WELCOME TO THE NORTH CAROLINA OPEN THREAD FOR SUNDAY, july 16th, 2017
113th Weekly Edition
This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. We hope this regular platform gives readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we work on taking back our state from some of the most extreme Republicans in the nation. Please join us every week as we try to Connect, Unite and Act with our North Carolina Daily Kos community. You can also join the discussion in four other weekly State Open Threads.
Colorado: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Mountain
Michigan: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Eastern
North Carolina: Sundays, 1:00 PM Eastern
Missouri: Wednesday Evenings
Kansas: Monday Evenings
You can help this weekly effort by adding anything from North Carolina that you would like to highlight. Just kosmail me or email at randalltdkos at gmail. And please follow me on Twitter @randallt.
Please jump the fold to see comprehensive reporting and resources on the developing pollution crisis impacting Wilmington. Following that is information on our August 12th Meetup at Mt. Mitchell.
hydroviv.com
Following are stories from a variety of sources concerning the ongoing and historical pollution by DuPont and its spinoff company Chemours which manufactures chemicals at a plant upstream from Wilmington.
GenX in the family of PFOA chemicals (perfluoroctanoic acids), a byproduct of manufacturing Teflon. PFOAs are widespread in the environment; they’re even present in house dust. Despite their ubiquitousness, GenX is classified as an “emerging contaminant” by the EPA. Emerging contaminants have not been independently tested for safety or toxicity; nor are they regulated. Its effects on human health are unknown. GenX is biopersistent, meaning it remains in the body, in this case, for an estimated one to three years.
Ammonium 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoro-2-(heptafluoropropoxy) propanoate is the "new" Perfluorooctanoic acid, so it is found in many barrier-creating consumer and industrial products, such as Teflon, stain-resistant carpet, and firefighting foam. Since it just entered widespread use in 2010, the substance is almost completely unregulated. From sources below
The news broke on June 7th as reported below by the Wilmington Star followed by a breaking news report on WWAY where you can view the video. The stories following those are from late June. Like the author of the Fisheries Blog below, I was largely unaware of the issue until recently. I hope you find this piece useful.
WILMINGTON -- A chemical replacement for a key ingredient in Teflon linked to cancer and a host of other ailments has been found in the drinking water system of the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA), which cannot filter it.
Known commercially as GenX, the contaminating compound is made by the Chemours Co. at Fayetteville Works, a 2,150-acre industrial site straddling the Cumberland-Bladen county line along the Cape Fear River, about 100 miles upstream from Wilmington. Other water systems that tap the Cape Fear, including some that serve portions of Brunswick and Pender counties, likely have GenX present as well -- though only CFPUA has been tested.
“My estimate is that about 250,000 people are affected in the three counties,” said Detlef Knappe, a professor at N.C. State University and one of the researchers who traced the toxin from Fayetteville to Wilmington.
Water providers are trying to reassure customers after a StarNews report about a toxin discovered in the system that serves about 200,000 people in the area with drinking water.
The newspaper reported yesterday that GenX, a chemical replacement for a key ingredient in Teflon, has been found in the drinking water system of the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority. GenX, which the StarNews story says has been linked to cancer and other ailments, is made by the Chemours Co. at Fayetteville Works on the Cumberland-Bladen county line along the Cape Fear River about 100 miles upstream from Wilmington.
The StarNews report cites a researcher at NC State, who has traced GenX from Fayetteville to Wilmington, saying he estimates about 250,000 people are affected in Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties.
People in Wilmington, NC have stopped drinking water, from the tap that is, even though we have a water treatment facility, renovated just a few years ago, that boasts of the “latest and most innovative treatment technologies” on its website. Facebook has become dominated by parents exchanging opinions on reverse-osmosis filtration systems. What on earth is going on?
Well, towards the end of last year, a paper led by the Knappe lab at North Carolina State University, was published in Environmental Science and Technology Letters, one of the highest profile journals in the field. I became aware of the publication while sitting in the audience of a session at the annual American Chemical Society meeting in San Francisco in early April of 2017. A slideshow of the “Best Papers of 2016” was playing prior to talks beginning for the day, and I noticed that one of the studies was titled “Legacy and Emerging Perfluoroaklyl Substances are Important Drinking Water Contaminants in the Cape Fear River Watershed of North Carolina.” Well, I’d better look at that one I thought to myself, mentally adding it to my never-ending reading list, but at that moment didn’t give it a lot more thought because it wasn’t really big news that yet another chemical was being detected in the Cape Fear, or in any watershed for that matter. Although I did wonder where city “C” was in the graphic that briefly flashed on the screen.
What I didn’t know until I read the paper two months later—when I woke up to news breaking on social media that our drinking water might be contaminated and friends began asking me where to get clean water—was that this particular chemical, oddly named “GenX,” wasn’t just another pollutant making its way into the river via run-off or wastewater effluent. It was being directly discharged by a factory upstream of Wilmington, North Carolina (city C), where my family happens to live, and was detected in 2013 and 2014 at a concentration about two orders of magnitude higher (631 ng/L) than most other so-called micropollutants (e.g. pharmaceuticals, pesticides) typically are.
Some 60,000 Wilmington, N.C., residents get their drinking water from the Cape Fear River. DuPont and its spinoff company Chemours manufacture chemicals at a plant upstream from the city.
The plant is situated on a 2,100-acre property on the Cape Fear River in Fayetteville. It is there where a chemical called GenX -- a potentially cancer-causing substance that is a byproduct of DuPont and Chemours' manufacturing processes -- is produced.
Wilmington residents are demanding to know if those toxic chemicals are making their way downriver into the city's drinking water. The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority co-authored a three-year study on the chemical's elevated presence in the water. But as CBS News' Jericka Duncan reports, the findings were never made available to the general public -- not even to Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo.
First sampling results of GenX in Cape Fear River are in; health officials revise risk levels. Initial sampling results of GenX in drinking water are in. They show that levels of the chemical far exceeded new — and drastically reduced — health department goals before Chemours stopped discharging most of its contaminated wastewater into the Cape Fear River.
After water from the Cape Fear had been treated by public utilities, levels ranged from a high of 1,100 parts per trillion to as low as 269 ppt, but all above the NC Department of Health and Human Services’ new health goal. State health officials announced late this afternoon that it had revised its recommendation for GenX in drinking water to no more than 140 parts per trillion, particularly for vulnerable people such as bottle-fed infants.
Originally, DHHS had said levels of GenX at 70,000 parts per trillion presented a “low risk” of health effects, based on Chemours data from 2013-2014. Although a safe level has not been established, the international threshold is 90 ppt; the EPA has set a “health advisory” for combined levels of PFOAs above 70 ppt.
Three weeks after Chemours reportedly stopped discharging contaminated wastewater into the Cape Fear River, state environmental inspectors found GenX was still entering the water.
On June 27, the NC Department of Environmental Quality verified that Chemours had halted the discharge of contaminated wastewater, based on an onsite inspection of the Fayetteville facility. But this week, DEQ sent inspectors to the plant after Chemours reported its water testing still showed levels of GenX in its discharge.
In a subsequent inspection this week, DEQ found contaminated wastewater coming from several areas at the plant. Since then, according to a DEQ press release, Chemours has shut down those areas of the facility until the wastewater can be collected and shipped offsite.
Former Wilmington mayor: “We’re here to express our outrage” over GenX contamination in drinking water, Cape Fear. Just steps outside the door of the Coastline Conference Center in Wilmington, the Cape Fear River moseys on its last 35 miles of its journey to the Atlantic Ocean. But the 300-plus people inside the conference center no longer trust the Cape Fear as their source of clean drinking water.
GenX, an unregulated contaminant, has been detected in both the river and drinking water. The chemical can’t be removed using traditional water treatment methods.Cape Fear River Watch hosted a GenX Community Forum on Wednesday night, where, former Wilmington Mayor Harper Peterson said, “we can express our fear, concern, worries and outrage.”
These emotions have troubled many Wilmington residents since June 7, when the Star-News reported the findings of a team of scientists including NC State University professor Detlef Knappe. That study, published in 2016, showed GenX had been detected in drinking water, with its upstream source being Chemours. A spinoff of DuPont, Chemours discharges GenX into the Cape Fear via the factory’s effluent.
The Teflon Toxin
Part 12 of The Intercept’s reporting on GenX
A PERSISTENT AND toxic industrial chemical known as GenX has been detected in the drinking water in Wilmington, North Carolina, and in surface waters in Ohio and West Virginia.
DuPont introduced GenX in 2009 to replace PFOA, a compound it used to manufacture Teflon and coatings for stain-resistant carpeting, waterproof clothing, and many other consumer products. PFOA, also known as C8, was phased out after DuPont was hit with a class-action suit over health and environmental concerns. Yet as The Intercept reported last year, GenX is associated with some of the same health problems as PFOA, including cancer and reproductive issues.
Levels of GenX in the drinking water of one North Carolina water utility, the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, averaged 631 ppt (parts per trillion), according to a study published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters in 2016. Although researchers didn’t test the water of two other drinking water providers that also draw water from that area of the Cape Fear River, the entire watershed downstream of the Chemours discharge, which is a source of drinking water for some 250,000 people, is likely to be contaminated, according to Detlef Knappe, one of the authors of the study.
lawyers and filter companies
In 2009, under mounting pressure from environmental law attorneys like Paul Napoli, DuPont began using a compound called GenX to produce many consumer products, including Teflon. Chemours, a DuPont subsidiary that produces Teflon and other products, insisted that the PFOA replacement was safe. But GenX has been linked with cancer and numerous other serious health problems.
Now, there is GenX contamination in Wilmington, and the aggressive attorneys at Napoli Shkolnik are determined to protect the health and safety of the people in the affected communities. We understand that there is no such thing as a "safe" PFOA, and we stand ready to fight for these victims in the same way we stood up for people in Flint, Long Island, and other places where chemical companies polluted the water supply to such an extent that it is now unsafe to use.
In fact, Dr. Knappe has admitted that even the most advanced water treatment protocols currently in use are wholly inadequate in removing or even reducing GenX in water supplies. At present, the best method for cutting back on GenX contamination and its effects is preventing the chemical from making contact with the water supply completely. While the movement to do so is underway, residents are advised to use water filtration systems regardless.
There has been some internal research into the viability of using reverse osmosis filtration systems to reduce GenX contamination levels, however – and while it’s still too early to say for sure- the results appear to be promising.
In basic terms, reverse osmosis works on a molecular level, using a selective membrane designed to only allow the incredibly small water molecules to pass through. High water pressure is used to force the water through this membrane, and almost all pollutants are filtered out as a result.
GenX is an unregulated trade chemical, and there are no standard test methods to measure it, test a filter's effectiveness against it, or consensus performance specifications. Any filter company that talks about being "rated" or "certified" for GenX is not being honest. Because of this, we are left in the frustrating position of trying to predict how to best remove GenX from drinking water, without any solid way to conduct performance tests.
We get a lot of questions about the effectivness of reverse osmosis (RO) in the removal of these compounds. While we are unaware of internal testing done by our competitors who make RO systems, we would expect RO systems with a high rejection rate to have a reasonable chance of removing GenX.
At Hydroviv, we custom-build water filters using different technology than reverse osmosis. Basically, we custom-formulate filter cartridges with filtration media that best matches the problems in each customer's water. There's a lot of proprietary stuff behind what we do, but in the name of transparency we wanted to give more information that we'd normally give about what we are doing to formulate filters for highly soluble compounds like GenX.
bonus hexavalent chromium update and a little history
People living near Duke Energy coal plants — Roxboro, Mayo and Belew’s Creek, in particular — don’t know whom or what to believe.
In 2015, state health officials said their drinking water was unsafe because of contamination from hexavalent chromium in their wells. Months later, top state health and environmental officials, even Gov. McCrory, assured them it was safe. Then in 2016, in a series of depositions, state health department scientists said that it wasn’t.
And now, well, the health and environmental departments are at loggerheads again.
WASHINGTON — North Carolina’s top public health official acted unethically and possibly illegally by telling residents living near Duke Energy coal ash pits that their well water is safe to drink when it’s contaminated with a chemical known to cause cancer, a state toxicologist said in sworn testimony.
The Associated Press obtained a full copy of the 220-page deposition given last month by toxicologist Ken Rudo as part of a lawsuit. The nation’s largest electricity company has asked a federal judge to seal the record, claiming its public disclosure would potentially prejudice jurors.
Rudo’s boss, state public health director Dr. Randall Williams, in March reversed earlier warnings that had told the affected residents not to drink their water. The water is contaminated with cancer-causing hexavalent chromium at levels many times higher than Rudo had determined is safe.
Mount Mitchell Meet Up, 8/12/2017
DETAILS
When
Saturday, August 12, 2017 11:00 AM — 6:00 PM with Friday evening social in Asheville
Where
Mount Mitchell State Park
828-675-4611
2388 State Highway 128, Burnsville, NC 28714
Why
Community, friends, tools, networking, food, fun, adventure
Food
Mt. Mitchell Restaurant for early lunch, Mama’s and Beer right off the Parkway to close the day with beverages and nachos
Itinerary
Friday: Casual evening gathering at Holiday Inn Asheville-Biltmore East for welcoming travelers from afar.
Saturday
11:00 AM-2:00 PM Meet at Mount Mitchell Restaurant, have a long lunch and social gathering at the facility.
2:00-3:00 PM Drive1.5 mi to the top of the mountain for the observation deck, light trails, and other features.
3:00-4:30 PM Drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway down to the Folk Arts Center if time allows.
4:30-6:00 Drive a few minutes to the first Asheville exit, turn right and see Mama’s and Beer just ahead on the left. Beverages and light fare.
Attendees:
Gordon20024, randallt, Joieau, Otteray Scribe, Burns Lass, Lamont Cranston, canoforcongress (Christian Cano and Political director Anthony), Gary Norton, Connie Norton
Maybees: eeff, Zen Trainer, Tex Dem, VeloVixen
Thanks for reading and contributing, have a great week!