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Toxin taints Cape Fear River south of Fayetteville Works - News - The Fayetteville Obser... Page 1 of 6
foObserver
Toxin taints Cape Fear River south of Fayetteville Works
A chemical replacement for a key ingredient in Teflon linked to
cancer and a host of other ailments has been found in the Cape Fear
River downstream from the Chemours Co.'s Fayetteville Works
plant.
By Vaughn Hagerty, Wilmington StarNews correspondent
Posted Jun 7, 2017 at 2:15 PM
Updated Jun 7, 2017 at 6:23 PM
WILMINGTON — A chemical replacement for a key ingredient in Teflon linked to cancer
and a host of other ailments has been found in the Cape Fear River downstream from the
Chemours Co.'s Fayetteville Works plant.
Known commercially as GenX, the contaminating compound is made at the 2,150-acre
industrial site, formerly DuPont, straddling the Cumberland-Bladen county line along river. It
has been detected about 100 miles downstream in Wilmington at the Cape Fear Public Utility
Authority, which cannot filter it.
Other water systems that tap the Cape Fear, including some that serve portions of Brunswick
and Pender counties, likely have GenX present as well — though only CFPUA has been tested.
"My estimate is that about 250,000 people are affected in the three counties," said Detlef
Knappe, a professor at N.C. State University and one of the researchers who traced the toxin
from Fayetteville to Wilmington.
The Fayetteville Public Works Commission draws water from the Cape Fear River at the
Hoffer Treatment Plant, several miles upriver from the Fayetteville Works plant.
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Chemours and DuPont, which formed Chemours in 2015 from business units including the
GenX manufacturer, have produced GenX since 2009. That was four years after DuPont
agreed to phase out a chemical called C8 and paid a $16.5 million U.S. EPA fine and settlement
for failing to release studies showing C8 may cause health problems. In February, the
companies settled a class-action lawsuit involving C8 water contamination in the mid -Ohio
Valley for $670.7 million.
In 2012, a research team detected GenX in the Cape Fear downriver from Fayetteville Works.
Other teams found it again in 2013-14 and as recently as last December. Results of river water
samples drawn last month are pending. Upriver from Fayetteville Works, none was found.
The plant is about 15 miles south of Fayetteville.
In a statement provided this week, Chemours officials said they are aware of the studies and
that "additional water emissions abatement technology" was added to the Fayetteville Works
plant in November 2013. That installation occurred more than three years prior to the latest
confirmed discovery of GenX in the Cape Fear downstream from the plant. The company did
not provide details on the abatement technology.
The 2013-14 tests included sampling at various points in the water cleaning process at a Cape
Fear Public Utility Authority treatment plant in Wilmington. At each step, researchers found
GenX, along with a number of substances related to C8 and GenX but about which scientists
know little aside from chemical structure. In some cases, these "novel" substances were seen at
concentrations far exceeding that observed for GenX.
They continued to find GenX and the "novel" substances at the end of the treatment line,
where freshly treated drinking water enters pipes feeding faucets throughout New Hanover
County.
`Trying to deal with it'
Frank Styers, chief operations officer of the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA), last
week said the utility is aware of the most recent study and its findings.
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"We think these type of studies are important and often lead to better regulation at the state
and federal level," he said. "Our drinking water continues to meet all state and federal drinking
water standards. We would support proper regulation to improve water quality in the river or
prevent compounds such as this from being discharged in the river."
Officials at the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, charged with regulating pollutants
released by manufacturers such as Chemours, last week said the agency has seen the studies and
plans to meet with Knappe this month before deciding how to proceed.
"Obviously, we need to look into it ourselves," said Julie Grzyb, the department's supervisor for
complex permitting. "Unfortunately, with these unregulated contaminants, we have one
hitting us after another and we're trying to deal with it."
The EPA, in response to emailed questions, wrote: "In its review of the GenX premanufacture
submission (for approval to make it), EPA determined that the chemical could be
commercialized if there were no releases to water."
The spokeswoman said the EPA would "check on this" when it was pointed out that the studies
showed GenX was found in both the Cape Fear and CFPUA water. No response had been
received by Wednesday.
Chemours, in its statement, wrote that it "is aware of the research reports on the Cape Fear
River watershed sampling done between 2012 and December 2013. Additional water emissions
abatement technology was completed and added to our Fayetteville operations site in
November 2013.
"Our polymerization processing aid, sometimes referred to as GenX, has been well
characterized and undergone extensive safety evaluations," the statement continued. "In
addition, regulatory agencies required substantial data to be developed on the alternative
chemistries that have been introduced. This data shows that the polymerization processing aid
offers a favorable toxicological profile and very rapid bioelimination, combined with a
manufacturing control system to minimize the potential for environmental releases and
resulting exposures.
"Chemours continues to work collaboratively with all state and federal regulatory agencies, and
we are committed to reducing our environmental footprint and minimizing any potential risks
to our employees and the communities in which we operate."
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Health concerns
Research has linked C8, the chemical GenX replaced, to risks for kidney and testicular cancer,
liver damage and a number of other potentially serious health problems. Similar data for GenX
is scarce, but the little that exists has some researchers concerned it may pose at least some of
the same problems.
"I drink the water," Styers said. "I think that determination (regarding health risks) would
better be made by state and federal regulators. These constituents (such as GenX) are not
regulated. The EPA does have a process for evaluating emerging contaminants that is
effective."
A fundamental challenge facing regulators is that no standards exist to set thresholds at which
concentrations of GenX in drinking water are safe -- mainly because the chemical is relatively
new and few studies on health effects are available.
EPA has established what it calls a "lifetime health advisory" for C8 in drinking water of 70
parts per trillion. The advisory is chiefly informational and not legally enforceable. C8 is also
known generically as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).
The average concentration of GenX measured at CFPUA's water intake on the Cape Fear in
2013-14 was 631 parts per trillion — nine times the EPA advisory level for C8. Even so, that
consideration would not trigger action on the part of state or federal regulators.
"The problem with these situations is these chemicals are emerging contaminants. We know
they're in the water. We don't always know at what levels they are problematic or unsafe," said
Connie Brower, an industrial hygiene consultant at NCDEQ's water resources division. "There
are very few studies on the toxicity of the chemical and very little to go on to help us
understand what level would be problematic."
State regulation of substances such as GenX typically means following the lead of EPA, Brower
said. Standards for substances such as GenX take several years to establish. So for now, at least,
there appears to be essentially no lead to follow.
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"EPA has conducted monitoring in the Cape Fear River Watershed for perfluorinated
compounds (a term for a large group of chemicals that includes C8 and GenX)," the EPA
spokeswoman who provided responses wrote. "At this time, EPA Region 4 (which includes
North Carolina) cannot advise on GenX compounds since the EPA does not have a drinking
water advisory for these compounds."
`Nobody would know'
The lack of standards also means that the contamination from GenX and the "novel"
substances in the CFPUA system and the Cape Fear likely would have gone undetected for
some time if the team that included Knappe had not tested the water.
"There is essentially no literature on this ether compound (GenX) or on the other ether
compounds," Knappe said.
Commercial labs in the United States currently are unable to test for GenX, Knappe said, so
CFPUA cannot monitor the system's water for GenX on its own.
"There's no obligation (for Chemours) to inform a utility like Wilmington and tell them, `You
may find this new chemical in your water,"' Knappe said. "So since this chemical is new and
isn't regulated, it isn't communicated to a public utility that the upstream discharge may
contain this chemical. Without our work, basically nobody would know that this chemical is
actually in the water."
Reverse osmosis — including as part of a household water -filtration system — might be
effective at filtering GenX and the other compounds from the water, Knappe said. But for a
municipal system such as CFPUA, such a step would cost millions of dollars to install and
maintain and take years to accomplish. Instead, he insisted, Chemours should address the
problem itself.
"I think the question that really should be asked is: Why should any utility have to deal with
this in the first place? No drinking water provider should have to deal with this kind of a
challenge if it can be dealt with at the source," Knappe said.
`Suspected human carcinogen'
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To evaluate whether GenX is a safe alternative to C8, regulators consider a number of factors,
including: the pace at which the body rids itself of the substance, the sorts of harm may it cause
and how quickly it degrades in the environment.
On elimination from the body, researchers appear to agree with Chemours' contention that, in
general, humans get rid of GenX much more quickly — 3.5 years for C8 versus days for GenX.
Ailments potentially linked to C8 include kidney and testicular cancer, harm to fetuses and
pregnant women, liver damage, a digestive tract inflammation called ulcerative cholitis and
high cholesterol. Researchers said they are less certain about the health safety of GenX — in
large part because the few studies available seem to show it may contribute to some of the same
issues tied to C8.
"GenX is indeed eliminated faster than C8/PFOA in rats and mice. However, human evidence
is missing so we do not know if this will still hold," said Xindi Hu, a doctoral student at
Harvard University Chan School and Environmental Science and Engineering and lead author
of a major study on fluorochemicals in drinking water. "In terms of toxicity, the evidence of
GenX is very scarce."
A study by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands,
where Chemours has a plant in Dordecht, analyzed the available studies and concluded that
"classification as a Category 2 carcinogen (a suspected human carcinogen) is justified " for
GenX.
The last consideration — persistence in the environment — has been a major point of concern
about C8 and other fluorochemicals, which tend to resist breaking down. While GenX is likely
to persist in the environment like C8, N.C. State's Knappe said that, unlike C8, GenX likely
would be flushed fairly quickly from the Cape Fear and affected water systems once it no
longer gets into the river from the Fayetteville Works.
The EPA, in a 2009 document giving the go-ahead for DuPont and Chemours to manufacture
GenX, expressed concerns about its safety, noting that it appeared to exhibit a number of the
same health and environmental risks as C8 and similar compounds.
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