DEQ-CFW_00078001

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Subject: 6enXfa||out: |smywater safe todrink? Wilmington Star News
ZQq
Gen-)X"` fallo-luft: I's my water safe to drin.1
OEQ-CFVV_00078001

1XILMINGTON -- A StaiNews investigative story)Yednesday that detailed a little-known toy irr in local d6nking warer left
many Southeastern North Carolinians wondering what to think about the water coming out their taps.
The toxin is a commercially produced compound known as GenX a key ingredient in Teflon, that has raised health concerns
among researchers. GenX is produced by Cheniours Co, at Fayetteville Works, an industrial site on the Cape Fear River, about
100 miles upstream from Wilmington, and a study recently found the compound in water treated by the Cape Fear Public 1-4111tv
Authority (CFPUA).
-Unanswered questions about GenX and its effects on humans make it difficult, experts said, to recommend any one course of
action for consumers in the Cape Fear region.
Dr. Alan Ducatman, a professor at IvVcst Virginia University's School of Public Health, said the chemical is new enough --
production started in 2009 -- that it is difficult to chart a path forward for customers and utilities.
The raw water intakes for the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, and the Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authority lie just
above Lock and Dam No. I in Bladen County. Researchers sampled river water here in 2013 and found GenX, a chemical made
at the Cbemours Co., about 50 miles upriver. [STARNEWS FILE PHOTO]
Next
"We have so little data," Ducatman wrote in an email. "In the absence of data, it is easy to worry, but hard to recommend
draconian measures. I would replace the drinking/cooking water, and use the municipal or well water for bathing or cleaning."
QuantifVing the risks GcnX is difficult, said Detlef'Kiiappe, a N.C. State University professor who worked on the team that
discovered the chemical in the Cape Fear River and CFPUA's system. Typically, Knappe added, the risk for compounds is
calculated for people who have been exposed over the course of 70 years -- something that becomes exceedingly difficult if the
associated cancer risk is unknown.
Larry Cahoon, a professor of biology at the Universih, of North Carolina Wilmington, said the EPA considers GenX an
"emerging contaminant," meaning it is so new the agency does not yet have protocols to regulate it.
Reverse osmosis: A water filtration process in which pressurized water is driven through a membrane. The small pores of the
membrane prevent molecules any larger than the pores from getting through. The EPA has identified reverse osmosis as an
effective way to filter out uranium, radium, gross alpha and beta particles and photon emitters, as well as contaminants like
arsenic, nitrate and microbes.
Source: EPA
"Personally I find that really troubling," Cahoon said. "The company (Chemours) is being allowed to conduct a really big
experiment on all us 250,000 guinea pigs, without knowing whether it'll hurt us."
Filtering contaminants
Cahoon said he first learned about Knappe's research at a conference last month.
"The thing I found eve -opening was his finding that the water treatment processes -- even here in Wilmington where we do a
really good job -- unfortunately doesn't get these compounds out very well,"' he said, "They're very inert and pretty difficult to
remove.
One of the few water filtration methods that could filter out Genx is reverse osmosis, an expensive method not currently used at
CFPUA's Sweeney Water Treatment Plant on the Cape Fear River.
DEQ-CFW-00078002

"It's a kind of filter system, but it operates on a molecular level," Caboon said. "Reverse osmosis basically uses a very selective
membrane that really only allows water molecules, which are very small, to go through it and it uses water pressure that forces
the water through."
Even the cheapest industrial -scale reverse osmosis systems cost tens of thousands of dollars for a single unit. A water treatment
plant the size of Sweeney could require dozens of units. Caboon said only a few small-scale water operations in the region use
reverse osmosis, such as Bald Head Island, which uses it to clean wastewater.
"They have a small enough volume going through that they can do that and it takes everything out." he said. "And again, it's
expensive, but they can afford it."
In -home solutions?
One type of consumer who can afford reverse osmosis is the homeowner
Home reverse -osmosis systems can be bought for a couple hundred dollars and are highly effective if used properly. But
Cahoon cautioned that people should not rush out and buy a system without doing thorough research. Often, a homeowner will
buy a reverse -osmosis system without understanding how to operate and maintain it; that could result in the system failing
without the homeowners realizing it.
"Informed consumers can make the right choice,"' Cahoon said. "The problem is a lot of these water filtration systems, the
technical aspects ofthcni are above most folks' understanding. You can be sold a whole lot or stull'witliout knowing how it's
operating."
At Wilmington's Tidal Creck Food Co-op, employees have noticed customers buying more packaged and reverse osmosis -
filtered water.
"Our water sales have increased -- I didn't know why at first," said grocery manager Eric Edwards. "I guess I thought maybe it
was something to do with the weather, but even today when it's 60 degrees people are still buying water."
Jacqueline Leiblein, manager of Culligan Water in Wilmington, said her call volume was up 20 percent Thursday, with many
asking about filter systems that can remove GenX.
"A lot of the calls are just from our customers wanting assurance to know that they equipment that they have will remove it,"
she said. "I think a lot of people are definitely becoming aware that there's a lot of different chemicals that aren't regulated. And
if you start researching how many unregulated substances arc in water, that they don't have (maximum contaminant levels), it's
just kind or the tip or the iceberg,"
Vaughn Hagerty, andAdam 4'agner contributed to this report.
Reporter Cannnie Bellamy can be reached at 910-343-2339 or
Jamie Kritzer
Communications Director
N.C. Department of Environmental Quality
519-707-8602
0101 PA
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