Guest Commentary

To stimulate discussion and debate, Coastal Review welcomes differing viewpoints on topical coastal issues.

North Carolina has a drinking water problem, and we need our legislature to fix it.

This spring, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced plans to eliminate nationwide drinking water standards for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). These dangerous, long-lived industrial products have well-documented negative health impacts, including low birth weight, thyroid disease and testicular cancer.

Wilmington knows this well, because PFAS are in our drinking water.

The EPA plan is alarming – but not surprising. After all, the current administration has been very transparent about its mission to remove vital health and environmental protections.

What continues to be a surprise is the failure of North Carolina’s General Assembly to step into the gap.

Some legislators seek to claim the mantle of environmental champion; they talk about protecting our families – and yet, industrial chemicals still flow from our taps. Powerful people preach solidarity with communities impacted by PFAS contamination, then fall silent and turn their backs when asked to leverage that power to help them.

All that posturing, and we have yet to see any meaningful action that would remove these toxins from our water. 

For example, state Sen. Michael Lee, senior Appropriations Committee chair and senate majority leader, filed S1043, The Water Safety Act, this spring. If passed, the bill would check two critical boxes in the fight against PFAS contamination: limit how much PFAS is allowed in our drinking water, and regulate how much PFAS pollution industries can discharge into North Carolina’s surface waters. 

In Raleigh, Republicans enjoy what amounts to a veto-proof majority, meaning they get pretty much anything they want – and they do not want PFAS regulation. For the last eight years, every bill to stop industry PFAS pollution or regulate how much PFAS we drink has either failed to pass the Senate or been left to die in committee. So, on its face, Lee’s bill might have seemed brave – heroic, even – given the hostility he and his fellow senate Republicans have expressed toward even the smallest hint of industry regulation. 

But introducing a bill is not the same as fighting for it. And despite his considerable influence and power, Lee stood idly by as his bill stalled: shipped to the Rules Committee four days after it was filed and languishing there ever since. He may have preached protections, but he did not fight – not for the bill, and not for us.

Senator Lee did get new PFAS research funded. Again. But funding yet another study of PFAS is not the same as ensuring your kids don’t have to drink it. And after nine years of funding study after study with no regulation, no help in sight, it starts to feel like one of two things must be true: Either Lee has failed to protect us from PFAS because he’s ineffective, or because he doesn’t want to. 

The current EPA has no interest in protecting people from PFAS contamination. That means our state legislature is our last hope for clean drinking water. As his constituent, I had hoped that Senator Lee was sincere about trying to end this crisis, not just using his bill as political window dressing. But actions speak louder than words, and his inaction tells us everything we need to know.

Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of Coastal Review or our publisher, the North Carolina Coastal Federation.