DEQ-CFW_00080652

GenX Timeline:
June 14: DEQ staff, in consultation with state Department of Health and Human Services,
started investigating the presence of a compound known as GenX. DEQ encourages Chemours,
the company that produces the chemical for industrial processes at its facility in Fayetteville, to
identify any measures that can be taken to reduce or eliminate the discharges of the chemical to
the river until the state completes its investigation. DEQ encourages the Environmental
Protection Agency to provide regulatory guidance on GenX.
June 19: DEQ begins collecting water samples from 12 sites along the Cape Fear River. Map
and dates of the sampling.
June 21: Chemours announces it will stop the GenX discharge. DEQ announces it will continue
the investigation until answers for downstream water users are obtained.
June 27: DEQ verifies Chemours is containing wastewater from the byproduct GenX and
preventing the unregulated chemical compound from discharging into the Cape Fear River.
June 29: DHHS provides an analysis that reveals cancer rates in Bladen, Brunswick, New
Hanover, and Pender Counties are generally similar to the statewide rates of pancreatic, liver,
uterine, testicular and kidney cancers. There are two exceptions where the county cancer
incidence rates were higher than the state and four where the incidence rates were lower.
July 11: Officials with DEQ receive the first sets of water quality data from the Test America
lab in Colorado. The data comes from water samples collected June 19-29 near the Chemours
facility in Fayetteville that produces GenX, and downstream at water treatment facilities in the
Fayetteville and Wilmington areas.
July 14: State officials release their first results of water quality samples and an updated
preliminary health assessment for concentrations of the unregulated compound GenX in finished,
or treated, drinking water. The revised health goal for exposure to GenX in drinking water is 140
nanograms per liter (also referred to as parts per trillion).
July 17: Governor Cooper urges EPA to set limits for GenX.
DEQ-CFW-00080652