BRUNSWICK COUNTY — During last night’s meeting, Leland Town Council adopted a resolution requesting H2GO temporarily halt a planned reverse osmosis plant.
The resolution reads in part:
“Many residents of that service area have either signed petitions or otherwise made their opinion known that they do not want construction of a reverse osmosis water treatment plant to be authorized by the H2GO Board until after the November 2017 election.” (The full resolution can be read here.)
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H2G0’s decision to start work on the plant before its next board election has caused tension between board members, and has made it the de facto target of a bill filed by Representative Deb Butler (you can read more about board’s disagreements and Butler’s bill here).
H2G0’s arguments in favor of the planned $30 million plant include pollution in the Cape Fear River (the current source of their water); the proposed reverse osmosis plant would pump and filter ground water instead. In a statement from H2G0 today, Executive Director Bob Walker reiterated that point — magnified by the recent concern about the Chemours/Dupont chemical GenX.
In his statement, Walker wrote: “In the midst of the current crisis, two well-known and respected professors from North Carolina State and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington have both expressed their concern over the safety of our area’s drinking water and have stated that RO (reverse osmosis) could be the solution to the containment problem … In light of the current GenX contamination of our drinking water supplies, continued opposition by public officials to H2GO’s mission to preserve and promote the health and welfare of its customers is borderline political negligence. Recent events should have given them pause, not the RO plant.”
Walker did not name the professors. It should be noted that at Thursday’s press conference with officials from Brunswick, New Hanover County and Pender, as well as officials from the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, the issue of reverse osmosis came up. No official present had any information about whether any known filtration system would be effective against GenX. It should also be noted that, according to Sheila Holman, assistant secretary for North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality, there are plans to test the groundwater for GenX as well. (Read more about ‘what we learned’ at the press conference.)
Leland’s resolution will not legally bind H2G0 from continuing work on the plant. However, it could influence public opinion in the November election of H2G0’s board, Walker said.
