Cape Fear River Watch is inviting the region to use the power of the pen to express their passion for clean water to state rulemakers.
The organization’s “Postcards Against PFAS” is set from 5:30-8 p.m. Tuesday at Waterline Brewing, 721 Surry St., Wilmington.
Supporter Spotlight
Those who attend will have the opportunity to write postcards and emails to the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission, or EMC, and Sen. Michael Lee, R-New Hanover.
The EMC’s water quality committee is to consider at its meeting in Raleigh on Wednesday whether to send to the full commission a proposed rule to establish monitoring and minimization requirements for dischargers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The full commission, whose role is to protect, preserve and enhance the state’s water and air resources, is scheduled to meet the following day.
Related: Committee to consider draft plans for 3 PFAS, 1,4-dioxane
Three PFAS – PFOA, PFOS and GenX – are anticipated to be included in the draft rule. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 12,000 PFAS, which are chemical compounds used in the manufacturing of a host of consumer goods, exist.
A draft rule presented to the EMC’s Water Quality Committee last March was largely crafted from input provided by the North Carolina Water Quality Association, whose members are from public water, sewer and stormwater utilities.
Supporter Spotlight
There are hundreds of industries in North Carolina that pay wastewater treatment plants to take their industrial waste. Those treatments plants do not remove PFAS.
Cape Fear River Watch is asking participants at next week’s event to urge Lee to muster his fellow legislators to pass three PFAS-related bills that call for reductions in PFAS discharges, studies associated with PFAS contamination, and prohibiting firefighting foams containing PFAS for firefighter training or testing. Those include House bill’s 569 and 570, and Senate bill 666.
