NORTH CAROLINA — A North Carolina couple is requesting the Department of Environmental Quality set interim rules for eight PFAS compounds to aid groundwater remediation after finding high concentrations of the contaminants in nearby wells. Some New Hanover County residents supported the action due to similar findings.
READ MORE: Local firefighters speak against becoming ‘human guinea pigs’ due to PFAS exposure
ALSO: NC power struggle over PFAS policy intensifies after nonprofits petition for federal intervention
The Department of Environmental Quality announced it is accepting public comments for proposed interim groundwater limits for eight PFAS compounds Wednesday. The rules — Interim Maximum Allowable Concentrations or “IMACs” — are generally used to set cleanup levels for remediation.
Port City Java CEO Steve Schnitzler told Port City Daily he favored the move. He said he has been pushing for more groundwater testing after his neighbors’ well tests showed PFAS contamination in recent years. He noted multiple samplings at his residence have given contradictory results.
“It’s not just the water you are directly drinking,” he said. “Livestock is fed by wells — nobody uses the public water system to water 10,000 chickens — they use well water for that. And if that’s in the well water, then it’s in those animals. We’re bioaccumulating this stuff.”
Janice Gaines — vice president of Rockhill Community Organization — also spoke in favor of interim standards to help remediation efforts. Residents in Rockhill, an unincorporated community in the Castle Hayne area, have pushed for greater connectivity with Cape Fear Public Utility Authority after finding PFAS contamination in their wells.
“The sad thing is for a long time we were struggling with something we didn’t even know was a problem,” she said. “People were getting sick. We just thought it was age or something unfortunate, not even knowing that we had an underlying issue in our water.”
Gaines said many members of her community have suffered from health conditions associated with PFAS exposure. She underwent treatment for rectal cancer decades ago and was diagnosed with thyroid cancer earlier this year. Studies have linked PFAS with cancer cell migration and higher risk of several types of cancers, including a 2023 Mount Sinai study that associated PFAS exposure with thyroid cancer.
“There are people that don’t even have a voice because they passed on,” Gaines said.
Cape Fear River Watch executive director Dana Sargent estimated the lower Cape Fear region still has thousands of contaminated wells despite the remediation efforts of local utilities.
“We’re all in need of groundwater monitoring and the IMAC does that,” Sargent said.
State groundwater rules in 15A NCAC 02L .0202 allow any citizen to request the Division of Water Resources establish IMACs for compounds that do not have formalized groundwater standards.
Jonathan and Stephanie Gordon — who live in a rural area between Graham and Swepsonville in Alamance County — submitted a request to establish interim PFAS groundwater limits to the Department of Water Resources on July 22.
“We have all worked hard throughout our careers to be able to provide for our families and have enjoyed our lives out in the country and the privacy, serenity, and peace this area has offered,” Jonathan Gordon wrote to Division of Water Resources director Richard Rogers. “We no longer feel that peace, as our groundwater has been contaminated beyond safe levels. We have lived in these homes for decades and have raised our kids and grandkids on this land, all while drinking the contaminated groundwater.”
Jonathan Gordon is a firefighter in Greensboro and volunteer deputy chief in Swepsonville, who studied occupational health and technology at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. He told Port City Daily he submitted the request after NC State environmental scientist Detlef Knappe and Pittsboro-based nonprofit Haw River Assembly carried out PFAS testing of his well, in addition to five others in the vicinity.
“We got a permit through the county for a well that was less than 50 feet from a field that the City of Graham uses to spray sludge water,” Gordon said. “They came and tested our wells and they had exponential amounts of PFAS.”
Haw River Assembly riverkeeper Emily Sutton told Port City Daily her organization is currently working to determine the source of contamination.
“The fact that North Carolina doesn’t have systems in place to protect private well owners is pretty atrocious,” she said. “We don’t have groundwater standards yet to protect them and thats why we want these IMACs.”
Residents are required to include toxicological data in their IMAC requests for review by state officials; the Gordons cited a Department of Environmental Quality scientific and regulatory impact analysis published in May.
The Department of Environmental Quality has been pushing for PFAS groundwater and surface standards for eight PFAS compounds found in high concentration in North Carolina since November. The Environmental Management Commission — a 15-member appointed body charged with reviewing and approving DEQ proposals — has rejected moving forward on the requests.
Gordon cited the same analysis the DEQ used at the July Environmental Management Commission groundwater committee meeting. The committee requested the Department of Environmental Quality amend its fiscal analysis to only include three compounds — PFOS, PFOA, and GenX — before discussion again at the September meeting. Opposed Environmental Management Commission members argued more time is needed to determine the health impacts of the five other compounds.
Critics, including Environmental Management commissioner and attorney Robin Smith, countered that the scientific evidence for the proposal is well-established. She said groundwater standards for the five rejected compounds would actually provide regulatory relief by establishing limits above the current “practical quantification limit” — the level of a compound that can be detected by existing technology. Practical quantification limits (PQL) set a default standard for unregulated contaminants; although it isn’t commonly enforced, exceeding a PQL without a permit is a violation of groundwater rules.
“It was difficult to discern from the discussion any clear rationale for the recommendation to abandon adoption of health-based standards for the other five PFAS,” Smith wrote in a July blog post. “When those standards would have provided greater clarity on health risk; reduced the regulatory burden on business; and protected property values.”
Gordon’s tests showed some compounds at levels high above DEQ’s proposed standards. For example, his well had PFOA of 291.5 parts per trillion (ppt) — compared to DEQ’s proposal of 0.001 parts per trillion. Total PFAS levels among the six families tested showed levels ranging from 370.4 ppt to 3587.3 ppt.
The Department of Environmental Quality directed Chemours — which took over DuPont’s Fayetteville Works in 2017 — to carry out private well testing in New Hanover, Pender, and Brunswick County in 2021; November 2022 results showed 46% of tested wells in New Hanover County had detectable PFAS levels.
For decades, DuPont and 3M concealed internal studies showing severe negative health effects of the compound. DuPont discharged the substance and its replacement GenX — which the EPA found to be potentially even more toxic than its predecessor — in the Cape Fear River for decades.
Gordon criticized Environmental Management Commissioners for delaying the standards. The Haw River Assembly, the nonprofit that carried out Gordon’s tests, joined three nonprofits — including Wilmington-based Cape Fear River Watch — in a petition to the EPA last week to take over North Carolina’s PFAS permitting program. They cited actions of the Environmental Management Commission and General Assembly blocking standards for the compounds.
“I just prefer they would do a lot more research on it,” Gordon said.
Communities including New Hanover County and the City of Graham in Alamance County — nearby Gordon’s wells cited in the recent DEQ letter — are engaged in litigation against Dupont, 3M, Chemours, and other PFAS-producing companies. The suits include the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam.
Gordon and a Greensboro Fire Department spokesperson noted local firefighters have recently been working with city officials to address PFAS contamination in firefighter gear; New Hanover County and Wilmington firefighters have made similar efforts in recent years.
“We don’t know yet what responsible party caused our contamination; when they are identified, they may argue for less protective cleanup, and they may be able to afford well-heeled lawyers and scientists,” Gordon wrote in the letter to DEQ. “We’re asking for you to issue a fair and scientific IMAC now so we know where we stand.”
Tips or comments? Email journalist Peter Castagno at peter@localdailymedia.com.
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