HomeMy WebLinkAboutDEQ-CFW_00006252From: Cathy Akroyd [Cathy.Akroyd@ncmail.net]
Sent: 5/26/2005 1:06:45 PM
To: Linda Culpepper [linda.culpepper@ncmail.net]; James C Coffey [James.C.Coffey@ncmail.net]; Grover Nicholson
[Grover.Nicholson@ncmail.net]; Elizabeth.Cannon [El izabeth.Cannon@ ncmail. net]; Jack Butler
[jack. butler@ncmail. net]; Bruce Nicholson [bruce.nicholson@ncmail.net]; Larry Stanley [Larry.Stanley@ncmail.net];
Bob Glaser [robert.glaser@ncmail.net]
Subject: [Fwd: DuPont monitors chemical pollution - Fayetteville]
Attachments: diana.kees.vcf
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Subject:DuPont monitors chemical pollution - Fayetteville
Date:Thu, 26 May 2005 09:00:22 -0400
Fro :Diana Kees <diana.kees(Li)ncinail.get>
Organizafion:NC DENR
To:Robin W Smith <Robin.W. Smithgnemail.net> ' Jimmy Carter <Jimmy.Carter La)ncmail.net>,
Richard Rogers <RichardRogers@ncmail.net>1 Johanna Reese <Johanna. Reese@ ncm ail. net>,
dan oakley <dan. oak] eyLa)ncm ail.nef-,, Mary P Thompson <Mary.P.Thompson L-�,ncniail.net>
Don Reuter <DonReuterCez)iicmail.nef>, Steve Wall <SteveWallCez)iicma.il.net>' "Jill. Pafford"
jll.pafford(�� ,gcma.il.net>, Craig Deal <Craig.Deaj(�� ,ncmail.net> Diana Kees
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1:�� ---------------------------------------- - ---------------- --------------------- ------------------------------------------
Cathy Akroyd <Cathv.Akroydancmail. net>
Published on: Thursday, May 26, 2005
DuPont monitors chemical pollution
By Nomee Landis
Staff writers
A toxic chemical that DuPont began producing at its Fayetteville Works
plant in 2002 has been found in groundwater below the facility.
DuPont officials say the chemical did not come from the new $23 million
building where it is produced but from a leaking cement cistern beneath
another building.
The chemical, ammonium perfluorooctanoate or APFO, is used to produce
Teflon and similar products. It also was detected at trace levels in
DuPont wastewater discharged into the Cape Fear River near the William
O. Huske Lock and Dam, said Larry Stanley, a hydrogeologist for the N.C.
Division of Waste Management.
Because North Carolina does not regulate APFO, Stanley said, DuPont
notified the state of the contamination voluntarily.
Stanley said the state is monitoring the situation, but it is allowing
the company to oversee further testing for APFO. More sampling of
groundwater and surface water is planned around the facility this
summer, Stanley said.
APFO is commonly known by its trademarked name, C8. It is the same
chemical that contaminated public water supplies around a DuPont plant
in West Virginia and led to a class-action lawsuit there involving more
than 50,000 people.
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is investigating the chemical
because it persists so long in the environment - and in people. Studies
have shown that APFO is in the blood of nearly every American.
DuPont studies revealed during court proceedings showed some adverse
health effects with significant exposure to the chemical.
DuPont began manufacturing APFO in Fayetteville in 2002 after its
creator, the chemical company 3M, stopped producing it for environmental
reasons. DuPont's Fayetteville Works plant is the only facility in the
United States that makes the chemical.
When the APFO plant opened, DuPont officials said neither the chemical
nor the wastewater left after its production would be discharged into
the environment. The waste would be hauled out of state for disposal.
EPA records show the company has trucked APFO waste products to Arkansas
and New Jersey.
Tracing the path
Michael Johnson is the environmental manager at DuPont's Fayetteville
plant. He said the path the contaminants took in the groundwater pointed
to another processing plant at the facility.
"From what we're seeing down there in that groundwater, we have the
utmost confidence that that didn't come from our APFO facility," Hudson
said.
DuPont first found the chemical in groundwater in January 2003, three
months after the APFO manufacturing plant opened. Barry Hudson, the
plant manager, said they began looking for APFO as part of an agreement
with EPA in response to mounting concerns about the potential health
effects of the chemical.
At that time, the company was embroiled in a lawsuit brought by
thousands of people living near the company's Parkersburg, W.Va., plant.
DuPont workers in Fayetteville sampled water in four monitoring wells.
APFO was found in trace amounts in three of the wells and at a higher
level in the fourth, according to a report DuPont provided to state
environmental staff.
More tests were done in March 2003 to verify the results. The highest
concentration was detected in February 2004, when sampling revealed 1.5
parts APFO per billion parts water.
Stanley said the findings surprised him. DuPont notified his division in
June 2003 that APFO was found in the groundwater at the Fayetteville plant.
Johnson said the locations of the two tests pointed them to the source:
an underground concrete waste storage vault, or sump, underneath the
plant where Nafion is produced.
"If you look at the groundwater flow where the sump was located, the
high point lines up absolutely perfect with the groundwater flow,"
Johnson said. "When you look at the wells we've sampled, everything
points to that sump."
The sump was closed in 2000 after plant workers found groundwater
leaking through a crack in the concrete floor. In addition to APFO, the
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plant has found trace levels of methane chloride and acetone in the
groundwater as a result of the leak.
Stanley said the APFO could be a breakdown chemical, left after other
chemicals biodegraded. That is something the EPA is considering, as well.
Threshold of worry
For now, Stanley said, the amount of APFO in the groundwater beneath the
Fayetteville plant remains low enough that it is not cause for concern.
According to Stanley, the state would not be concerned about the APFO
level until it reaches 150 parts per billion. The highest amount
discovered at the Fayetteville Works facility was 1.5 parts per billion.
The 150 parts per billion standard was the result of talks between
DuPont and state officials in West Virginia. But lawyers in the West
Virginia lawsuit argued the number was too high.
In Minnesota, health officials have set a limit of 7 parts per billion
in drinking water. 3M operated an APFO plant in Cottage Grove, Minn.,
for more than 50 years until it closed in 2002.
Jim Kelly, a health assessor for the Minnesota Department of Health, is
working on the state's investigation of the APFO releases in the Cottage
Grove area and helped establish an APFO standard for the state. He said
the 7 parts per billion threshold was based on toxicology analyses that
showed damage to a monkey's liver after it was exposed to APFO through
drinking water.
Concentrations of APFO in the thousands of parts per billion have been
detected for the past five years in more than 60 private drinking wells
and several public water systems in the Cottage Grove area. Kelly said
the state is "paying a lot of attention" to the issue.
Research on how the chemical travels and affects humans is ongoing. But
one thing is clear, Kelly said: Once released it is difficult to control.
Staff writer Nomee Landis can be reached at laridisri@fayette'villeric.com
or 486-3595. Staff writer Michael Wagner can be reached at
wagnerm@fayettevi-111-enc.coni or (919) 828-7641.
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