RALEIGH – Concentrations of GenX in finished drinking water from the Cape Fear River remain below the state’s public health goal, according to the latest test results released Wednesday by the Department of Environmental Quality.
The test results reflect conditions in the Cape Fear River July 17-20 when DEQ completed its fifth week of testing. The state also has received partial test results for July 24, when the sixth week of testing started, DEQ said.
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The state results for finished drinking water remained below the 140 parts per trillion health goal developed by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. The health goal represents the concentration of GenX at which no adverse non-cancer health effects would be anticipated over an entire lifetime of exposure to the most sensitive populations.
DEQ and the state Department of Health and Human Services began investigating the presence of GenX in the Cape Fear River on June 19. That ongoing investigation along with pressure from residents and local officials prompted Chemours, the company manufacturing the unregulated chemical, to stop discharging GenX into the Cape Fear. Instead the company is collecting it and transporting it out of state for incineration.
“The good news is that levels of GenX in treated drinking water continue to be below the state’s health goal and continue to trend down since we prompted Chemours to stop releasing this compound into the river,” said DEQ Secretary Michael Regan. “We will continue to monitor and test water samples, and will share testing results with the public in a timely fashion.”
Water sampling and analysis will continue at finished water sites for the foreseeable future. Also, DEQ officials began this week conducting groundwater sampling to look for any concentrations of GenX in 16 monitoring wells at Chemours’ facility in Fayetteville.
