DEQ-CFW_00079839

Michael S. Regan, Secretary
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Release: PdMEDIATE Contact: Jamie Kritzer
Date: July 11, 2017 Phone: [phone]
State agency receives first GenX water sample data and begins analysis
State to release first results of analysis soon
RALEIGH — State officials have received data from the first rounds of water samples collected in the Cape Fear River to
test for the unregulated chemical GenX.
Officials with the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality received the first sets of water quality data from the Test
America lab in Colorado on Monday and Tuesday. The data comes from water samples collected June 19-29 near the
Chemours facility in Fayetteville, which is believed to be the primary source of the GenX, and downstream at water
treatment facilities in the Fayetteville and Wilmington areas.
Staff in DEQ started Monday conducting a quality assurance review of the lab analyses and will send their final data review
later this week to public health experts in the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. The public health staff will
then conduct a health risk analysis of the results. Both agencies will then publicize the results in a news release and online
at the state's web page devoted to GenX, https:Hdeq.nc.gov/news/hot-topics/genx-investigation.
"Our goal is to make the public aware of our findings as soon as possible," said Michael Regan, secretary of the N.C.
Department of Environmental Quality. "We will continue to report the results of the analyses in the coming days and
weeks. Taking multiple samples will give the most accurate data, and enable everyone to better understand how GenX was
in the river during sampling and any potential health impacts it might have."
The water testing is part of an investigation DEQ and DHHS are conducting regarding GenX. Staff with DEQ started June
19 collecting the water samples to test for levels of GenX in the river. Officials have collected water samples in the same
12 locations near Fayetteville and Wilmington and are completing the fourth round of tests this week. A 13'h location
upstream of the Chemours facility — the Hoffer Water Treatment Plant — was added to the sampling regimen last week and
this week.
Separate samples were sent for analysis to two labs capable of detecting GenX at low concentrations — Test America and
the EPA's lab in the Research Triangle Park. Both labs are continuing to receive and analyze data from the water samples
collected and will make that data available to state officials during the coming days and weeks.
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