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The Drinking Water Crisis That North Carolina Ignored

For decades, #DuPont dumped toxic PFAS into North Carolina’s #CapeFearRiver. Today, the local community is suffering the health consequences—and fighting back.

June 7, 2021

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"The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (#NCDEQ) filed a lawsuit against #Chemours in 2017—but only in response to bad press—and last fall, the state attorney general filed another. And yet, North Carolina is currently reviewing its water quality standards, something it does every three years, but not one rule for PFAS pollution is even up for consideration. 'People know they’re being poisoned, but the state isn’t doing much about it,' Bell says.

"So residents have been taking matters into their own hands. In July 2018, #CapeFearRiverWatch, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center (#SELC), sued the #NCDEQ to force Chemours to immediately stop polluting the Cape Fear River. The following month, the pair also filed a federal lawsuit against Chemours for violating the #CleanWaterAct and #ToxicSubstancesControlAct, but it was dropped later in the year as part of a $13 million #settlement among the NCDEQ, Cape Fear River Watch, and Chemours. The settlement resulted in a consent order that required Chemours to cease its discharges and add #scrubbers to its smokestacks to prevent airborne PFAS pollution. The outcome is a critical step in preventing future PFAS pollution, but NCDEQ has had to fine the company for not complying with the order, and its past contamination, still lingering in the #water, #soil, and peoples’ bodies, remains unaddressed."

#PFASPollution #WaterIsLife
#OceansAreLife #PollutionRunoff #WebOfLife #SoilPollution #Cancer #AirPollution

#ToxicSubstancesControlAct

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