HomeMy WebLinkAboutDEQ-CFW_00058527From: Sink, Marla [Marla.Sink@ncdenr.gov]
Sent: 6/19/2017 9:01:42 PM
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Subject: Press Release: DEQ starting water quality sampling for GenX in Cape Fear River
Attachments: ATT00001.txt; ATT00002.txt
Roy Cooper, Governor
Release: IMMEDIATE
Date: June 19, 2017
Environmental
Quotiq,
Contact: Jamie Kritzer
Phone: 919-707-8602
Michael S. Regan, Secretary
........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
DEQ starting water quality sampling for GcnX in Cape Fear River
RALEIGH — Staff with the N.C. Department of Environmental Qualitv will sample the water in the Cape Fear River for an
unregulated chemical compound known as GenX starting today and continuing Thursday.
DEQ staff will sample at 13 locations this week and will continue collecting samples for analysis in the same locations for the
next three weeks. Today, DEQ staff in the Fayetteville regional office are collecting water samples at the Chemours plant that
produces GenX during industrial processes, the Bladen Bluff intake and their finished water, and a water supply well in Bladen
County.
On Thursday, DEQ staff in the Wilmington regional office plan to sample the Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authoritys
intake, the International Paper intake, the International Paper finished water, the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority's finished
water, the Pender County public utility's finished water, the Brunswick County public utility's finished water, the Cape Fear
Public Utility's Aquifer Storage and Recovery well, and the Wrightsville Beach water supply well.
Officials are waiting three days between sampling events since that is the estimated travel time for the Cape Fear to flow the 70
miles from the Chemours plant in Fayetteville to the downstream river intakes near Wilmington. Officials are trying to sample
similar water parcels in the two areas for a more consistent and representative analysis.
DEQ staff, in consultation with state Department of Health and Human Services, are investigating the presence of the
unregulated compound known as GcnX that was detected in the Cape Fear River.
State environmental regulators will collect the water samples and will send those to two laboratories capable of detecting GenX
in water at low concentrations.
After meeting with DEQ staff last week, Chemours agreed to bear all costs for the water collection and testing. The state
believes the completed results will be back from the laboratory in Colorado within four weeks from when the samples are
received. But multiple rounds of testing and analysis will be necessary for a meaningful evaluation of the water quality.
Samples also will be sent to the Environmental Protection Agency's lab *in the Research Triangle Park. Officials have not yet
DEQ-CFW-00058527
determined a timeline for when analysis from the EPA lab would be completed.
To learn more about sampling locations, please contact Jamie Kritzer, communications director for DEQ, at 919-707-8602.
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DEQ-CFW-00058528