SE North Carolina News

County of Brunswick issued the following announcement on Mar. 4.

Chairman Thompson sent the following letter to Secretary Biser regarding Chemours’ interim compliance plan, testing framework and NCDEQ’s additional directions issued this week.

Brunswick County Chairman Randy Thompson

Dear Secretary Biser,

I am writing on behalf of the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners with concerns about the compliance plan recently submitted by Chemours to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) in response to the 2019 Consent Order and the NCDEQ’s recent direction to Chemours to expand its interim sampling and drinking water plan issued March 2, 2022.

Make no mistake—we here at Brunswick County appreciate that the NCDEQ ordered Chemours to provide more adequate and responsive measures to sample wells in our four-county area, especially when we consider how substantial their company’s contamination of the Cape Fear River has been over the past several decades.

We were particularly glad to see that NCDEQ is requiring Chemours to expand the criteria of the private wells sampled, fix the inadequate wait time for testing (which was originally an irresponsible six months), and acknowledges that it is Chemours’ responsibility to contact private well owners to offer testing—not the other way around.

However, even with these new directions, we still have concerns about what Chemours is not going to include in the plan that we deem essential when assessing the potential risk to the health of Brunswick County residents. We feel NCDEQ should consider these concerns when assessing Chemours’ sampling and drinking water plan for our four-county area.

We’ve also listed some recommendations for NCDEQ that would provide much needed transparency and accountability moving forward.

BRUNSWICK COUNTY’S CONCERNS

• There is inequity in the frameworks’ testing protocols compared to other affected counties. It is still not clear why the sampling plan for wells in our four-county area needs to be different from the one around the Fayetteville Works facility. Having a different testing framework for our four counties compared to the one already established for Chemours in other counties will not instill public trust in the process.
• Residents with access to public water are automatically excluded from testing. The NCDEQ’s recent response to Chemours still only requires they test for wells that are the primary drinking source for that residence or property. Even if a property has access to potable water through a utility system, residents are entitled to know whether any private well on their property is contaminated. Water can still be withdrawn from the well and used for potable drinking water purposes. It is common for residents connected to public water to keep their existing well for watering gardens and irrigating their yards, potentially exposing them to contaminants that become concentrated in vegetables or become airborne during irrigation.
• The framework does not include public drinking wells. The NCDEQ’s recent response to Chemours only addresses private wells. Brunswick County has many wells which supply drinking water to the public. Chemours should be held to the same restrictions and responsibilities for public drinking water wells in Brunswick County as it is for those counties closest to the Chemours plant, such as Robeson and Bladen Counties.

BRUNSWICK COUNTY’S RECOMMENDATIONS

• Include the public in the process before adopting the framework. Brunswick County residents need to have information on potential contamination of their private wells to make informed decisions for their health and family. As you have done in counties immediately surrounding Fayetteville Works, NCDEQ should hold public information sessions or town halls concerning this plan and testing strategy to provide the public with the opportunity for feedback.
• Ensure the framework holds Chemours’ accountable to future changes to health advisory levels. NCDEQ must also ensure that Chemours’ testing thresholds adopt any changes that the Environmental Protection Agency or NCDEQ make to health advisory goals for any PFAS compounds that are a part of the framework.

I must re-emphasize that Brunswick County residents deserve the same health considerations as those counties closest to Fayetteville Works. The framework Chemours is drafting still treats Brunswick County differently—even though our residents are just as affected by their pollution.

Thank you for allowing us time to share our concerns and recommendations with your office. We appreciate your continued dedication to protecting North Carolinians from environmental contamination issues. Please feel free to reach out to me or Brunswick County’s administration with any questions or opportunities for collaboration on this issue.

Respectfully,

Randell (Randy) Thompson

Brunswick County Chairman of the Board

Original source can be found here.