Chemours Co. is looking to change an existing permit to include the construction of a barrier wall in an effort to comply with state-mandated action to address PFAS contamination from the company’s facility south of Fayetteville.
The Wilmington District Corps of Engineers posted Monday on the Corps website the application along with site plans.
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The state Department of Environmental Quality, Cape Fear River Watch, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Chemours entered into a consent order in February 2019 in Bladen County Superior Court to address discharges of PFAS at the Chemours facility, first brought to light in June 2017 after the state was informed that GenX was found in the Cape Fear River. it was determined that Chemours was the source of what are often called forever chemicals.
The state in August 2020 ordered Chemours to take more action in the Addendum to the Consent Order, filed in October of that year.
The proposed project is to comply with that addendum consent order, which requires a barrier wall to capture groundwater and surface waters from potentially discharging PFAS-impacted waters to the Cape Fear River. Chemours was issued a permit Oct. 2, 2020, that was then modified Dec. 18, 2020.
The applicant is requesting to install the barrier wall east of the facility between the Chemours plant and the Cape Fear River. The proposed materials to build the wall, which will be about 80 feet underground, will include a mix of cement, bentonite clay, and onsite soils and have a minimum thickness of 1.5 feet.
On the site there are several groundwater seeps along where this barrier wall is proposed. The barrier wall is expected to capture surface flows from the first half-inch of a precipitation event and groundwater upgradient, or the source groundwater for another location, of the wall. The water is to be transferred to pump stations where it will then be pumped to a proposed onsite surge pond. The surge pond will transfer the water to the onsite wastewater treatment plant prior to discharge to the Cape Fear River
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Written comments can be submitted until 5 p.m. June 1 to Liz Hair, Wilmington Regulatory Field Office, 69 Darlington Ave., Wilmington, NC 28403, 910-251-4049 or by email at sarah.e.hair@usace.army.mil.
