Judicial Watch: DEQ Sues Chemours
The Cooper Administration’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) last week filed suit against the Chemours corporation for decades of toxic discharges contaminating the Cape Fear River and now threatening public drinking water in the lower Cape Fear region.
DEQ’s lawsuit charges that the chemical company inaccurately told the state in 2010 that they had a system in place which would assure that the now-notorious contaminant GenX never got into the river.
DEQ has also issued an administrative Notice of Violation to the company for illegal discharges, which may serve as a step toward significant financial penalties, and even shutting down its discharge permit altogether.
As of Friday, the governor had not yet acted to sign or veto legislation which rolled an inadequate appropriation toward the costs of cleaning up GenX contamination into a larger anti-environmental bill (HB 56). HB 56 includes several especially odious anti-environmental provisions, including weakening stormwater pollution controls and riparian protection buffers, and repeal of the popular Outer Banks plastic bag ban. Environmental advocates are encouraging Gov. Cooper to veto the bill.
On Friday, a state judge approved a partial consent order between the state and Chemours, further restricting pollutant discharges from their Fayetteville Works site, and giving DEQ access to more company information on their materials and processes. More details can be seen here.
