[Update: Cape Fear Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette presented the resolution, sponsored by council member Salette Andrews, which council voted to pass unanimously on Nov. 5.]
WILMINGTON — Wilmington City Council is set to vote next week on a resolution formally opposing chemical giant Chemours’ plans for expansion, taking a political stand that coincides with independent testing revealing high levels of unregulated PFAS found in the city’s drinking water.
READ MORE: PFAS contamination found in saltwater fish species tested in Cape Fear River
ALSO: EPA intends to rescind PFAS regulations as Chemours seeks to increase production
Sponsored by council member Salette Andrews, the resolution specifically mentions the documented history of pollution attributed to Chemours, citing concerns with airborne emissions and the discharge of ultra-short chain PFAS, like TFA, into the Cape Fear River. It also calls on the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and the EPA to deny any permits that would allow Chemours to expand its operations. The chemical company is currently under NCDEQ review for an air permit related to expansion of its Fayetteville Works facility and renewal of a wastewater discharge permit for one of its outfalls.
“My goal in introducing this resolution is to give voice to the deep concern shared by Wilmington residents and our regional partners about ongoing PFAS contamination in the Cape Fear River and our drinking water supply,” Andrews told Port City Daily. “We have a moral and civic responsibility to speak out when new industrial activities threaten public health.”
Chemours announced in 2022 it would be expanding its production to create compounds used in the production of Teflon and semiconductors. The company submitted its application in August of 2024 to the NCDEQ’s Division of Air Quality.
If approved, it would allow for a 50% increase in one key production line (Vinyl Ethers North) and a 33% increase in another (Vinyl Ethers South). Vinyl ethers are used to manufacture PFA, a fluoropolymer chemical used in products like Teflon and semiconductor computer chips. When these vinyl ether emissions are released into the air, they eventually fall as rainfall, contaminating the soil, groundwater, and watersheds.
While the chemical company maintains that emission control technologies — like its thermal oxidizer/scrubber system — will lead to an overall 15% decrease in fluorinated emissions, critics aren’t sure about the thermal oxidizer system’s effectiveness.
Environmental advocates like the Southern Environmental Law Center have raised concerns, citing a lack of data on the performance of the thermal oxidizer system.
Although NCDEQ’s Division of Air Quality has the sole authority to review and approve Chemours’ application, Andrews said the resolution “sends a clear, unified message that our city expects regulators to uphold strong environmental standards and to put public health ahead of corporate expansion.”
She is confident it will gain support.
“I believe there is strong awareness on council of how this issue affects Wilmington residents and our regional partners,” Andrews stated.
The resolution is scheduled to be considered by council at its Nov. 5 meeting.
The agenda item coincides with results coming to light from recent testing commissioned by the SELC and Cape Fear River Watch. The testing was conducted by Cape Fear River Watch at the end of September, focusing on two Chemours wastewater discharge points — downstream locations from the Chemours Fayetteville Works plant and finished drinking water.
According to SELC spokesperson Kathleen Sullivan, the groups decided to independently sample after Chemours voluntarily reported in a letter to NCDEQ that it found TFA in its outfalls.
“We were concerned that these contaminants were not getting removed by treatment,” Sullivan said.
Testing results released in October revealed high levels of ultra-short chain PFAS in the Cape Fear River, specifically, TFA and PFPrA. The two chemicals are used to help create products like Teflon, electrical wiring insulation, and electronics.
TFA, for instance, came in at 1,938 parts per trillion in Cape Fear Public Utility Authority finished water and PFPrA was 21 ppt.
There are no state or federal limits in the United States for these compounds, but to put the results into perspective, the detected TFA level approached the health advisory limit of 2,200 ppt set by Dutch authorities. The Dutch Institute for Public Health and the Environment set a health advisory based on the compound’s potential toxicity to the liver and reproductive health. Although much higher, Germany also has an enforced limit for TFA at 60,000 ppt.
Chemours Communications Leader Jess Loizeaux told Port City Daily that based on available toxicological data, these compounds are not believed to be harmful to human health or the environment at the detected levels. Loizeaux pointed to the limit set by Germany, noting the test results from Cape Fear River Watch fell below.
Further upstream, closer to Chemours Fayetteville Works plant, the chemicals were detected in higher concentrations at the facility’s two outfalls — discharge points where wastewater or treated stormwater is released directly into the Cape Fear River. The amounts reached up to 21,907 ppt for TFA and 492 ppt for PFPrA at outfall 003.
Loizeaux said while the company does not commercially manufacture or use TFA or PFPrA as raw materials, they are present as byproducts of some manufacturing processes. Loizeaux added TFA is a substance both naturally occurring and man-made, and is not specific to Chemours’ Fayetteville Works.
“That said, it would be unfounded and inaccurate to allege that all TFA in the Cape Fear River is coming from Fayetteville Works since TFA could be a result of agricultural runoff, and other manufacturing facilities nearby,” Loizeaux said.
In response, Cape Fear River Watch Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette refuted the idea of multiple sources adding to the contamination, at least near the outfalls.
“The only source there is Chemours,” Burdette said. “We took the samples directly out of their pipe.”
The chemical company also informed NCDEQ in a recent letter about a new, advanced analytical method it developed to detect these compounds at low levels, offering to share the method with the state. Port City Daily asked Loizeaux if Chemours had proposed any potential treatment strategies to deal with the chemicals, although the question was unanswered.
The chemicals are reaching people’s faucets due to the unique properties of ultra-short chain PFAS, which are smaller, highly water-soluble chemical structures designed to replace older, larger PFAS like GenX. Unlike GenX, the tiny compounds are very mobile, making it tough to consistently capture with existing pollution controls.
The compounds have an extremely low adsorption potential, meaning they do not effectively stick to the specialized granular activated carbon filters installed by Cape Fear Public Utility Authority. Thus, TFA potentially sneaks through the multi-million dollar filtration system and persists in finished drinking water.
CFPUA director of communications Vaughn Haggerty told Port City Daily TFA is not one of the 70 compounds the utility’s contract lab currently tests for. The system does treat another ultra-short chain PFAS — PFMOAA. Haggerty said the utility’s goal is to keep PFMOAA levels below 10 ppt in finished drinking water, which it has done consistently since December of 2023.
“Ultra short-chain PFAS can be difficult to treat,” Haggerty said, noting it’s also “unsurprising” for Cape Fear residents to continue to see the impacts of Chemours downstream.
Familiar with the topic, Haggerty is a former journalist who broke the GenX story being in the Cape Fear River in 2017 for the StarNews; he joined CFPUA as director of communications in 2019.
The utility subsequently installed the $43 million GAC filtration system in 2022. While this system effectively removes the majority of PFAS to non-detectable levels, it has increased monthly rates for customers to cover the project costs.
“It is very difficult and very expensive for CFPUA to remove PFAS once they’ve ended up in the river,” Burdette stated. “And if it’s very expensive for CFPUA to remove it, then that means it’s very expensive for you and me and everybody else who’s got a water bill to remove it.”
Chemours’ National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for discharge outfall 003 is up for renewal as of September, and the SELC, on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch, is urging NCDEQ to take action to protect downstream communities.
An Oct. 24 letter from SELC to NCDEQ officials details the requests, specifically calling on the state agency to require Chemours to immediately begin testing the discharge for ultra-short chain PFAS compounds, including TFA and PFPrA, and to propose effective treatment strategies capable of removing them from wastewater.
Port City Daily asked NCDEQ for their response to the testing results and comment on the permitting process; an answer was not received by press.
Andrews stressed the path forward is corporate accountability.
“Companies that profit from industrial processes must also take full responsibility for the environmental and health consequences of those activities,” Andrews wrote. “Polluters — not taxpayers — should bear the cost of cleanup and prevention. Wilmington residents deserve clean water, transparency, and corporate accountability.”
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