The Environmental Protection Agency has established drinking water standards for six types of toxic substances known as PFAS. (Photo: Getty Images)
As NC Newsline environmental investigative reporter Lisa Sorg has reported on numerous occasions in recent years, one of the biggest and most daunting environmental challenges facing 21st Century North Carolina involves a class of chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – more commonly known as PFAS.
There are thousands of types of PFAS and many have been proven to cause serious human health harms — including testicular, kidney, liver and pancreatic cancers, low birth weight, reproductive disorders, depressed immune responses and high cholesterol.
PFAS are widespread in the environment, because they don’t degrade – a characteristic that has earned them the nickname “forever chemicals.” They are used in hundreds of consumer products – such as pizza boxes, microwave popcorn bags, and other grease-, water-, and stain-resistant materials. Firefighting foam is another important source of PFAS pollution.
One of the most notorious modern-day examples of PFAS pollution took place in recent years in southeastern North Carolina, where a facility owned by a company known as Chemours released huge quantities of a forever chemical known as GenX into local air and water over an extended period. Experts believe that the contamination has adversely impacted the drinking water of more than 800,000 people. Thousands of homes in several southeastern counties were ultimately provided with alternate sources of drinking water as the result of a consent order between the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and Chemours.
As with so many types of chemical pollutants, getting an ultra-precise bead on PFAS – the best tools for measuring and monitoring them, their impacts and levels of toxicity, how to effect cleanups – is complex and sometimes controversial. To their credit, however, federal and state environmental officials have gotten serious in recent years about tackling the PFAS problem.
In April of this year, after years of study, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced the establishment of the first-ever federal regulations for six types of toxic PFAS in drinking water, including GenX. Soon after, in conjunction with this effort, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality proposed new rules to limit PFAS in the surface and groundwaters that flow into that drinking water.
At present, however, those proposed state rules have been frozen in their tracks as the result of opposition from at least two members of the state Environmental Management Commission, which must sign off on such new rules. According to a May 26 story in the Port City Daily, at least three appointees to the commission may have a conflict of interest with respect to PFAS regulations.
In response to the blockade, the Cooper administration has come out fighting – both by directly tying the blockade to Republican appointees to the commission and by issuing a declaration recognizing June 3-7 “PFAS Awareness Week.”
Key PFAS numbers:
1938 – year the first of the perfluorinated compounds — a precursor to Teflon — was invented by a DuPont chemist
1950’s – timeframe during which PFAs made their commercial debut
Nearly 15,000 – number of types of PFAS in the world today
41,828 – number of industrial and municipal sites in the U.S. suspected or known to be using PFAS
97 – percentage of Americans estimated to have PFAS in their bloodstreams
45 – estimated percentage of U.S. tap water that contains at least some PFAS
2,000,000 – estimated number of North Carolinians who rely upon groundwater for their drinking water
600-plus – number of wildlife species at risk of harm from PFAS
6 – number of toxic PFAS impacted by new federal regulations
4 parts per trillion – new EPA drinking water limits for PFOA and PFOS. The limit is 10 ppt for GenX, PFNA and PFHxS.
0.001 ppt – based on the EPA’s toxicology studies, DEQ is recommending maximum PFAS groundwater levels ranging from 0.001 ppt for PFOA, 0.7 ppt for PFOS and 20 ppt for GenX. Less stringent levels – 2,000 to 7,000 ppt – would apply to several other types.
At least 3 – number of Environmental Management Commission members (including the chair) “who own stock in companies that have either directly lobbied against PFAS and 1,4-dioxane regulation or pay lobbying dues to organizations that lobby on their behalf, such as the Chamber of Commerce and the American Chemistry Council,” according to the Port City Daily.
July 10 – next scheduled meeting of the commission
650 – number of North Carolina water systems on which DEQ has thus far conducted tests for PFAs contamination
More than 300 – number in which levels exceed the new EPA standards
$100,000,000 – amount the Cooper administration is calling on the General Assembly to appropriate to help communities meet the new EPA standards
Sources: U.S. EPA, North Carolina DEQ, the Environmental Working Group, EarthJustice.org, the Port City Daily, Office of Gov. Roy Cooper
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