New Proposal Gives North Carolina Companies a Pass to Pollute PFAS

RALEIGH, NC — The state Water Quality Committee advanced a proposed rule on PFAS pollution that would allow corporate polluters to self-regulate and avoid penalties for dumping “forever chemicals” into surface waters that provide drinking water for more than 3.5 million North Carolinians. 

Despite some Committee members’ and public concerns that the rule does not require industries to reduce their PFAS pollution, protect the state’s drinking water from PFAS, or hold those polluters accountable the Committee voted to advance the proposal. DEQ will come back to the Water Quality Committee at their meeting on May 7 and the proposed rulemaking could go for a full EMC vote as quickly as the next day.  

Following is a statement from Cori Bell, senior attorney for Environmental Health at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council): 

“After decades of poisoning North Carolinians, and years of inaction by state regulators, polluters would officially get a pass to pollute under this proposed rule. The industry-backed proposal is a giant step backwards by the very body meant to protect public health and our natural resources. The Committee has recommended that the state put polluters above people. This is unconscionable. We need the EMC and DEQ to uphold the public’s interest and hold these polluters accountable.” 

Background

The proposal advanced by the Committee includes language that was recommended by the Water Quality Association, an industry trade group. The proposed rule would protect up to 600 industries statewide that are identified as PFAS polluters.

North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality previously presented water quality standards for PFAS that would phase in minimum requirements for companies to reduce their amount of forever chemical waste in drinking water sources, but the Environmental Management Commission has blocked those proposed standards for months.   

Chemical manufacturer DuPont had been dumping “forever chemicals,” produced at its Cumberland County facility, into the Cape Fear River for over 40 years. The pollution was discovered in 2017 and since then, high levels of PFAS pollution have been found in water systems and wells across the state affecting more than 3.5 million people across the state. 

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).