Does the state plan to stop pollution?

Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, December 26, 2017.

What’s in our water? Around here, we already know some worrisome answers to that question. Depending on where you live, it could be potentially cancer-causing chemicals like C8 or GenX — compounds used in the past or in the present in the manufacture of Teflon and related coatings. The primary source is the Chemours/DuPont plant on the Cumberland-Bladen county line. The plant used C8 until it was replaced by GenX, although GenX also occurs when another chemical used in making those coatings comes in contact with water.

There haven’t been extensive studies of GenX’s prevalence in the environment, but its predecessor C8 has been found on every continent and in many species, from polar bears above the Arctic Circle to swordfish in the South Pacific. One study estimated that it’s present in the bloodstream of 98 percent of the people in this country. We won’t be surprised if further research finds similar prevalence of GenX someday, if it becomes a longtime ingredient in commercial coatings.

Just last week, we learned that Duke University researchers had found several related compounds — perfluorinated chemicals similar to GenX — in Jordan Lake. At this point, they have no idea where they came from, although it seems unlikely that the source could be a chemical plant so far downstream from the lake. And yet, given the recent revelations about the spread of GenX through the air, anything’s possible.

All of these recent discoveries have made state officials wonder just how widespread these “emerging contaminants” might be. State environmental regulators said Friday that they will begin testing many of the state’s major supplies of drinking water for the presence of industrial chemicals. Monitoring will be expanded as early as next month to include Norman, Falls and Jordan lakes, and the Yadkin and Catawba rivers. Many compounds in the perfluorinated chemical family are suspected carcinogens, although they are not yet firmly linked to human cancers. Research has established, though, that some of them do cause cancer in laboratory animals, and also some endocrine disorders.

Fayetteville utility officials have known for several years that another likely carcinogen, a compound called 1,4-dioxane, is present in the Cape Fear, likely coming from a source somewhere in the Greensboro area. Like GenX or C8, the Public Works Commission — as with other utilities in this region — doesn’t have the equipment at its water treatment plant to filter those chemicals from the water system. Adding that level of filtration — if it’s even possible — could be astronomically expensive.

The 1,4-dioxane contamination brings us to an question that’s important in this latest announced monitoring program: No matter what state regulators find in the public water supply, what will they do about it? The state says it’s been unable to pinpoint the sources of the dioxane contamination, beyond narrowing the search to somewhere around Greensboro. And even if they find the source of the dioxane, or other sources of perfluorinated chemicals, what can the state do about it? The Department of Environmental Quality and the agencies that preceded it under other titles have seen their budgets repeatedly slashed over the past decade. It began as a reaction to to the sharp revenue declines during the recession, but then the cuts continued as Republican lawmakers and Gov. Pat McCrory worked aggressively to protect industry from pollution regulations.

Several Republican lawmakers who are longtime environmental regulation opponents appear to have had a change of heart on the matter, as they get a better understanding of perfluorinated compounds in our water supply. But we haven’t yet seen any indication that legislative leaders have had any such battlefield conversion. The GenX issue may come up during a brief legislative session that will begin on Jan. 10, or it may wait until lawmakers convene in their formal short session in late spring.

Knowing what’s in our water supply will be helpful. But the critical question is unanswered: If regulators find more problems, what are our lawmakers prepared to do about it?

http://www.fayobserver.com/opinion/20171226/our-view-does-state-plan-to-stop-pollution