much less command the resources to take effective action.
When conservation advocates call for more resources for our environmental protection agencies, this is exactly the kind of need we have in mind. Our legislators and other representatives in government need to hear this — and respond accordingly.
