WILMINGTON – For more than two hours, residents in an area considered ground zero for PFAS contamination in North Carolina passionately, often angrily, chastised the Environmental Management Commission’s proposed PFAS monitoring and minimization rules.

Dozens of people who signed up to speak – 60 in all – at the public hearing Thursday in downtown Wilmington took turns at a podium unleashing what turned into a collective no-holds-barred rebuke of the proposed rules and, at times, the commissioners who pushed them forward for public comment.

Several of those who spoke in front of a crowd of about 230 people who filled a room in Wilmington’s Skyline Center shared stories about their own health issues, illnesses their loved ones have suffered, and family and friends they’ve lost to various forms of cancer.

Throughout the hearing, people snapped their fingers, signaling their agreement with those speaking at the podium. At the close of every short speech, the audience erupted in rousing applause and cheers.

The sheer number of people who signed up to speak prompted Environmental Management Commissioner Yvonne Bailey, the hearing officer that evening, to ask that residents limit their comments to two minutes.

“Those of us living here have advocated relentlessly at the local, state and federal level, and even at the U.N. for protection of our air and water,” said New Hanover County resident Priss Endo. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality “has proposed new surface water standards, but in response, the Environmental Management Commission is proposing regulations that will still allow 500 industries across the state to release PFAS chemicals.”

The hearing last week was the third and final the commission scheduled this year on its proposed monitoring and minimization rules for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA; perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, or PFOS; and a branded compound called GenX developed by DuPont spinoff Chemours. The commission has also been hosting public hearings on similar proposed rules for the monitoring and minimization of 1,4-dioxane, an industrial solvent and likely human carcinogen that has also been found in downstream drinking water sources.

PFAS are a mixture of chemicals used in a host of consumer products from nonstick cookware and food packaging to stain-resistant carpets, water-repellant attire, and makeup.

These chemicals have been found in numerous drinking water sources in North Carolina and traced back to discharges from industrial manufacturers, landfills, firefighting facilities and publicly owned treatment works that accept industry effluent.

Ongoing research into human health effects of PFAS, of which there are more than 15,000 related compounds, have found that some of the substances, including PFOA and PFOS, have been linked to health issues such as weakened immune response, liver damage, low infant birth weights, and higher risk of certain cancers.

Nearly a decade has passed since residents in the Lower Cape Fear region first learned through a local newspaper article that Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility in Bladen County had for decades knowingly discharged PFAS directly into the Cape Fear River.

Since then, public drinking water utilities that pull raw water from the river have spent millions of dollars upgrading their facilities with filtration systems and methods to keep PFAS out of their final product.

Chemours, under a 2019 consent order, has had to test thousands of privately owned drinking water wells for contamination.

“The 2019 consent order was a start,” resident Jim Nesbit said. “It’s not enough. Your mission is to protect the health of the people of this state. Use the full authority you have to take on the pollution of corporations.”

The PFAS monitoring and minimization rules the commission agreed to put out for public comment have remained under a hail of verbal fire from residents, the public utilities that provide their drinking water, and environmental organizations throughout the Cape Fear region.

As written, the rules do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for PFAS dischargers found to be in violation of those rules.

“As a 33-year water professional and former EMC member, I am testifying that the voluntary minimization plans, as proposed, are ineffective,” Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Executive Director Ken Waldroup said Thursday. “They’re essentially empty facades that do not solve the problem. These minimization plans do not remove PFAS from the Cape Fear River because all reductions are voluntary. Voluntary plans are simply ineffective. Upstream dischargers have had decades to disclose and minimize their PFAS discharges. Unfortunately, history has shown that dischargers only do so in response to effective regulation with specific mandatory limits or mitigation.”

Dr. LeShonda Wallace, who serves on the advisory board for the GenX Exposure Study, one that is measuring GenX and other PFAS exposure in area residents, said the proposed rules ignore science.

Instead, the proposed rules prioritize corporate convenience over public health, she said.

“The impacts are also economic as well as generational,” Wallace said. “PFAS contamination reduces property values, and it shifts the cost away from the polluters and on to the rate payers. Environmental protection and justice requires that those who cause the pollution pay to prevent it and that they pay to clean it up, and I urge the commission to reject these ineffective minimization rules and adopt enforceable, evidence-based standards that reduce pollution at the source.”

Lifelong New Hanover County resident Chip Jackson carried a doll baby with him to the podium.

“I came here tonight to tell this panel how ignorant I have been. I’ve been ignorant because nine years ago I trusted you people. I trusted you to do something,” he said. “I’ll give y’all a pro tip. When you see a baby float by in a stream, you look upstream to see who threw it in the stream.”

Resident Rosemary Schmitt said she simply wants to trust that the water coming out of her tap is not harmful.

“Drinking water should be safe, not something that comes with a list of side effects,” she said.

Just two weeks away from graduating with an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Tyler Raines said he was in a conundrum.

“I don’t have much else to say that hasn’t already been said about the economic, environmental, and social impacts of PFAS on the health of all human beings,” he said. “As I think about where I’m planning to root myself post-graduation, I find myself at a loss. Do I stay here in Wilmington and get poisoned by PFAS or do I go back to my home in Fuquay-Varina and get poisoned by 1,4-dioxane?”

The Environmental Management Commission could decide as early as September to approve or reject the proposed rules. If adopted, those rules would go to the Rules Review Commission for final approval by early next year.

Written comments on the proposed PFAS monitoring and minimization rules are being accepted by email to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov with the subject title “PFAS minimization” or by mail to Karen Preston, DEQ-DWR NPDES Permitting Section, 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC  27699-1617.

Energy providers wasted no time last year asking the Trump administration to rescind 2024 federal standards for coal ash disposal.

Five days before President Donald Trump returned for a second term in the White House on Jan. 20, 2025, 10 power suppliers, including Duke Energy, fired off a letter urging Lee Zeldin, Trump’s then-nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, “decline to defend these unlawful rules.”

Now the EPA is proposing to revise federal regulation for coal ash disposal, a move that would relax the Biden-era national standards for inactive, often unlined basins designed to store a sludgy mix of watered-down fly ash and bottom ash.

Here in North Carolina, where comprehensive coal ash legislation was pioneered, proposed changes at the federal level are not expected to affect, at least for the time being, the state’s robust coal ash management law.

Nor would the proposed federal revisions impact the terms of a 2019 settlement agreement between the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Duke Energy, and public interest groups that set closure schedules and monitoring requirements for the power company’s remaining coal ash basins.

“None of that is going to be changed by what EPA is trying to do now at the federal level,” Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney Nick Torrey said.

But Torrey cautioned that sites where coal ash has been removed may still contain residual groundwater contamination.

“The federal regulations require monitoring and corrective action for that pollution,” he said. “If utilities can get exceptions and exemptions from those things, that’s potentially concerning. Fortunately, we do have a state process as well that’s dealing with groundwater issues, but it was never meant to be a substitute for the federal standards. There’s more vulnerability that coal ash contamination could be allowed to persist. So, we’ll have to be watching that very closely as things go forward.”

Coal ash, referred to in regulation and industry as coal combustion residuals, or CCR, is the byproduct created when coal is burned for electricity. It contains toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead and radioactive elements, according to the EPA.

In early February 2014, some 39,000 tons of coal ash slurry discharged from a collapsed pipe at Duke Energy’s retired Dan River Steam Station near Eden into the river. The spill spread as far as 70 miles downstream.

In the fall of that year, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted the North Carolina Coal Ash Management Act, or CAMA.

CAMA (not to be confused with the Coastal Area Management Act) initially set deadlines for Duke Energy to close a group of basins at four of its power plants by certain deadlines.

EPA in 2015 finalized the federal CCR rule under the Obama presidency. The Biden administration strengthened those regulations in 2024.

By that time, DEQ had finalized a basin closure schedule for all 14 of Duke Energy’s facilities in North Carolina. Following litigation and a settlement agreement between community and conservation groups, DEQ and Duke Energy, a 2020 consent order was approved to govern the cleanup process for the remaining sites.

Duke Energy anticipates officially fully excavating the 12th of its 32 coal ash basins in North Carolina by year’s end. Both coal ash impoundments at the Sutton Steam Plant in Wilmington were excavated by July 2019.

Duke Energy spokesperson Bill Norton confirmed in an email earlier this week that the excavation of ash at its W.H. Weatherspoon Power Plant in Lumberton is complete, well ahead of schedule. The company is in the process of working through the basin’s clean closure certification, a process expected to be completed later this year, Norton said in the email.

“Not yet counting Weatherspoon, we have completed excavation at 11 North Carolina basins and are making strong progress at the remaining 20, with well over half of our basin ash safely excavated in the states,” he stated. “All sites remain on or ahead of schedule for basin closure deadlines as shown here.”

Norton said the EPA’s proposed rule changes will not impact Duke Energy’s proposed coal retirement dates.

“We continue making progress on coal retirements while balancing our regulatory approvals and increased load growth – regulators have made clear that replacement generation must be online and serving customers prior to further coal plant retirements,” he said. “While the potential EPA CCR rule changes have no impact on our proposed coal retirement dates, we appreciate prior changes to in the federal regulations that provided flexibility for our coal facilities, enabling us to maximize the value of existing generation by extending the operational life of these assets to help meet load growth at the lowest possible cost to consumers. Retirement dates are subject to regulatory approval.”

Coal-fired operations at Belews Creek Steam Station in Stokes County are expected to be shut down no later than Jan. 1, 2040. The retirement of that plant’s coal combustion operations will mark the end of Duke Energy’s coal-fired power generation in the state.

“We are making tremendous progress on meeting all obligations agreed to years ago in our North Carolina settlement with state regulators and environmental groups – that commitment is unchanged, and state regulators have confirmed our plans are protective of public health and the environment,” Norton said.

Beneficial reuse units at the company’s Buck Combined Cycle Plant in Salisbury, Cape Fear plant in Moncure, and H.F. Lee Energy Complex on the banks of the Neuse River in Goldsboro have been reprocessing coal ash at those sites to make it suitable for use in concrete since 2020, he said.

Katherine Lucas, DEQ’s Division of Waste Management public information officer, stated in an email that the agency “is evaluating the proposed changes to determine any potential impacts on ongoing excavation and remediation activities at Duke Energy facilities.”

“In the absence of an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-approved state permit program, utilities must comply with both federal and state requirements. North Carolina remains a national leader in coal ash management, both in establishing comprehensive regulations and in the scale and pace of closure and remediation efforts. DEQ believes the state’s regulatory framework is at least as protective as federal requirements and does not anticipate that federal changes would reduce existing environmental and public health protections.”

The EPA is accepting public comments on the proposed rule changes through June 12.

The agency is hosting an online public hearing at 9 a.m. on May 28. 

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

Debbie Swick has a way of spotting problems that most people barely notice — and then refusing to let them go.

On the Outer Banks, the Southern Shores resident is best known as the driving force behind the push to ban balloon releases, a grassroots effort that helped shift public awareness around a form of litter that can travel hundreds of miles before landing in waterways and harming wildlife.

This time, her focus is something less visible but just as persistent: discarded monofilament fishing line — the nearly invisible plastic filament that can linger in the environment for centuries, entangling and injuring marine life long after it’s been cast aside.

In partnership with the Outer Banks Anglers Club, Swick has helped launch a new monofilament recovery and recycling program — one that aims to intercept that line before it becomes a long-term hazard in the water by installing and maintaining collection vessels at sites across the Outer Banks.

“It is a strangling mechanism,” Swick said. “It becomes entangled in fish gills, sea turtles, seals, porpoise. It doesn’t break down. It will amputate and maim marine life.”

Discarded fishing gear — including monofilament line — is widely recognized by marine scientists as one of the most dangerous forms of ocean debris. Research has found that roughly 740,000 kilometers (about 460,000 miles) of fishing line enter the ocean each year — enough to circle the Earth more than 18 times.¹

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), at least 260 marine species are known to be harmed by entanglement in marine debris, including sea turtles, seabirds, and marine mammals.² Monofilament line is particularly dangerous because it is nearly invisible underwater and extremely durable, capable of persisting in the environment for hundreds of years.³

That is something David Masters Jr., vice president of the Outer Banks Anglers Club, sees regularly. “It’s usually tumbled up in seaweed or buried in the sand,” he said. “I pick it up all the time. I’ve seen birds with fishing line caught on the wings or legs and that’s very sad.”

Local conservation groups and park officials have long warned that sea turtles along the Outer Banks can become entangled in discarded fishing line, which can impair their ability to swim or feed — and in some documented cases, lead to death.⁴ Necropsies of stranded turtles in North Carolina have identified monofilament entanglement as a contributing factor, underscoring the long-term danger posed by fishing line that remains in the environment.⁵

Swick is a member of the Outer Banks Anglers Club and last year’s Member of the Year. That, combined with her reputation as an accomplished environmental advocate and volunteer — including recognition with a Governor’s Medallion Award — gave her the standing and credibility to introduce the idea of monofilament recovery to the
anglers. She brought the concept to the club’s board in January, and by February, they were building the collection vessels.

“I told the board, under no circumstances were we going to half-ass this,” she said.

This time, Swick wanted something different: accountability. Each location would be “adopted” by a member of the Outer Banks Anglers Club, responsible for monitoring, emptying, and maintaining the vessel.

“I have the list,” she said. “I know who is supposed to be picking it up, when and where.”

Recreational fishermen are often among the strongest stewards of the waters they fish — a point echoed by fisheries managers and conservation organizations who increasingly emphasize angler participation in sustainability efforts.⁶

The Outer Banks Anglers Club has its own track record, including helping spearhead the creation of artificial reef AR-165 off Oregon Inlet.

The program itself is simple by design. Collection vessels made from PVC pipe have been installed at fishing-heavy locations across the Outer Banks, including piers, marinas, and public access points. Among the initial sites are Kitty Hawk Pier, Avalon Pier, Jennette’s Pier, the Manteo waterfront, Wanchese Marina, and several others.

“We haven’t spoken to one entity that said no,” Masters said, noting support from local governments, property owners, and organizations.

Anglers deposit used monofilament line into the vessels. From there, club members assigned to each site collect the material, clean it, and bring it to monthly meetings. Swick then weighs the line and ships it to a recycling facility operated by Berkley Fishing in Iowa. There, it is processed through the company’s national recycling program, which
has collected millions of miles of monofilament since 1990 and repurposes it into products such as tackle boxes, other plastic goods, and components used in aquatic habitat structures.⁷

The program is still in its early stages, but initial results are encouraging. At one early collection site at Pirates Cove, volunteers gathered 4.5 pounds of monofilament in a single pickup. “That could have all ended up in the water,” said Swick.

As of now, about a dozen sites are in place, with a goal of reaching roughly 20 locations. Organizers are also working to expand the program through local tackle shops and a developing partnership with the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association, whose members could help collect discarded line from beach areas on Hatteras and further south.

Swick has set a clear benchmark for the program’s first year: 100 pounds of collected line. But success, she said, will be measured in other ways too. “When the community starts talking about how much less monofilament they are seeing in the water,” she said, “and when they start asking for us to put more vessels up — that’s a good sign.”

For Masters, the effort reflects something broader about the club itself. “It’s important people realize recreational fishermen really respect the natural resources we have here, because it is our love to fish here,” Masters said. “We want to keep it pristine.”

Sources

1. Global estimates on lost and discarded fishing gear and ghost gear impacts, based on peer-reviewed research (Richardson et al., 2022, Science Advances), including annual losses of fishing line and gear.
2. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — Marine Debris Program, documenting entanglement impacts affecting at least 260 marine species.
3. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission — monofilament fishing line persistence estimates (up to ~600 years in marine environments), widely cited in coastal management and debris mitigation guidance.
4. Outer Banks Forever — Cape Hatteras National Seashore conservation guidance on sea turtle entanglement risks from discarded fishing line.
5. Outer Banks Voice — regional reporting on North Carolina sea turtle necropsies identifying monofilament entanglement as a contributing cause of mortality.
6. NOAA Fisheries — Recreational Fishing Policy, emphasizing “proactive stewardship” and collaboration with the angling community as essential to sustainable fisheries management.
7. Berkley Fishing — Berkley Conservation Institute, “Dedicated to the Future of Fishing,” documenting the company’s national monofilament recycling program (established 1990) and reuse into products such as tackle boxes and habitat materials.

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast.

FAYETTEVILLE — Proposed monitoring and minimization rules for industrial dischargers of 1,4-dioxane and the public sewage plants that accept those facilities’ waste fail to protect North Carolinians’ drinking water, speakers at a public hearing said Tuesday.

All but one of the 13 people who spoke at the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission’s hearing at Fayetteville Technical Community College criticized the proposed rules, arguing those rules fall short in reducing the amounts of 1,4-dioxane discharged into people’s drinking water sources and lack enforcement.

Those comments mirror ones articulated at the commission’s April 9 hearing on the proposed rules in Hickory. A third hearing is scheduled for May 12 in Jamestown.

“The so-called monitoring and minimization rule establishes certain monitoring requirements, but the term minimization is misleading,” Fayetteville resident Madison Williams said. “The way the rule is promulgated is in a way that does not require polluters to reduce PFAS or 1,4-dioxane emissions into North Carolina drinking water supplies, and it imposes no consequences, even if those discharges increase. This in effect is a polluter written rule.”

Related: Public hearings set on proposed wastewater discharge rules

The commission is hosting separate public hearings, the first of which was held in Asheville last week, on a similar rule for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS; perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA; perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, or PFOS; and GenX, a chemical specific to a manufacturing plant that sits near Cape Fear River in Bladen County.

Under the proposed rules, publicly owned treatment works that receive industrial wastewater, and their manufacturer customers, would be required to monitor for discharges of 1,4-dioxane, an industrial solvent, into rivers, creeks and streams.

Facilities would be required to conduct baseline monitoring every three months for one year. Based on those sampling results, dischargers may be required to conduct additional monitoring.

“If determined to need ongoing sampling the industrial direct discharger will be required to develop a minimization plan,” explained Bridget Shelton with the Division of Water Resources’ planning section. “A minimization plan is a strategy to reduce or eliminate pollutants at the source before they are discharged into the environment.”

Facilities that “meet certain criteria” may request exceptions from ongoing monitoring and minimization plan requirements, she said.

The proposed rules do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for violations.

That fact has drawn sharp criticism from residents, environmental groups and public drinking water providers who have been calling on the state to establish drinking water standards for PFAS and 1,4-dioxane and regulate direct dischargers of those chemicals.

“Over 1 million North Carolina residents consume water from the Cape Fear River, water that is contaminated with 1,4-dixoane, PFAS and other forever chemicals that will continue to proliferate without sufficient regulations at the federal and state levels,” said Jonelle Kimbrough, executive director of Fayetteville-based environmental nonprofit Sustainable Sandhills. “The proposed 1,4-dioxane minimization rules seem to be an attempt at regulation but, as written, they essentially do nothing to protect the natural resources or public health of our state and we need protection.”

Rob Clark, Cape Fear River Watch’s water quality programs manager, said the organization and its more than 1,000 members collectively opposed the proposed rules.

“These rules are completely inadequate when it comes to dealing with PFAS and 1,4-dioxane pollution in the Cape Fear River Basin,” he said. “The proposed minimization rules do not set enforceable limits on how much these toxic compounds can be discharged into our waterways. Instead, they rely on polluters to monitor their pollution and submit plans describing how they might reduce that over time. Do we really think that polluters are going to cut into their profits in order to do the right thing and stop discharging these chemicals into our waterways?”

Representatives of downstream public water suppliers said the proposed rules lack a clear objective to significantly decrease 1,4-dioxane levels in state surface waters.

Fayetteville Public Works Commission’s Environmental Programs Manager Rhonda Locklear pointed out that statewide monitoring has identified 1,4-dioxane primarily in the Cape Fear River Basin.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, “has sampled surface waters in 15 of North Carolina’s 17 river basins, confirming that most industrial 1,4-dioxane sources are in the Cape Fear River Basin, where 35% of these samples since 2017 were above non-detect thresholds, almost 10 times the rate in the Neuse River Basin, and nearly 200 times that of the Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin,” she said. “The problem areas are well-defined, documented, and PWC expects DEQ to set meaningful regulations and reductions in the Cape Fear River Basin.”

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Deputy Executive Director Kevin Morris said that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which classifies 1,4-dioxane as a likely human carcinogen, warns that at even at concentrations of 0.35 parts per billion, long-term exposure to the chemical increases cancer risks to humans and may cause significant kidney and liver impacts.

“Downstream water systems continue to experience periodic spikes in 1,4-dioxane despite having no role in producing or discharging this chemical, which demonstrates the limitations of our current regulatory framework,” Morris said.

He highlighted how effluent from Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant has periodically tested for elevated levels of 1,4-dioxane, concentrations of which far exceeded levels associated with long-term health risks.

“These discharges flow into waterways like the Haw and Cape Fear rivers,” Morris said. “They’re relied upon by downstream drinking water systems, and they require additional monitoring, treatment, adjustments and customer communication. The downstream public ultimately bears the risk from and the cost of managing contamination that they had no part in creating. Voluntary reduction measures are insufficient to ensure consistent outcomes or to protect downstream communities. Utilities can manage only what arrives at their intake.”

As of Wednesday, DEQ had received more than 2,000 public comments and counting on the commission’s proposed rules for 1,4-dixoane and PFAS, according to Josh Kastrinksy, DEQ’s deputy communications director.

“The comments we’ve received in writing have by and large reflected the comments we’ve received in person,” he said.

Andrew Mlot, chair of the North Carolina Pretreatment Consortium Inc., a nonprofit that represents more than 180 pretreatment professionals in 64 state-approved pretreatment programs across North Carolina, was the only person Tuesday to speak in support of the proposed rules.

But that organization has “several specific concerns” with the rules as they are currently written, he said.

“The costs to treat 1,4-dioxane at the POTW (publicly owned treatment works) level is staggering. Capital costs alone range from $10 million to $1.3 billion, making source control the only practical path forward,” he said.

The proposed rules would require public treatment works in Greensboro, Burlington, Asheboro, High Point and Reidsville, which have been conducting monitoring and minimization activities going back to 2015, to start over, Mlot said.

“We ask for an explicit offramp for POTWs that have already completed successful programs. Replace any detection with a workable screening threshold. As currently written, any detection of 1,4-dioxane triggers ongoing monitoring requirements and a full minimization plan. NCPC members do not believe this is workable. We support an alternative screening threshold based on meaningful concentrations or loading levels,” he said.

DEQ is accepting written comments through June 15. Comments may be submitted by email to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov with the subject heading “1,4-dioxane minimization, or by mail to Bridget Shelton, DEQ-DWR Planning Section, 1611 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1611.

Ocean Conservancy has launched an online calculator that lets users see how many seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals they’ve helped by picking up plastics from the environment.

Whether you’re a party of one scooping up plastic trash as you stroll on an ocean beach, or part of an organized group cleanup effort along a roadside, the conservancy’s new wildlife impact calculator lets you plug in different types and amounts of plastics you’ve kept from reaching our oceans and seas.

“Then the calculator uses our science to output the amount of animals that you helped protect had they eaten this plastic,” said Ocean Conservancy Ocean Plastics Research Manager Dr. Erin Murphy.

The science to which Murphy refers is a study conducted by researchers with the nonprofit environmental advocacy group who reviewed the results of more than 10,000 necropsies of animals recorded to have died by ingesting plastics.

The peer-reviewed study published last November focused on dozens of species of seabirds, all seven species of sea turtles, and 31 species of marine mammals from across the globe.

“From these 10,000 animals from around the world, we found that nearly half of sea turtles had plastic in their gut, a third of seabirds, and 12% of marine mammals,” Murphy said. “And then we found that these actual lethal thresholds for these animals were much smaller than we expected.”

For example, seabirds like Atlantic puffins that consumed less than three sugar cubes’ worth of plastics were found to have a 90% mortality rate.

Loggerhead sea turtles experience, on average, that same rate of death if they ingest just over two baseballs’ worth of plastics. For every one in two harbor porpoises, the threshold is about a soccer ball’s worth, or 60 inches, of plastics.

Scientists found that soft plastics like grocery bags and fishing debris are especially hazardous for marine mammals. In fact, 28 pieces of plastic smaller than the size of a tennis ball is enough to kill a sperm whale.

Rubber and hard plastics were found to be the largest threat for seabirds. Both soft and hard plastics are of particular harm to sea turtles.

Some of the animals autopsied and included in the study were found to have entire garbage bags in their digestive systems. These bags block food from being able to move through an animal’s intestinal tract, leading to starvation and death.

An albatross was found to have died from eating an entire disposable water bottle.

Larger animals, like sperm whales and manatees, had died from eating numerous fishing lures, ice cream wrappers and, in one case, a fully intact three-gallon bucket, Murphy said, adding, “all sorts of things that we frequently find in our beach cleanup.”

Since 1986, more than 400 million pounds of trash has been picked up from beaches and waterways across the world through Ocean Conservancy’s annual International Coastal Cleanup.

The wildlife impact calculator aligns with the organization’s Clean Swell mobile app, which allows users to record each item of trash collected off a beach, in a park or neighborhood.

Information recorded through Clean Swell is plugged into an international database shared with scientists and policymakers around the world. The app allows the user to track the amount of trash that person has collected and share cleanup results with friends on social media.

Murphy said the organization hopes to eventually streamline its wildlife impact calculator with the Clean Swell app.

“We do encourage people to use (the calculator) as a learning tool so even if they’re not able to go out and participate in a cleanup that day, they can absolutely put in numbers and try to understand the relationship between what’s on the beach and how that could affect marine wildlife,” she said.

More than 11 million metric tons (8 million tons) of plastics enter the ocean each year, according to the conservancy.

“Ocean Conservancy does a lot of advocacy work to reduce the amount of plastic we produce and to improve waste management,” Murphy said. “But the third prong in this global effort to address plastic pollution is really cleanups, and every single person going out on the beach and picking up what they see does make a difference in help protecting our ocean animals.”

Though it snakes 50 miles through Onslow County from start to finish, the New River is, in a practical sense, two distinct parts.

The upper river begins northwest of Richlands, a small but increasingly developing town that’s roughly 10 miles from the Duplin County line. From there, the river cuts a narrow path through largely rural agricultural land southeast to Jacksonville, where it widens, its fresh water transitioning to salt water.

The lower river then forms into a tidal estuarine 2 miles wide before ultimately opening into Onslow Bay in the Atlantic Ocean.

Plans have been in the works some two years now to ensure the river’s distinguishing parts get the attention they need. This year, Coastal Carolina Riverwatch, with the support of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, is finalizing the Lower New River Watershed Restoration Plan,  one that focuses on areas where saltwater creeks drain into shellfish-harvesting waters and tributaries including bays and creeks.

One river, two plans.

Plans are being designed through a wide-reaching collaborative effort to work in unison to restore and protect the river’s water quality.

“We felt that, even though this a river that begins and ends in Onslow County, that it would be a great opportunity for us to separate it into two different plans so that we are spending as much time as we can in those two sections and really delve into the issues and the concerns and things that are affecting water quality and things that could potentially improve water quality through the watershed restoration plan,” Coastal Carolina Riverwatch Executive Director Lisa Rider told Coastal Review in an interview earlier this month.

Next year, the upper New River plan is expected to be complete. That plan addresses inland freshwater systems that flow through neighborhoods, farms, and paddle trails, she added.

At their cores, the plans espouse the connections shared by water, land and people. Essential to both missions is bridging people, whether it be those who live along it, recreate on it, or fish in it for sustenance, with organizations and agencies “needed to respond at the scale the river demands” to improve and protect it, Rider explained.

“It’s definitely a collaborative effort and I think that’s what makes this process a little bit unique for the watershed water management planning,” she said. “We’ve been really spending a lot of time connecting with community members, leadership in the community, folks that really have a unique grasp of what’s going on in the area.”

Riverwatch has worked through the New River Roundtable, a collaborative group of scientists, regulators, academics, government representatives and stakeholders, Rider explained. The organization has also worked closely with the county and with state partners.

The organization took a boots-on-the-ground approach, setting up at local festivals and other public events and speaking at various homeowners’ associations and community meetings.

The watershed restoration plans are a first for Coastal Carolina Riverwatch, an organization that has for years been monitoring the New River to try and determine sources of bacteria detected in the river.

The plans are rooted in the idea that, by creating one set of watershed restoration plans for the river, “we may get some really great projects out of that” to fill in gaps in areas of the river where water quality improvements and protections are needed, Rider said.

“That sort of initiated us into starting to work with the North Carolina Land and Water Fund to start funding the lower part of the New River plan, and we talked to them quite a bit about the reasoning for separating those plans out, knowing that eventually we would be working in unison,” she said.

The North Carolina Division of Water Resources has been key in helping the organization make the lower river plan sustainable through continued use and updates.

The plans in the agency’s watershed improvement projects, or WIPS, tool, which maps water quality improvement projects reported by residents, organizations and local governments.

“Even after the plan is complete it’s not really complete because we’re going to be continually using the watershed improvement tool to gauge what the public sees, what’s being requested in terms of projects by stakeholders and community members, and then looking to help connect funders with the projects that are being prioritized,” Rider said.

Severe pollution closed the New River to the public in the 1980s.

Things were so dire in the river that when 25 million gallons of waste flowed from a breached hog lagoon into its waters, no fish kills were recorded.

Three years after that spill, Jacksonville closed its downtown wastewater treatment plant to cut off the predominant source of pollution that had been sickening the lower river, where the riverbed between Wilson Bay and Stones Bay was covered by soft organics like ammonia and phosphates that, when in excessive amounts, choke out aquatic life.

City officials urged those at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune to stop its wastewater facility from discharging into the river.

The river was reopened in 2001.

Since then, both the city and Onslow County have been taking further steps to improve and protect the New River.

Jacksonville took on a multiyear project installing artificial reefs on either side of the river between Wilson Bay and Stones Bay to grow millions of oysters. The final phase of the $1.6 million Oyster Highway Project, which has helped usher marine life back into the river, wrapped a couple of years ago.

In 2024, the city’s elected leaders signed off on a grant awarded to Jacksonville’s stormwater department to develop a New River Nutrient Management Plan.

That plan focuses on nutrient loading from nonpoint sources — stormwater that flows from streets, subdivisions, commercial and industrial areas — into the city’s drainage system.

Last December, the Onslow County Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution that supports using low-impact development strategies in all new or significantly renovated county-funded facilities “when they are fiscally responsible and practical,” according to a county notice.

The resolution also encourages the county school system and Coastal Carolina Community College in Jacksonville to adopt similar strategies, such as bioretention areas, swales, pocket wetlands, impervious surface removal, cisterns, green roofs, and permeable pavement, for new and renovated projects.

“As Onslow County continues to grow it will be increasingly important to meet the needs of future development through sustainable means,” according to a county release.

Onslow County residents who would like to help Coastal Carolina Riverwatch identify flood-prone areas, streams in need of restoration or stabilization, areas where stormwater runoff causes erosion or water quality problems, and flood mitigation projects may contact the organization by email at waterkeeper@coastalcarolina.org.

Community-based organizations, including homeowner associations, civic and church groups, environmental and conservation clubs, paddling and fishing organizations, business associations and school groups may request a presentation by Coastal Carolina Riverwatch – or offer a project idea, or talk about an area where there are problems with flooding, at one of the group’s regular meetings.

“The collaboration, I think, really reflects how the river itself works,” Rider said. “Water doesn’t recognize those jurisdictional lines so the solutions themselves are more effective when the planning reflects that reality. This approach, we fell like, helps ensure that the investments are targeted, the support is local, and that it’s designed to deliver real benefits for both water quality and the quality of life across the watershed.”                                                                                                               

More than 34,000 gallons of untreated wastewater is believed to have been discharged from a damaged sewer line tap in Calabash on Wednesday.

The overflow was discovered shortly after 1 p.m. near 101 South Middleton Drive NW, according to a Brunswick County release.

Brunswick County Public Utilities staff determined that a 2-inch sewer tap gate valve had failed. The valve was repaired about an hour after the discharge was discovered.

Officials believe about 34,650 gallons of untreated sewer was discharged and reached the Little Cawcaw Swamp.

Samples were taken downstream of the discharge and remediation of the affected site was completed, according to the release.

Proposed rules that would require hundreds of industrial manufacturers and public sewer plants across the state to test the wastewater they discharge into rivers, creeks and streams for three types of PFAS and 1,4-dioxane will go out for public comment next month.

The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission last Thursday voted to push proposed monitoring and minimization rules for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances PFOA, PFOS and GenX, and for 1,4-dixoane, an industrial solvent, to the public in February.

Commission Chair JD Solomon indicated that more than one public hearing will be scheduled during the comment period, which is to be held through April. As of publication, neither specific dates for the comment period, nor dates and locations for hearings, had been announced.

Solomon told fellow commissioners he anticipates the state will receive thousands of comments on the proposed rules packages, which do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for violations.

Those omissions from the proposed rules were the basis of lengthy, at times contentious, discussion among members of the commission.

A majority of commissioners ultimately rejected Commissioner Robin Smith’s motion to inject federally enforceable limits on a half-dozen individual chemical compounds and a mixture of those compounds into the proposed rules package for PFAS.

Amending the rules to include the Environmental Protection Agency’s enforceable levels of PFAS, including PFOA, PFOS and GenX, Solomon said, would substantially change the proposed rule, triggering the need for a new regulatory impact analysis to examine projected costs associated with the rule.

PFAS are a mixture of chemicals used in a host of consumer products from nonstick cookware and food packaging to stain-resistant carpets, water-repellant attire, and makeup.

These chemicals have been found in a number of drinking water sources in North Carolina through discharges from industrial manufacturers, landfills, firefighting facilities and publicly owned treatment works, or POTWs, that accept industry effluent.

Ongoing research into human health effects of PFAS, of which there are upwards of 15,000 related compounds, continues. Some of the more well-studied substances, including PFOA and PFOS, have been linked to health issues including weakened immune response, liver damage, increased cholesterol, high blood pressure, lower infant birth weights, and higher risks of certain cancers.

The Trump administration’s EPA announced last year that it would retain current National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for PFOA and PFOS and extend deadlines for public water treatment plants to come into compliance with the federally established limits for those PFAS.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin also announced plans to rescind regulations and reconsider regulatory determinations for the other PFAS, including GenX.

Solomon said the commission will start talking about legally enforceable limits, also known as numeric standards, for PFAS at its March meeting.

“That is the intention and that will continue to be the intention,” he said, later adding, “Everybody on this panel wants a numeric standard. The question is more, what level are those numeric standards and for what compounds. That’s what we’re going to talk about when we get to the numeric standard part.”

The Environmental Management Commission voted 10-3 to move the proposed PFAS monitoring and minimization rules package to public comment and hearing.

60-day deadline

Under the proposed rules, industrial manufacturers and publicly owned treatment works, which officials call POTWs, will be contacted by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources and given 60 days to conduct baseline sampling for the three PFAS from the time the rules become effective.

Testing would be done quarterly for one year, with results reported to the division. Division officials would then determine whether ongoing sampling is needed based on practical quantitation limits, which are considered the base line in testing laboratories.

The division would decide whether a business or POTW has to develop a minimization plan, one that would take about 2.5 years to be implemented.

When asked how minimization would be measured, Division of Water Resources Deputy Director Julie Grzyb said, “There is nothing in the rule that defines a set level or set goal in the particular case. So, there is some left up to who is reviewing it.”

Minimization, she said, is determined by a number of things, including training and education equipment and seeing whether one product could be substituted for another.

“However, usually we have a water quality standard that we are shooting to meet and that defines the minimization much more clearly. I’ll leave it at that,” Grzyb said.

The proposed rule also does not specify what best management practices a facility must follow or how that facility must reach minimization.

Smith, who voted against moving the proposed rule to public comment, warned the rule may not pass the Rules Review Commission because, among other things, it lacks such standards.

“I think that one of the concerns is this could be an ongoing perpetual monitoring machine that doesn’t result in significant reductions,” she said, adding that a rule should not be sent out for public comment that “has basic drafting problems and gaps in essential decisions.”

“I cannot vote for this motion to be sent to public notice and comment the rule as it currently stands because I think there are too many issues that need to be resolved,” Smith said.

Commissioner Michael Ellison, who seconded the motion to move the rules to public comment, argued that the rules “help us as a state, statewide, reduce our uncertainty as to where the problems are and how bad they are while science continues to advance, while EPA continues whatever research they’re going to do and whatever standards they’re going to promulgate.”

After the vote to move the proposed rules on PFAS to public comment, the commission also agreed to ask for comments on whether industrial businesses and sewage plants should report to the division all 40 PFAS they are required to test for under federal requirements.

Smith made similar arguments against the proposed 1,4-dioxane monitoring and minimization rule that the commission voted 7-6 to move to public comment.

She said that while the proposed rule pertaining to 1,4-dioxane is a “pretty good monitoring rule,” it is “not a good minimization rule.”

“What I don’t want to do is create an impression out there that we have a serious minimization program if we don’t have any teeth in it. I think we need to be honest with the public about what this rule does. I’m not for something that calls itself a minimization rule that doesn’t have any enforceable attachment to it,” she said.

Early in what turned out to be a more than two-hour discussion leading up to their vote on the proposed PFAS monitoring and minimization rules, Solomon reminded commissioners that the votes they cast Thursday would not be their final, saying that getting the rules out for public comment is an incremental step in a process aimed at ultimately reducing PFAS discharges.

A Piedmont town’s request to permanently pull millions of gallons of water a day from the Cape Fear River would raise the risk of water shortages during periods of drought, undercut utilities’ ability to keep up with growing demand, and result in higher levels of contamination in the raw drinking water source for downstream communities, opponents of the plan say.

Of the dozen people who spoke Tuesday night during a public hearing in Raleigh, none supported Fuquay-Varina’s call for transferring 6.17 million gallons per day from the Cape Fear River Basin to the Neuse River Basin to meet that town’s projected water demands.

Similar opposition was expressed during a hearing held in Fayetteville last week by the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission and the state Division of Water Resources. A third hearing was scheduled to be held Thursday in Pittsboro.

Both elected officials and heads of public utilities in the lower Cape Fear region on Tuesday continued pressing the commission and division to host a public hearing in that area.

“None of the hearings for the Fuquay-Varina request are being held in the lower Cape Fear region, even though our communities will feel the downstream impacts,” said New Hanover County Commissioner Rob Zapple. “Residents in the city of Wilmington and the counties of New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender would have to spend four to five hours on the road just to attend the public hearing. Most residents simply cannot do that. Holding a hearing in the lower Cape Fear region in Wilmington would reduce frustration, encourage public trust, and allow our communities to be hearing in a constructive manner.”

As of Wednesday, more than 20 counties, municipalities, environmental organizations, businesses and drinking water providers have adopted resolutions opposing Fuquay-Varina’s request for an interbasin transfer certificate, or IBT.

Officials in Fuquay-Varina, which is about 30 miles south of Raleigh, project that the amount of water the town currently buys from the capital city, and Harnett and Johnston counties will fall short of demand by 2030.

Under the proposed preferred alternative identified in a draft environmental impact statement for the IBT, the town would source its entire water supply from a water treatment plant in Sanford, which is in the Cape Fear River Basin.

Once water pulled from the Cape Fear River is used by residents and businesses within the town, the treated wastewater would be discharged into the Neuse River Basin. This would permanently subtract more than 6 million gallons each day from the river flow that currently sources more than 500,000 residents with drinking water.

“We have absolutely no problem with Fuquay-Varina wanting to continue with their development,” Zapple said. “But if you take the water, just return it. That’s all. That’s the way the system works. And, if it costs more, well maybe that’s the price of doing business. We need our development down in the lower Cape Fear region as well and we can’t afford to lose 6.17 million gallons a day.”

The Cape Fear River is Brunswick County’s “primary and only reliable water source,” said Christopher Giesting, Brunswick County Public Utilities deputy director of water operations.

The utility supplies drinking water to 19 municipalities and serves more than 350,000 residents and seasonal visitors.

Giesting said that Brunswick County has invested more than $183 million to expand its Northwest Water Treatment Plant and upgrade to a reverse osmosis system designed to remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, discharged into the river by upstream polluters.

“These investments were made with the expectation that the full safe yield of the Cape Fear River at the intake would remain available,” he said. “Any IBT that removes water without returning it means that safe yield volume is reduced, ultimately making these major infrastructure investments unable to function as planned and designed. Our county alone has more than 50,000 planned housing units already built, under construction, or in the works. Without reliable access to the full safe yield of the Cape Fear, we cannot meet future water demands for these communities.”

The IBT proposal also threatens water quality, Giesting continued, because the requested daily transfer would lessen the amount of water available to dilute contaminants, including PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, discharged by upstream polluters.

The Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authority, which provides wholesale regional raw water to treatment facilities that serve more than 550,000 customers in a five-county area, has sourced from the Cape Fear River more than half a century.

Authority Executive Director Tim Holloman said the river is already being substantially used as a water resource in the region.

“For a river that’s already maxed, we just ask that that be considered. If the IBT is granted, that (water) be returned to the Cape Fear River Basin because the need is not going to go away. It’s only going to increase over time,” he said.

Fayetteville Public Works Commission Chief Executive Officer and General Manager Timothy Bryant said that the commission would be forced to spend millions more each year to ensure safe drinking water to its more than 250,000 customers.

“I would argue very strenuously that no one with any legitimacy can claim that removing over 6 million gallons of water per day isn’t a foreseeable detrimental effect on the river basin and the 900,000 downstream residents of North Carolina who depend on this water every day,” he said. “To be clear, growth in Fuquay-Varina should not come at the expense of other communities. There are multiple reasonable alternative options presented that are not only consistent with the intent and letter of North Carolina law, but also squarely place the cost burden on Fuquay-Varina and not the customers downstream of it.”

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Executive Director Ken Waldroup asked that the Environmental Management Commission look into what he said are “critical technical shortcomings” associated with models presented by the town.

The commission will make the final determination on whether to grant Fuquay-Varina’s request.

If approved, the IBT would occur after 2031, according to the draft impact statement.

No announcement had been made at the time of this publication as to whether a public hearing will be held in the lower Cape Fear region.

A district court judge has ruled that Chemours and its predecessor company cannot conceal thousands of pages of documents from the public.

The manufacturing giant failed to provide sufficient evidence the documents include commercially sensitive information that, if released, could competitively undermine the companies, Judge James Dever III concluded in his Dec. 3 ruling.

Information the companies requested to keep under seal are among 25,000 pages of documents lawyers representing public utilities and local governments downstream of Chemours’ Bladen County plant submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina as part of lawsuit those entities brought against the companies in October 2017.

Related: EPA seeks reporting rollback as new study finds hidden PFAS

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, or CFPUA, Brunswick County, Lower Cape Fear Water & Sewer Authority, and Wrightsville Beach aim to recover costs and damages associated with the Fayetteville Works’ plant’s discharges of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, for decades into the Cape Fear River. The river is a drinking water source for tens of thousands of residents.

PFAS are a group of more than 14,000 chemicals used in everyday consumer products including food containers, stain-resistant carpet and water-repellant gear. These human-made chemical compounds are persistent in the environment and have been found to accumulate in humans and animals. Exposure to these substances has been linked to weakened immune function, reproductive and development issues and increased risk of some cancers.

Last February, attorneys for Chemours and its predecessor company DuPont filed a motion requesting that the court keep thousands of pages of those documents under seal, arguing information in those documents contain internal communications about chemical production that, if made public, could give a leg up to their competitors.

Dever denied that request. He also rejected a second motion by the companies’ attorneys seeking to keep from the public an April 2018 report of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency detailing its inspection the Fayetteville Works facility.

“Defendants’ second motion to seal fails for the same reason as defendant’s first motion to seal. Defendants provide insufficient evidence to demonstrate that sealing the [Toxic Substance Act Compliance Monitoring Inspection] report serves a compelling interest which outweighs the public’s right of access,” Dever wrote in his 13-page ruling.

A document’s “status as confidential or commercially sensitive alone does not justify its sealing,” he continued.

“We thank the Court for its wise ruling in denying the motion to seal,” Cammie Bellamy, CFPUA public information officer, said in an email responding to a request for comment. “CFPUA will oppose every attempt by Chemours to delay, obfuscate, and deny the public its right to access the facts of this case. The documents that Chemours and its codefendants wanted to hide from the public include records of its decades of wrongdoing. The people of Southeastern North Carolina deserve better. CFPUA continues to work to hold Chemours accountable for its decades of polluting of the Cape Fear River – the source water for 500,000 North Carolinians.”

Dever also denied requests submitted to the court last April by environmental and community organizations, and the NAACP New Hanover County Branch, to intervene in the case and object to the companies’ motion to keep the documents sealed, ruling those motions are moot.

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a motion to intervene in the case on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, and the Environmental Justice Community Action Network.

“We think that this is absolutely the right outcome,” Jean Zhuang, a senior attorney with the center’s Chapel Hill office, said in a telephone interview Friday morning. “In this case, the companies have concealed decades of pollution in southeastern North Carolina and harmed drinking water from the Cape Fear River for 500,000 people.”

The release of the documents comes at a crucial time, she said, because Chemours wants to expand its production of vinyl ethers, which are a class of compounds used to create a variety of products used in a range of technologies from semiconductor chips to aviation components.

The company’s permit application for that expansion is under review by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

“Chemours is expecting the public to just trust them while they are planning a massive expansion of their facility,” Zhuang said. “After all these decades of harm they have caused on North Carolina communities, secrecy is not an option anymore.”

Tests commissioned by the SELC and Cape Fear River Watch showed that Chemours is releasing “extremely high levels” of ultra-short chain PFAS, which are highly mobile and difficult to remove from raw drinking water, into the Cape Fear River.

The results of those tests, released last October, confirmed earlier test results published by CFPUA, which has spent tens of millions of dollars upgrading its Sweeney Water Treatment Plant in downtown Wilmington to filtrate PFAS from reaching its customers’ taps.

CFPUA officials, along with those from other downstream facilities, are calling on the state to enforce polluters to treat chemicals at the source and set enforceable limits in discharge permits.

Anne Harvey David, chief counsel for environmental justice for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, which asked to intervene in the case on behalf of the NAACP New Hanover County Branch, said in a release, “An effort to conceal information that details with the health and safety of thousands of North Carolinians cannot go unchallenged. We are happy to see this decision in favor of protecting public access to these documents. Information and transparency around the extent of the pollution is fundamental for the health and safety of the impacted communities.”

NACCP New Hanover County Branch President LeRon Montgomery said last week’s ruling “is one win in a long battle for our community to live free from harmful contamination of our air and water,” according to the release.

“The importance of this decision goes far beyond who it will impact today,” he stated. “The pollution of the Cape Fear River will impact generations to come, but so will having access to this information.”

As of this publication, it was unclear when the documents would be made public or whether the companies’ attorneys would appeal the ruling.

Reprinted from North Carolina Health News

Though the holiday season is here — with all the responsibilities it entails — some North Carolinians might consider adding one more thing to their to-do lists: weighing in on an EPA proposal that could reshape how the government collects information about per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The agency is taking input during the public comment period, which is open now and closes on Dec. 29.

On Nov. 10, the EPA announced a proposal to loosen reporting requirements for businesses that make or use PFAS. Agency officials say the changes are intended to make the rules easier for companies to follow and to avoid duplicate or unnecessary paperwork, while still allowing EPA to collect key information about how PFAS are used and what risks they may pose.

Currently PFAS are regulated under the Toxic Substances Control Act, a federal law that allows the EPA to require businesses to report, test, track or even ban chemicals that may threaten human health or the environment.

In October 2023, the Biden administration’s EPA finalized a one-time PFAS reporting rule under TSCA’s Section 8. The rule requires companies that manufactured or imported PFAS between 2011 and 2022 to disclose how the chemicals were used and provide available environmental or health data. Industry groups have pushed back, saying the rule is too costly and difficult for small businesses to navigate.

“This Biden-era rule would have imposed crushing regulatory burdens and nearly $1 billion in implementation costs on American businesses,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said when announcing the proposed changes. “Today’s proposal is grounded in common sense and the law, allowing us to collect the information we need to help combat PFAS contamination without placing ridiculous requirements on manufacturers, especially the small businesses that drive our country’s economy.”

But environmental advocates and clean water managers say the proposal would significantly weaken PFAS oversight.

“By EPA’s own estimate, the proposed rule would eliminate more than 97 percent of the information that would have otherwise been generated by the (current) rule,” said Stephanie Schweickert, NC Conservation Network’s director of Environmental Health Campaigns.

“With PFAS and Chemours in North Carolina, we really need more information about PFAS, not less. This (proposal) is very problematic for public health in North Carolina,” Schweickert said. 

Harder-to-detect PFAS raise new concerns

The proposal comes when North Carolina researchers are uncovering PFAS pollution that standard monitoring can’t detect — raising new questions about whether EPA already has blind spots.

Recent Duke University research uncovered a previously unrecognized source of contamination in the Haw River, a tributary of the Cape Fear River: tiny solid PFAS “precursor” particles in industrial wastewater from a Burlington textile manufacturer that entered the local sewer system. These nanoparticles don’t show up in standard PFAS tests, which typically look for dissolved chemicals. But during wastewater treatment processes, the particles break down into better-known PFAS compounds that can contaminate rivers, drinking water sources and agricultural sludge.

At peak discharge, researchers detected precursor-particle levels exceeding 12 million parts per trillion — millions of times higher than EPA’s enforceable drinking-water limits of 4-10 ppt for regulated PFAS. The findings highlight major blind spots in current monitoring and suggest that industries may be releasing far more PFAS (or PFAS precursors) than regulators currently can detect.

“We have some of the most sophisticated instruments in the world for PFAS analysis, and we couldn’t detect these until we dramatically changed our approach,” said lead researcher Lee Ferguson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Duke, in a release. “Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know, and there is a lesson to be learned about blind spots in our analyses when it comes to looking for new PFAS in the environment.”

In a follow-up email, Ferguson said the findings show why PFAS disclosure rules should be strengthened, not rolled back. “Our work highlights why it is important to increase, not decrease, PFAS waste discharge reporting requirements for industries.”

Downstream utilities feel the impact

A public utility that relies on the Cape Fear River, echoed Ferguson’s concerns.

The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, which provides drinking water to more than 200,000 customers in New Hanover County and spent $43 million installing a granular activated carbon filtration system in 2022 to remove PFAS, said weakened reporting would make their job harder.

“We are concerned that these (proposed) exemptions could create additional uncertainty for utilities, such as CFPUA, that are located downstream from known PFAS polluters,” the agency said.

“Utilities rely upon detailed, accurate data from potential and known contamination sources to inform our treatment processes in order to protect the drinking water we provide our customers,” the statement continued. “Rolling back reporting requirements for PFAS manufacturers passes more of the burden of monitoring and testing source water on to utilities and our ratepayers.”

Advocates say the stakes extend beyond utilities.

“The EPA is carving out loopholes under the Toxic Substances Control Act that allow industry to avoid reporting its use of PFAS — current forever chemicals that pose serious risks to people’s health,” a Southern Environmental Law Center spokesperson said in an emailed statement to NC Health News. 

“These exemptions include PFAS produced as byproducts, the very issue at the heart of the Chemours crisis,” the SELC statement said. “For decades, Chemours discharged GenX as a byproduct before intentionally manufacturing it, yet the harm caused by byproduct PFAS is no different from that caused by intentionally produced PFAS. This reality devastated 500,000 North Carolinians who drank—and continue to drink—water contaminated by Chemours’ PFAS pollution, and it remains true for communities across the country today.”

Health risks tied to PFAS exposure

These gaps in monitoring matter because PFAS exposure has been associated with a growing list of health concerns. Often called “forever chemicals” because they break down slowly and accumulate in the body over time, PFAS have been linked to immune system suppression, developmental and reproductive harm, thyroid disruption, elevated cholesterol and certain cancers.

In North Carolina, the GenX Exposure Study has documented elevated PFAS levels in blood samples from people living near the Cape Fear River, along with health markers such as increased cholesterol and changes in liver enzymes that have been associated with PFAS exposure. Researchers say the findings underscore the risks for communities living downstream of industrial PFAS sources.

“Some PFAS are formed as byproducts of chemical manufacturing. These chemicals, even though they aren’t used to make new products, are released into air and water and have been found in the blood of people who rely on downstream drinking water,” said N.C. State University epidemiologist Jane Hoppin, when responding to questions about the new Duke research and the EPA’s proposal.

“In our research, PFMOAA was detected at the highest levels in blood samples collected more than a year before the contamination was publicly identified,” she said. “Other byproducts of PFAS — Nafion byproduct 2 and PFO5DoA — were found in nearly all Wilmington residents tested in 2017 and remain in people’s blood today. We need more, not less, information about chemical byproducts to ensure drinking water safety.”

“The mission of the EPA, in the beginning, was to protect the public and the environment,” said Robert Bullard, a professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University who’s widely regarded as the father of the environmental justice movement. “Anytime you’re relaxing rules that would not only threaten the environment but also compromise public health — that’s the wrong way to go.”

The public comment period is open through Dec. 29. To submit a comment, go to: https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/EPA-HQ-OPPT-2020-0549-0311.

This article first appeared on North Carolina Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Guest Commentary

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

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently working on an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Port of Wilmington’s plan to deepen the Cape Fear River, with the stated goal of accommodating larger cargo ships. As a retired Corps of Engineers senior project engineer, I feel it’s crucial to raise some serious concerns about this initiative.

The North Carolina State Ports Authority has significantly overlooked other viable alternatives, besides incremental deepening, and failed to assess the extensive infrastructure damage that increased freight traffic could inflict on our roads and bridges. This is particularly evident in major new projects like the replacement of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge and Wilmington’s Rail Realignment Project. Both are billion-dollar investments intended to accommodate the large volume of new truck and rail freight movement. One only need to look at the definition of the secondary effects as defined by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). These secondary effects clearly relate to the need to expand the port’s freight-handling capacity.

Deepening the river will only worsen flooding, affecting areas around the downtown Wilmington waterfront and the historically significant North Carolina Battleship site. It will also lead to a substantial loss of vital wetlands and floodplains due to increasing saltwater intrusion, a value the Ports Authority conveniently understates in its Section 203 report required under the Clean Water Act.

From 1980 to 2017, DuPont, and now Chemours, released vast quantities of hazardous PFAS compounds, polluting nearly 100 miles of the Cape Fear River, including the proposed dredging prisms defined in the port’s set of alternatives. This legacy of contamination must be a central part of the EIS evaluation, as it directly challenges the claimed benefits of the project. Additionally, the reverse osmosis water treatment plant in Brunswick County, which aims to remove PFAS from drinking water, will release highly concentrated PFAS-contaminated wastewater 3 miles upstream of the port. This will further complicate the environmental challenges posed by the proposed dredging project, as well as future dredging operations and maintenance requirements, which once again go unaddressed in the port’s Section 203 report.

Why is this a critical oversight? PFAS clings to or settles into fine sediments like silt and clay found in the soil in and around the dredge-soil prism proposed to be dredged. It’s only logical that when these contaminated sediments are dredged, a safe disposal management plan would be an essential requirement for both federal and state regulators. When PFAS is detected in the dredged sediment, our regulators need to determine whether the material is suitable for placement or disposal, especially regarding upland sites or beach renourishment projects.

The Corps’ “Beneficial Use” strategy aims to repurpose the dredged material as a resource. However, this faces significant hurdles within the scope of this proposed project, as regulators decide how to prevent PFAS from being released back into the environment. The Eagles Island disposal area, which predates NEPA and was built on a previously healthy wetland and floodplain, is not an appropriate site for disposing of contaminated dredged soil because it lacks a liner. Furthermore, researchers in North Carolina and across the globe continue to investigate the damage that PFAS is causing to aquatic ecosystems as it transfers from sediment back into the water column during dredging and placement operations.

Without the Corps thoroughly addressing PFAS contamination, there is zero chance of ensuring the health and well-being of those who rely on the river’s resources in the future. This is particularly important when considering deepening options for the beneficial uses of these contaminated sediments. PFAS contamination adds another layer of complexity that will require extensive testing and could significantly impact project costs and feasibility.

There is no question that this proposed dredging project will certainly disturb sediments, releasing PFAS and other contaminants back into the water, which poses risks to aquatic life and human health.

Key issues include the following:

• Contamination — Dedging stirs PFAS, disrupts water quality.
• Aquatic risks — PFAS can bioaccumulate in marine organisms.
• Health concerns — Contaminated fish and drinking water pose human health risks.
• Regulatory challenges — Lack of consistent state or federal guidelines will create confusion for any of the deepening alternatives proposed under the port’s Section 203 study.

To enable the federal and state governments to properly manage PFAS risks related to deepening or maintenance dredging within the navigation channel, increased testing, ongoing research, development of standards, and best management practices are essential.

PFAS contamination is impacting rivers and harbors across our country. Michigan’s Department of Environment now mandates PFAS testing for sediments in harbor dredging, which is causing project delays, such as in Grand Haven, due to unclear safety standards. The Corps warns that this could reduce dredging operations from 24 to only three to five harbors annually due to rising costs — up to 200% higher with resampling — and the lack of precise guidance.

Given these critical issues, taxpayers should be alarmed by a proposed port project that fails to account for its environmental and infrastructural costs. Suppose we don’t consider the long-term implications of the port’s proposed alterations to our river. In that case, we might find ourselves stuck with unsustainable financial and environmental costs, while the economic benefits remain questionable at best.

It is our river, yet it has been treated as a stepchild compared to other, less critical economic priorities. Standard economic models often overlook the real financial value of natural resources and ecological systems like those on the lower Cape Fear River. Since nature’s “goods and services,” such as clean air, fresh water, and fully functioning floodplains and wetlands, are often considered free, they are becoming overused and undervalued. As I’ve tried to explain here, the degradation of our environment directly affects our citizens, taxpayers, and the species that depend on healthy ecosystems.

As the Corps prepares its EIS, it is essential to find more sustainable alternatives than digging us into a deeper hole that we can’t escape.  If not for us, then how about our kids, grandchildren, and their grandchildren?

If you have an opinion or concerns about this project, please submit your comments to:

By Email: WilmingtonHarbor403@usace.army.mil, or by mail to  ATTN: Wilmington Harbor 403, 69 Darlington Ave., Wilmington, NC 28403, or by comment cards at the public meetings.

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

Guest Commentary

To stimulate discussion and debate, Coastal Review welcomes differing viewpoints on topical coastal issues. Note: This piece was updated Nov. 3 to correct an erroneous statistic regarding Chemours’ proposed expansion.

One of the state’s most egregious corporate polluters has evaded public accountability for years. Now, the company is seeking to expand its output of toxic chemicals in eastern North Carolina. 

Since the mid 1970s the Chemours chemical manufacturing facility in Fayetteville has been spewing toxic PFAS into the air and water, contaminating the air and drinking water, food and bodies of water of a half-million people in the southeast region. The public was unaware of this until 2017, when researchers at NC State University detected high levels of the chemical GenX in the river’s drinking water. The revelation was so egregious community group Clean Cape Fear engaged the U.N. Human Rights Council to find Chemours and its parent company DuPont had committed business-related human rights abuses and called for accountability. Exposure to PFAS is known to cause certain types of cancers, immune system suppression, and developmental issues. But even after the news broke about this public health crisis in 2017, Chemours continued to produce PFAS and poisoning the Cape Fear River region. 

Beyond polluting the Cape Fear River, which supplies drinking water to more than 500,000 people downstream of Chemours’ discharge pipes, Chemours’ airborne PFAS emissions have poisoned at least 7,000 private drinking water wells across ten counties. This is not just a historical issue – it’s an ongoing crisis. Eight years after learning about GenX in North Carolina’s tap water and state regulators still do not know the full scope of groundwater contamination to the region. 

Despite this legacy of harm across southeastern North Carolina, the company has recently applied to NC DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) for an air permit to dramatically expand its Fayetteville chemical production operations and increase its PFAS production and waste. Chemours has demonstrated a pattern of corporate misconduct, concealing information about the dangers of its water and air pollution from regulators and the public for decades. The company has violated court orders to curb PFAS pollution. And, earlier this year, the state expanded its PFAS testing zone, ordering Chemours to test for PFAS in an additional 150,000 private wells in six counties – a sign of how far these toxic chemicals have spread across the state.  

This is not a company that can be trusted to expand its operations responsibly, and it is one local example of the  PFAS pollution crisis, which is now a nationwide problem. Thoughtful and common-sense federal solutions were recently put in place, but  are now being rescinded.  

In 2024, the Biden Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) restricted six PFAS chemicals (GenX/HFPO-DA, PFBS, PFHxS PFNA, PFOA, and PFOS), under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which the agency estimated could benefit up to 105 million people nationwide. But the Trump administration is now in the process of trying to rescind some of those restrictions that would have helped reduce PFAS pollution in public tap water. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and its partners are opposing the EPA’s proposed rollbacks and have turned to the courts for protection.  

Until federal regulators issue clear guidance and protections for PFAS, it is up to state agencies to protect our health and natural resources. In North Carolina, that means DEQ must reject Chemours’ air permit application and do its job to protect North Carolinians from being further poisoned by this company’s toxic chemical pollution.

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

An overwhelming majority of litter captured over the course of three years by in-stream traps set up in watersheds throughout the state was plastic waste, according to a recently published study.

About 96% of litter North Carolina waterkeeper organizations and their volunteers removed from trash traps between June 2021 and November 2024 consisted of plastics, said Dr. Nancy Lauer, lead author of the paper published in the journal Community Science.

“Plastic is lightweight, it’s buoyant, it floats easily,” Lauer, a staff scientist and lecturing fellow with the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, said in a recent telephone interview. “The plastic items, they can very well make their way through the stormwater system, through the stream and end up in the trash trap before they are ever going to biodegrade.”

During the course of the three-year study, 150,750 pieces of litter were removed from 21 traps.

The litter traps were funded through a 2020 North Carolina Environmental Enhancement Grant as part of a statewide microplastics research and pollution-prevention infrastructure project sponsored by Waterkeepers Carolina, a group of 15 licensed waterkeepers in the state.

By removing and documenting the litter that gets caught in the traps, waterkeeper organizations are able to get an understanding of the most prevalent types of litter entering North Carolina rivers. They are also able to look at correlations between litter accumulation and characteristics such as development, impervious surface, road density and human populations within different watersheds.

Using the data collected by those waterkeeper organizations, researchers can provide a big picture of riverine litter in the state and use that to shape policy.

For this study, seven waterkeeper organizations and their volunteers were tasked with separating and organizing the trash they removed from traps into categories.

Those categories included plastic film, hard plastic, polystyrene foam, metal, glass; and paper covering items, such as drink containers made of plastic, glass and metal, plastic straws and stirrers, cup lids, bottle caps and food wrappers.

Fragments of polystyrene foam from consumer products like Styrofoam cups, food takeout containers and packing materials were removed from all 21 traps in “very high” loads, Lauer said.

Those fragments and single-use plastic bottles made up about 83% of the litter that was collected and documented.

“If you do a cleanup of a roadside, you’re going to find a lot more plastic bags, a lot more food wrappers and we would find those occasionally,” Lauer said. “But I think that those just tend to snag on branches or get weighted down in the stream banks before they would ever be able to reach the trap. It was sort of eye opening to realize which of these plastic items, when they get into the environment, are extremely mobile. It seems like the trash traps are telling us that Styrofoam fragments and plastic bottles can really effectively be transported by surface waters downstream just because they made up such a large fraction of what we were finding in the traps.”

The paper is the latest to highlight single-use plastic pollution in the state.

A 14-page report published last March and created through a collaboration of nonprofits and the policy clinic concluded that state agencies, local governments and nonprofits spent more than $56 million in 2023 cleaning up more than 7,000 tons of litter.

Related: State’s fix for costly litter problem ‘not efficient or sufficient’

That same year, legislators injected language into the state budget prohibiting counties and cities from adopting rules, regulations, ordinances, or resolutions that restrict, tax, or charge fees on auxiliary containers.

The provision stopped locally elected officials in Asheville from voting on a proposed ban of single-use plastic bags and Styrofoam food containers. The law also barred local elected officials in Durham from deciding whether to require retailers tack on a 10-cent fee for each plastic bag given to customers in restaurants, grocery stores and shops.

That law “dealt a huge blow” to North Carolina, Lauer said.

The volume of single-use plastics removed from riverine traps clearly indicates that type of pollution is a huge issue in the state, she said

“I think what this data really highlights is that there’s still work that needs to be done and that work now, because of that preemption law, can’t necessarily be done on the local level in the same way that it could before,” Lauer said. “But there are state-level actions like banning Styrofoam, or a bottle bill that would incentivize people to return their bottles to receive a small deposit. Those could be really effective at reducing stream litter.”

She said it is important to keep in mind that there are types of litter that aren’t being captured in trash traps.

“These traps have a lot of positive aspects, but ideally we want to live in a world where we don’t need them because that trash is never ending up in our streams,” Lauer said. “I feel really strongly that there needs to be action by the corporations and the businesses and the government to stop these items from being provided in the first place. We go through life and you can make choices as an individual, but single-use plastics are still so prevalent that it can feel impossible to avoid them, no matter how hard you try.”

If you want a sense of just how complicated and drawn-out state rulemaking can get, look no further than the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission’s water quality committee.

More than a year has passed since the committee began kicking around a rule that would, as initially proposed, limit industrial discharge of forever chemicals across the state.

Any such rule has been passionately debated time after time, meeting after meeting, only to be tabled again and again, heightening the collective frustrations of thousands of North Carolinians and the water utilities that serve them.

Now, if adopted by the full commission, the rule will also have to get the General Assembly’s approval.

The proposed rule would trigger a threshold established under House Bill 402, known as the “Regulations from Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS)” Act, a new law that has drawn sharp criticism from environmental and health advocates who argue it will stifle an already daunting rulemaking process and create significant obstacles to addressing pollution.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, which recommends rules to commissions, including Environmental Management, echoed similar sentiments in an emailed statement responding to a request for comment late last month.

“The Department of Environmental Quality and its Commissions’ rules provide essential public health protections. They help ensure that our air, water and land are clean and safe throughout North Carolina while giving businesses and municipalities the certainty they need to make fiscal decisions. The new law will make it significantly more difficult, and it will take longer, to create new protections against environmental harms like PFAS and other forever chemicals. These rulemaking changes also add significant uncertainty for businesses, municipalities and our residents.”

The REINS Act establishes a tiered system for rules based on their projected financial impact. If a rule exceeds a certain threshold, that rule can no longer be approved simply by a majority vote of a rulemaking board or commission.

Rules projected to cost $1 million over five years must receive a two-thirds majority vote of the rulemaking body. Any rule with an impact of $10 million or more over five years must receive unanimous approval. If a proposed rule is expected to cost $20 million or more over five years the rule must be formally approved by the General Assembly before it can take effect.

Since 2020, the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management has reviewed fiscal and regulatory impact analysis of 31 proposed rules that exceed REINS Act thresholds.

In all, 15 of those proposed rules OSBM has reviewed in the last five years were projected to have impacts of $1 million or more over five years, according to information provided by that office.

Seven proposed rules had projected costs of $10 million or more and nine rules had projected financial impacts of $20 million or more.

The Environmental Management Commission, Commission for Public Health, Building Code Council, and Wildlife Resources Commission were among the rulemaking bodies who considered those proposed rules.

North Carolina has more than 300 boards and commissions that oversee a range of issues that will be affected by the law, one Republican leaders have argued would enhance government accountability and protect residents and businesses from overregulation.

The state is one of the latest to adopt measures modeled after the federal Regulations from Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act, which establishes a congressional approval process for a “major rule,” including one likely to have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more.

“I think what we’re looking at is a lot of gridlock around topics that have not made as much progress as they should have so far,” said Grady O’Brien, North Carolina Conservation Network’s water policy manager.

One of the starkest examples of that, he said, are rules relating to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

DEQ’s initial rule proposal to the Environmental Management Commission included health standards for eight PFAS in groundwater and surface water. The commission’s committees pared down that number down to three chemical compounds – PFOA, PFOS, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lists as likely carcinogens, and GenX, a compound specific to Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility in Bladen County.

Under the proposed rule DEQ initially presented to the water quality committee, the state would have been given the ability to enforce limits on dischargers for PFAS. Critics of the current proposed rule argue it lacks the teeth the state needs to be able to ensure industries are actually reducing releases of the chemical compounds into surface water including the Cape Fear River, the drinking water source for tens of thousands of North Carolinians.

The proposed draft rule, which could go to a vote of the full commission in November, would require industries that discharge PFAS into surface water and industries that discharge those chemicals to publicly owned treatment works to monitor for PFOA, PFOS, and GenX.

As is, the proposed rule’s projected financial impact is $129.5 million over the next six years, which means the rule requires both a unanimous vote of the full commission and legislative review.

“So, things have gone from frustrating and slowed down to looking almost impossible when you’re going to need a unanimous vote, which kind of empowers one person on whatever board or commission in question, one person can shut something down that has this $10 million threshold over five years,” O’Brien said.

The law excludes economic benefits associated with a proposed rule and, critics point out, as current rules go up for periodic review, rules that have been on the books for decades that fall within the new thresholds could be stripped from the books.

Braxton Davis, executive director of the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, said rulemaking “already involves an extensive process, including fiscal impact analysis and public input.”

“It often takes a year or more from the time a rule is drafted until it becomes effective – even when rules are being relaxed,” Davis said. “If the commissions’ rulemaking process becomes even more challenging, it may force the General Assembly to act on new issues and information to an extent that would be much better suited for the executive branch to address, at least initially.”

Davis, former director of DEQ’s Division of Coastal Management, said that, in his experience, regulatory commissions have members that bring different expertise, experience and perspectives to the table.

“And, as with any board, it will be very difficult to achieve a unanimous vote on any significant rule changes,” he said.

Mary Maclean Asbill, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Chapel Hill office, said the law will “pretty much shut down” environmental rulemaking.

“We’ve already seen over the past few years the erosion of separation of powers in North Carolina, where the conservative majority of the General Assembly has legislated changes to the composition of boards and commissions, taking away authority from the governor, or the executive branch, and giving it to themselves,” she said. “We have seen appointees to any number of environmental boards and commissions mimic the ideology of the legislature. By that I mean they are anti-regulation, anti-protection, anti-environmental protection and so it has already been difficult for the past few years for state agencies who are charged with protecting the health and environment of North Carolina to promulgate any rules or regulations that are protective of health and the environment. This is going to make it exponentially more difficult.”

Gov. Josh Stein vetoed the law, writing in his June 27 rejection of House Bill 402 that it would, “make it harder for the state to keep people’s drinking water clean from PFAS and other dangerous chemicals, their air free from toxic pollutants, and their health care facilities providing high quality care.”

The law, he wrote, would “impose red tape” and would make agencies, boards, and commissions, “less effective at protecting people’s health, safety and welfare.”

The General Assembly voted to override Stein’s veto.

The Army Corps of Engineers’ Savannah District has awarded a contract for the second phase of cleanup at the former Buxton Naval Facility site in Dare County.

The petroleum-contaminated property is being handled under the Defense Department’s Formerly Used Defense Sites, or FUDS, program. The Buxton Beach access is also part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

The Interim Response Action contract awarded Thursday to Eastern Shawnee Bay West JV, a joint venture between Eastern Shawnee Professional Services and environmental cleanup firm Bay West follows the first phase, for which Bay West LLC was the contractor, and includes work along the beach to further investigate the site for petroleum-impacted soil and groundwater.

The contractor is to bring in heavy excavation equipment and roll-off containers to remove and containerize any petroleum-polluted soil encountered, transporting and disposing the material at an off-site waste management facility. The equipment is due to arrive within the next two weeks, officials said.

The contractors and Savannah District personnel have been at the site since Aug. 8, monitoring conditions and containing the contamination, when needed, by placing oil-absorbent booms around any observed petroleum.

A 0.3-mile stretch of beach at the site at the south end of Old Lighthouse Road has been closed since Aug. 2 because of the presence of petroleum odors and sheens. Strong surf caused significant erosion that exposed contaminated soils on the same stretch of beach that had reopened June 12 following the lifting of a precautionary public health advisory by Dare County’s Department of Health and Human Services and after consulting with the U.S. Public Health Service.

In addition, the entire beachfront from Buxton village to 0.4 miles north of off-road vehicle, or ORV, ramp 43 is closed to public entry due to damage to dozens of houses and associated septic systems caused by Hurricane Erin in August. Officials said leaking septic systems, along with compromised decking, HVAC systems, pilings, concrete parking areas, and wiring, poses a serious public health and safety threat.

The Environmental Protection Agency is hosting a public hearing next month on a proposed permit for a municipal wastewater treatment facility that discharges 1,4-dioxane into the drinking water supplies for about 1 million North Carolinians.

Oral or written comments about the federal agency’s specific objection to Asheboro Wastewater Treatment Plant’s proposed National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit will be accepted at the hearing scheduled from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. Oct. 22.

The hearing follows the EPA’s response to a ruling last year by former Chief Administrative Law Judge Donald van der Vaart that N.C. Department of Environmental Quality officials did not follow state law when they calculated discharge limits and established an enforceable water quality standard for 1,4-dioxane.

That chemical, one that cannot be removed through conventional water treatment methods, is deemed by the EPA as a likely human carcinogen.

The state has appealed the ruling.

The Asheboro Wastewater Treatment Plant has been discharging high levels of 1,4-dioxane upstream of the drinking water supply for several cities and counites, including Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties.

The hearing will be hosted both virtually and in-person at the JB and Claire Davis Corporate Training Center at Randolph Community College, 413 Industrial Park Ave., Asheboro. Doors open at 5 p.m.

Those who plan to attend in-person are encouraged to arrive early and preregister at least 72 hours before the hearing.

Virtual attendees may register online. Instructions are available on how to submit written comments during or after the hearing up until the close of the period for receiving comments. Those who attend virtually will not be able to present oral comments during the hearing.

The hearing will kick off with brief presentations by EPA officials and a neutral process facilitator. Oral comments will be limited to three minutes per person.

The agency does not guarantee that everyone who wishes to speak will get the opportunity to at the hearing, but will accept written comments from anyone who does not.

Written comments will be accepted through Oct. 31 and may be emailed to R4NPDESComments@epa.gov or mailed to US EPA, NPDES Permitting Section, Water Division, 61 Forsyth Street, SW, Atlanta, GA 30303-8960.

The North Carolina NPDES permit number is NC0026123.

No petroleum sheens or odors were detected last week at the site of former military installations at Buxton Beach when federal, county and National Park Service representatives visited there.

On Thursday, Army Corps of Engineers headquarters and South Atlantic Division officials visited the Buxton FUDS property in Dare County, along with the Savannah District commander, Formerly Used Defense Sites, or FUDS, Program team and Bay West contractors to check out damage from Hurricane Erin, and plan how to best clean up the site. National Park Service officials and members of the Dare County Board of Commissioners also joined the walkthrough.

“We are committed to doing everything we can within our authorities to remove petroleum-contaminated soil and groundwater from the property,” said Col. Ron Sturgeon, Savannah District commander. “This project remains a priority of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Savannah District.”

Officials said that after the storm had passed, about 100 feet of asbestos-cement pipe used for water distribution, storm drains and sewer lines was removed from the site surface and secured for proper disposal. A small remnant of the asbestos pipe remains attached to a sump associated with the former wastewater treatment plant, officials said, and that pipe has been temporarily stabilized and wrapped in place.

In addition to the removal of asbestos pipes as authorized under the FUDS authority because of possible risks, the park service has already moved to clear additional debris left behind by Hurricane Erin, utility workers addressed a downed powerline, and an alternate road is being used to access the site until the county repairs Old Lighthouse Road.

When Hurricane Erin passed by, the team was in the process of awarding a contract for phase two of the interim response action that began Aug. 8.

The team is weighing whether to postpone the comprehensive sampling, because of the interim response action. 

“The comprehensive sampling fieldwork can begin once the Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) is accepted. However, since the recent weather events have created a need for the additional (interim response action) excavations in the project area, that work might hinder sampling efforts,” said Sara Keisler, Savannah District FUDS program manager, in the statement. “Therefore, we’re evaluating the possibility of postponing the sampling efforts, so we can ensure unhindered access to all sampling locations. If we do that, the comprehensive sampling fieldwork won’t start until December or January.” 

Hundreds of gallons of untreated wastewater discharged into the Calabash River in Brunswick County on Monday when a pump station lost power.

Brunswick County Public Utilities discovered the sanitary sewer overflow around 9 p.m. from a manhole near 1232 Riverview Drive in Calabash, according to a public notice.

Utilities staff repaired the pump station that experienced a power failure and recovered standing wastewater by 10:30 p.m.

About 1,100 gallons of untreated wastewater is believed to have reached the Calabash River near 1224 Riverview Dr.

“Downstream sampling and remediation of the affected site has been completed,” the Tuesday notice states. “No action is required by the public at this time. Additional information will be provided if action is necessary.”

BUXTON — A newly emerged area of petroleum pollution on Buxton Beach will be addressed by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-contracted response team, the Corps’ Savannah District announced late Wednesday.

After residents here again reported the presence of fuel sheen and odors, as well as the appearance of long-buried infrastructure and debris on the shoreline after a storm late last week, Col. Ron Sturgeon, the Corps district commander, visited the site Tuesday with Cape Hatteras National Seashore Superintendent Dave Hallac.

“We are committed to the health and safety of the community,” Sturgeon stated in press release Wednesday. “The beach environment is difficult and changes from day-to-day, but we are dedicated to finding the petroleum contamination and removing it.”

On Aug. 1, the National Park Service temporarily closed Old Lighthouse Beach lifeguard area and a 0.3-mile section of beach extending south from the southern end of Buxton village to about 0.4 miles north of Ramp 4, an area adjacent to what is officially known as the Buxton Formerly Used Defense Site.

The U.S. Navy, followed by the Coast Guard, operated bases on Buxton Beach from 1956 until 2010. Buxton Beach Access is at the south end of Old Lighthouse Road.

Hallac said the meeting with Sturgeon and members of the Corps’ response team was “very productive.”

“We had an opportunity to inspect the site and discuss next steps,” he said in an Aug. 5 text, responding to a question from Coastal Review. “They will be providing public information as they continue to evaluate options and advance a plan, but I am confident that they are moving very rapidly, as fast as they can, and are committed to mitigating the current threat to the environment.”

The contamination and debris problem had first revealed itself after a series of coastal storms in late summer 2023. Those storms caused severe erosion along the shoreline at Old Lighthouse Beach, exposing chunks of fuel-soaked peat and large pieces of buried infrastructure left behind from the Navy and Coast Guard bases. As a result, the beach was closed for safety and health reasons from Sept. 1, 2023, to June 12, 2025.

Since 1991, the Corps had been responsible for remediating the former Navy property as one of the Defense Department’s Formerly Used Defense Sites, or FUDS, under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program. Over the years, the program had removed tons of polluted soil and set up numerous monitoring wells.

After the 2023 exposure of petroleum contaminants on the beach, the Corps conducted numerous investigations but was unable to isolate a direct source. Still, the FUDS office took responsibility for removal of tons of soil with evidence of petroleum. Although its authorization does not include removal of buried infrastructure, the Corps’ contractor was permitted to haul away tons of debris, including concrete, pipes, cables and wires, that had to be removed to access the contaminated soil.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard had conducted a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or CERCLA, investigation at the Buxton Beach site. According to an October 2024 press release, the Coast Guard Civil Engineering Unit Cleveland initiated the site investigation in August 2023 to identify any potential contamination resulting from operations at Old Group Cape Hatteras between 1982 and 2013, when the base was abandoned.

The final CERCLA site inspection report, released in August 2024, includes details of vast amounts of herbicides, pesticides, wastewater, petroleum and various chemicals spilled, leaked and deposited at the site over the years, by either, or both, the Navy and the Coast Guard. 

One draft assessment of tests performed in 2011 at the fueling station found certain chemicals, such as PCBs, at levels that were deemed above acceptable for residential or laboratory detection limits but below permissible for commercial/industrial sites.  Other contaminants, such as arsenic and certain metals, were determined to be naturally occurring. Even evidence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, at the site was considered acceptable because it’s normally found in sea spray.

But the passage of time, the overlapping pollutants from both bases, in addition to regulatory complexity, apparently has satisfied the Coast Guard’s responsibility for the current environmental condition, from its point of view.

“In accordance with the U.S. Code and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations the CERCLA investigation sought to determine actionable remediation levels associated with volatile organic compounds, semi-volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, and chlorinated solvents,” the Coast Guard said in an Oct. 4, 2024, press release. “The investigation findings concluded that there are no actionable levels of these contaminants resulting from past Coast Guard operations at the sites.” 

Coast Guard officials did not respond by deadline to an email asking whether the Coast Guard had plans to remove any remaining infrastructure that may be associated with Group Cape Hatteras. Both the Navy and the Coast Guard were obligated to remove all their buildings when they left the site, according to the park service, which owns the land.

Brian Harris, a Buxton resident and a founding member of the Buxton Civic Association, said that the latest petroleum was evident on the beach on the morning of Aug. 1, along with a portion of the remains of what some believe was from the Coast Guard’s wastewater treatment infrastructure. As typically happens on the beach, the exposed pollution and debris was soon recovered by sand, he said, and could be uncovered again at any time.

But unlike the initial incident in 2023, Harris said he has total confidence in the Corps’ FUDS team and Sturgeon, whom he can now call directly to discuss concerns. 

“A year ago, we were screaming and sending emails to all our congressional representatives and senators,” he said. “And we have contacts now.

“The Army Corps of Engineers isn’t going to tell you what they’re doing until they do it,” he continued. “But (Sturgeon) was here, and they’re working on a plan right now.  At this point, it’s light years above where it was last year.”

The Corps’ contracted response-action team will arrive as early as next week, the Corps said in the press release, and will continue to monitor the site conditions to determine the appropriate actions, including containment with oil-absorbent booms.  

“The Savannah District will concurrently mobilize equipment and personnel to excavate and remove petroleum-impacted soil from the beach and dunes,” it said. “These actions will not affect the upcoming petroleum comprehensive soil and groundwater sampling that begins in September/October 2025.”

A handful of coastal communities have been awarded a chunk of state funding to be used for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure improvement projects.

Gov. Josh Stein announced Wednesday an award of more than $204 million in funding for 48 projects that include addressing PFAS and other chemical compounds in drinking water, identifying and replacing lead pipes, and improving resiliency following storms.

“When you turn on the faucet in your home, you shouldn’t have to worry about whether that water is safe for your family,” Stein said in a statement. “These investments will help ensure North Carolinians have access to clean drinking water and will help keep people safe when disaster strikes.”   

The funding is being dispersed to projects across 27 counties, including four along the North Carolina coast.

In Beaufort County, the town of Aurora is receiving more than $3.06 million to replace a force main and rehabilitate a lift station and lift station wells. Belhaven has been awarded more than $4.7 million for wastewater treatment plant improvements. And, Chocowinity will receive more than $4.8 million for water treatment plant and waste discharge improvements.

River Bend in Craven County is set to get $6.3 million in drinking water state revolving funds for phase II drinking water improvements.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority in New Hanover County has been awarded $35 million to replace its southside wastewater treatment plant.

And, Carolina Water Service, Inc. will receive $5.5 million for six projects focusing on PFAS, lead service line identification and water lines across multiple counties, including Pender.

“This funding will address aging infrastructure and improve public health for communities large and small,” N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Reid Wilson said in a statement.

More than 130 applications requesting $1.57 billion in funding were reviewed by the agency’s Division of Water Infrastructure.

The projects that were selected were approved by the State Water Infrastructure Authority, an independent body responsible for awarding federal and state funding for water infrastructure projects, during its July 16 meeting.

Funds awarded this month came from the State Revolving Funds, which are funded by federal capitalization grants and revolving loan repayments and provide low-interest loans that may be partially forgiven for drinking water and wastewater projects, according to a release.

Funding rounds for Fall 2025 begin July 29 and applications are due by 5 p.m. Sept. 30. Funds for this round will come from programs to include evaluating options to address PFAS contamination, identifying and replacing lead service lines, and Viable Utility Reserve grants. 

The division is hosting in-person funding application training for the fall 2025 funding round in Clyde, Hickory, Boone, Fayetteville, Winterville, and Research Triangle Park/Durham. A virtual option will also be available as well as a recording of the training, which will be posted on the division’s training webpage.

When contractors began cleaning up debris from the grounds of a former wood treatment plant in Navassa last year, they expected they’d be removing old railroad ties, pieces of treated wood and tires.

“We didn’t expect to see a tank there,” Ngozi Ibe said of the underground storage vessel at the property.

The same goes for other unexpected debris contractors found in a section of the former Kerr-McGee federal Superfund site designated as Operable Unit 2, Ibe, senior project manager and environmental justice specialist who manages the Multistate Trust site in Navassa, said in a Thursday night community meeting.

“We just found an extensive amount of material out there,” she said. “It was so much more than we had expected to encounter when we originally planned the work.”

As contractors unearthed the tank, which contained an unknown fluid, bricks coated in an oily sheen, and additional treated timber they did not anticipate finding in the area, it became clear more time would be needed to clean Operable Unit 2, or OU2.

The next round of cleanup is not expected to begin until sometime this fall, with work anticipated to go on for anywhere from six to eight weeks, Ibe said.

OU2 is a 16-acre section of the original 200-acre site where wood was treated for more than 40 years before operations permanently closed in the mid-1970s.

Operations on the land left a legacy of contamination of creosote, a gummy, tar-like substance used to treat wood used for railroad ties and utility poles.

The land was added to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priorities List of federal Superfund sites in 2010.

In order to evaluate the land and get an understanding of the extent of contamination on it to help determine how it may be used in the future, the EPA divided the property into operable units.

The site is comprised of five units, including a 20-acre tract where untreated wood was stored. That unit, or OU1, was removed from the EPA’s National Priorities list in 2021. There are no restrictions on future development of this parcel.

In April 2024, contractors began cleaning up OU2, where both treated and untreated wood were stored, by excavating a little more than 1.5 acres of surface soils contaminated with levels of dioxin and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons considered to pose an unacceptable risk to people and the environment.

Contractors also removed old tires, treated timber, slabs of concrete and other debris discovered through an initial investigation of the unit.

Workers dug down anywhere from one to two feet, in general, to remove contaminated soil. The excavated soil has been placed on temporary storage sites, lined and covered, in Operable Unit 4.

Contaminated soils removed from OU2 and stockpiled in OU4 are being managed and inspected no less frequently than monthly, as well as after every rainfall.

Backfill suitable for residential use has been injected into the trenches dug to remove the contaminated soil from OU2 and vegetation planted on those areas to prevent erosion and runoff.

Wells have been dug in the unit so officials can monitor groundwater.

OU4, the pond and process area of the former wood-treatment plant site, spans about 32 acres.

The EPA has divided OU4 into two sections: north and south.

Erik Spalvins, EPA remedial project manager, said Thursday night that the northern section of OU4 does not have groundwater contamination or creosote and that officials will decide how to address the two stockpiles from OU2.

There is groundwater contamination in the southern section of OU4. And, creosote contamination has been found as deep as 70 feet below the ground’s surface.

Spalvins said he hopes the EPA is ready to issue a proposed plan to address remediation in OU4 in August. The plan, which will be discussed at a public meeting, will go out for public comment on how residents in the area would like to see than land used.

“What we’re trying to do is provide as much flexibility in our decision-making process so that we don’t tie our hands in the future,” Spalvins said. “So, specifically in the feasibility study, we looked at a residential option and industrial commercial option and we are going to put it out for public comment.”

A feasibility study is currently underway for Operable Unit 3, or the marsh area of the site. Spalvins said the hope is that a draft proposed plan for that unit will be released sometime early next year.

The Multistate Trust plans to donate about 30 acres that was not contaminated for the proposed Moze Heritage Center and Nature Park, dedicated to preserving the stories of enslaved Africans who worked the rice plantations along river banks in southeastern North Carolina.

Claire Morgan, director of community partnerships and redevelopment and senior attorney with the Greenfield Environmental Trust Group, explained Thursday night that the 30 acres donated to the town will be included in a conservation easement to ensure it is used for the public good.

The trust has been working with the North Carolina Coastal land Trust to serve as the easement holder, but the town will own the land.

The public can hear an update on the work taking place to clean up the former Buxton Naval Facility site during the next Restoration Advisory Board meeting.

Doors open to the public at 5:15 p.m. and the meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, July 17, in the Cape Hatteras Anglers Club, 47231 Light Plant Road, Buxton.

The public will be able to ask questions the last 15 minutes of the meeting, starting at 7:15 p.m. People from the community are encouraged to submit questions to CESAS-FUDS@usace.army.mil.

Now called the Buxton Formerly Used Defense Site, the area around the Buxton beach access on Hatteras Island was a base for both Navy and Coast Guard operations from 1956 until 2010, when it was returned to the National Park Service. The Formerly Used Defense Sites Program manages the environmental restoration, or cleanup, of properties formerly owned or occupied by the U.S. Defense Department.

Back on Sept. 1, 2023, officials with the Cape Hatteras National Seashore announced that the beach beside the former military site had eroded, uncovering potentially hazardous infrastructure associated with the military’s previous use. This was after surfers and visitors reported a strong smell of petroleum.

Gayle Garland, project manager of the Buxton FUDS property for the Army Corps of Engineers, is to provide an update about the current property environmental restoration projects during the meeting.  

The Corps said last fall that it had removed nearly 4,600 cubic yards of petroleum-laced soil; nearly 100,000 gallons of petroleum-contaminated water; 278,000 pounds of concrete; 1,153 feet of pipe; and 1,088 feet of metal cable and wire.

The section of beach was closed in 2023 because of health and safety concerns related to petroleum contamination and potentially hazardous remnant military infrastructure, until it reopened in June.

This is the second meeting of the advisory board that was selected March 25. The first meeting was April 10. The board does not make decisions, but allows for the community to take part in the cleanup process.

The state commission that adopts rules to protect natural resources is expected to hear this week updates on existing measures to improve air and water quality, but the bulk of the July 9-10 meeting will concentrate on the mandated periodic review process for several existing rules.

The Environmental Management Commission Committee meetings are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday and the full commission is to meet at 9 a.m. Thursday, both in the Archdale Building in Raleigh.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality acts as staff and enforces rules for the commission. Meeting agendas and supporting documents, as well as steps to join the meeting virtually or by phone can be found on the commission’s website. 

When the full commission meets Thursday, members are to decide on moving through the multiple steps required to satisfy a general statute that requires existing state rules be reviewed every 10 years.

The rules under review include how the Environmental Management Commission is organized, water resources programs, and streams and wetlands mitigation. The full commission is also to hear an update on the Tar-Pamlico Wastewater Discharge Requirements Rule and progress on a nutrient criteria development plan.

Information on recent Environmental Protection Agency actions is to be delivered during committee meetings.

During the air quality committee meeting at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Division of Air Quality Director Mike Abraczinskas is to give an overview of recent EPA actions relating to federal air quality regulations.

The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, committee is expected to review and discuss at its 12:30 p.m. Wednesday meeting the existing agreement between the state and the EPA on the permitting program.

On the state level, during the 10:45 a.m. groundwater and waste management committee meeting, DEQ staff will review the “2024-2034 NC Solid Waste and Materials Management Plan,” which assesses the status of solid waste and materials management in the state.

Guest Commentary

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

Toxic exposure is a common occurrence in the military, affecting thousands of veterans, many years after service. Thus, providing compensation and free healthcare is a federal obligation to those who have served their country. Nevertheless, up to 2022, only a few diseases were presumed to be connected with military operations.

For most veterans, receiving compensation meant undergoing an extensive bureaucratic process to demonstrate exposure and prove causality in the development of their condition. With the implementation of the PACT Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recognized more than 20 diseases as presumably caused by toxic exposure during service. However, while this list is constantly expanding, the list of toxic agents for which a presumption of causality exists under the PACT Act remained the same. This leads to paradoxical situations, where some veterans receive compensation while others still need to prove causality, albeit these people suffer from the same conditions.

VOCs’ toxicity and military exposure

Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs, are among the toxic agents that are only partially recognized by the PACT Act. These chemicals are common in industrial solvents, degreasers, and cleaners, as well as jet fuel, adhesives, and certain paints and coatings. Given their properties, VOCs such as trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE) were extensively used by the U.S. military for decades in equipment maintenance, aircraft cleaning, and parts degreasing.

Although very efficient in these operations, VOCs quickly turn from liquids or solids into vapor, leading to a high probability of being inhaled by personnel operating with these substances. TCE and PCE are classified as chlorinated solvents, widely used in degreasing and cleaning metal parts. These substances present significant risks not only for military staff using them, but also for their families and local communities due to improper storage and leakage in and around military sites.

There is a strong body of literature built from epidemiological studies and research on human and animal models demonstrating that TCE has carcinogenic effects in various tissues, including kidneys, lungs, liver, testicles, and stomach. These effects are observed either as a result of ingestion or inhalation. Noncarcinogenic effects have also been reported for TCE, with serious effects in neural and cardiac tissue. Similar effects are observed in PCE exposure, indicating a strong potential for carcinogenic effects. Notably, PCE’s impact on neural tissue demonstrates stronger neurotoxicity, especially in children, where exposure is associated with reduced cognitive capacity.

To date, the Department of Defense (DoD) recognizes contamination with VOCs, for which compensation is provided, only in relation to contamination from Agent Orange, a pesticide used in Vietnam, burn pits, and Camp Lejeune. Although various other military bases are recognized to have VOCs pollution, affecting both veterans and their families, these areas are not considered part of presumptive toxic contact. Pressure from the public and extensive investigations carried out by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) forced the DoD to recognize Camp Lejeune as a site of exposure to dangerous VOCs, including TCE and PCE. Similar pressure may thus be necessary to have all sites recognized by expanding the PACT Act list of toxic agents impacting veterans for years on end.

Exposure in North Carolina veterans

More than 620.000 veterans live in North Carolina and many of them have been directly impacted by VOCs exposure while working for the military. Camp Lejeune is now a well-known documented site where veterans and their families suffered long-term health effects due to prolonged exposure to toxic chemicals in the water supply. At the time when contamination was documented here, increased media attention and pressure from the civic society led to the creation of a compensation fund for those affected. Today, exposure at Camp Lejeune is valid for automatic compensation under the PACT Act.

While support is offered for those affected at this site, many other locations in North Carolina are known to be contaminated. For example, the Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point is currently under monitoring by the EPA, while PFAS levels here measured in 2024 exceed EPA’s new recommended limits of 4 parts per trillion in drinking water more than three times. Despite clear evidence of environmental risk, sites such as these remain excluded from presumptive coverage and lack VOCs monitoring and impact assessments. 

VA pressures, funding, procedural inconsistencies

Since 2022, the VA has processed over 1.7 million claims and granted more than 6.8 billion in compensation to veterans and their families. The costs of this program are therefore substantial. Any new agent introduced on the toxic list will likely increase these costs. Yet for any agent dismissed, thousands of veterans’ claims are denied, even following long battles to demonstrate causality. This is far from a just representation of how the VA’s mission aligns with supporting and protecting former military personnel.

Recognizing the full scope of toxic exposures, including compounds such as TCE and PCE, is essential to ensuring equitable access to benefits for all veterans and removing inconsistencies from this system. With the EPA’s recent ban on TCE and PCE, the continued lack of recognition by the DoD may become increasingly difficult to justify. As scientific evidence continues to demonstrate the health risks associated with VOCs, expanding the list of recognized agents would represent a necessary and evidence-based step toward improving the integrity and fairness of the veterans’ compensation system.

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

North Carolinians whose raw drinking water sources are contaminated with chemical compounds will have to wait at least another two months before proposed rules establishing monitoring requirements for dischargers go out for public comment.

The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission’s Water Quality Committee unanimously voted earlier this week to wait to present to the full commission draft rules for monitoring and minimizing discharges of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and 1,4-dioxane into the state’s surface waters.

Committee members said Wednesday that while they had hoped to present the draft rules to the commission this month, the N.C. Office of State Budget and Management, or OSBM, needs more time to review and approve regulatory impact analyses of those proposed rules. A regulatory impact analysis, or RIA, is an evaluation of the potential costs and benefits associated with a proposed regulation.

“Only yesterday morning did the department receive comments from OSBM on PFAS and didn’t receive anything yet on 1,4,” Committee Chair Steve Keen said Wednesday afternoon. “Though this was launched to the public through the (Department of Environmental Quality) website two weeks ago, nothing from OSBM until yesterday.”

Committee Vice Chair Michael Ellison alluded to staffing issues at DEQ as one possible reason for the lag in the proposed rules being ready.

“We have heard that some of the economic analysis required for an RIA has been impeded because the department lack sufficient staff trained in economics and that there has been an economist on maternity leave, all of which is fine and wonderful, but this has been going on for over a year,” Ellison said.

Ellison suggested the department turn to universities in the state for help.

“We have had presentation after presentation about the near ubiquitous nature of PFAS in our surface waters statewide and we know they’re there, but we really don’t know all the places that they’re coming from other than Chemours, and we don’t know what tools are available,” he said. “And this draft rule was a step, a critical step, toward this committee, and ultimately the full commission, developing a rule to protect the health and safety and environment of North Carolina and I would hope that the department takes this continuation and makes good use of the time before our next meeting and can get the RIA approved.”

The draft rule for monitoring and minimalizing PFAS targets three chemical compounds: PFOS, PFOA, which are classified as likely carcinogens, and GenX, a compound specific to Chemours Fayetteville Works plant in Bladen County.

The chemical manufacturing facility knowingly emitted GenX and a host of other PFAS into the environment, including the Cape Fear River, the ground and air for decades.

But it is hardly the only industrial polluter discharging such chemical compounds into the environment in North Carolina.

Hundreds of industries in the state pay wastewater treatment plants to take their industrial waste. Those treatment plants do not remove PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, which the Environmental Protection Agency also classifies as a likely carcinogen, before discharging their effluent into the environment, including waterways that are the raw drinking water sources for hundreds of thousands of residents.

Downstream drinking water utilities were notified one week ago that elevated levels of 1,4-dixoane had been discharged from the Asheboro Wastewater Treatment Plant into Hasketts Creek, which drains into the Deep River in the Cape Fear River Basin.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, Brunswick County, Fayetteville Public Works Commission and the city of Sandford were notified May 3 that the samples the plant collected April 25 from discharge detected a concentration of 826 parts per billion or ppb, according to a DEQ release. The state Division of Water Resources collected a sample that same day with results detecting a concentration of 730 ppb.

“DEQ, using EPA toxicity calculations for lifetime exposure, has determined that the average monthly 1,4-dioxane concentration protective of downstream water supplies is about 22 ppb for the Asheboro discharge,” the release states.

There is growing public outcry among residents, local governments and water utilities downstream of industrial polluters calling for state regulations to stop discharges at the source.

Critics of the proposed rules argue they do not require industries to reduce their PFAS discharges.

During the Water Quality Committee meeting, Keen said the initial game plan was “to create a narrative” on how the state can identify dischargers, what those dischargers are doing, and how they’re doing it, “and minimize it, if not get rid of it.”

“But the foundation was to start by monitoring and minimizing it,” he said. “That was the motion by this committee and that’s where we began officially. We want to get the right numbers for all of the river basins. We want to know what those are. Now, how do we do it? We have to go through OSBM. We have to get the regulatory impact analysis that has the fiscal note and a lot of things tied to it that’s going to give us answers.”

DEQ’s Division of Water Resources Director Richard Rogers reiterated that staff was under a tight deadline get the rules drafted.

“We will continue to work and hope we can continue to work cooperatively with the committee in this process,” he said.

In comments made early in the full commission’s Thursday meeting, Chair JD Solomon explained to the board that the draft rules were not ready to be put to a vote to go out for public comment because of the RIA.

“Regardless of what did last year or what we’re doing this year, we have to get the cost benefit right,” he said. “I will say everybody did work on it. It is what it is and we just have to resolve to come back in July with the fiscal notes in place and have those debates and whatnot.”

The full commission’s next scheduled meeting is July 10. Committees meet one day prior to the commission.

In an update to the Groundwater and Waste Management Committee on Wednesday morning, DEQ Environmental Program Analyst Jared Wilson said that more than 9,000 homes are expected to be added to those eligible for private water well testing for PFAS.

Well testing has expanded into 10 counties in the vicinity and downstream of Chemours’ plant.

“To date we have not found the edge of contamination,” Wilson said.

State Division of Waste Management Director Michael Scott told committee members that decades of air emissions of PFAS from the Chemours plant infiltrated the ground and migrated to private drinking water wells more than 30 miles away.

“How many plumes do you have in North Carolina that are 35 miles wide?” Solomon asked.

“One,” Scott answered.

Guest Commentary

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

The Outer Banks is known for its beautiful coastline and rich ecosystems, drawing millions of visitors each year. Millions of dollars in tax and business revenue are collected as a result. Unfortunately, beach erosion poses a significant challenge to homeowners, business owners and vacationers along the barrier islands, particularly those in Rodanthe. Last year, the community lost seven oceanfront homes, a record high and an indicator of a worsening problem.

Beach erosion, which has occurred for millions of years, is the defined result of changing sea levels, currents, wind patterns, and severe weather events. In fact, the Outer Banks would not exist if not for this natural process. However, erosion is consuming as much as 15 feet of shoreline each year along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

To preserve structures in place, federal, state, and local governments have launched coordinated responses, investing heavily in beach nourishment, inlet relocation, and terminal groin projects in a race against the sea. To put the severity of this issue into perspective, a 2020 review by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s (NC DEQ) Division of Coastal Management found that nearly 9,000 oceanfront structures are at risk.

Despite the growing problem, many property owners are forced to wait until their home collapses before they can file a claim through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Shoreline erosion damages are excluded from standard homeowners’ insurance, and the NFIP only covers flood-related damages, creating confusion and prohibiting proactive planning.

That is why I introduced the Preventing Environmental Hazards Act, a commonsense bill to address the unfortunate reality of beach erosion coastal homeowners face. The bipartisan legislation would authorize NFIP compensation for structures condemned due to chronic erosion or unusual flooding and allow advance payouts for demolition or relocation of up to 40% of the home’s value, capped at $250,000 – the same terms as current NFIP policy. The purpose here is to use the money to remove the structure before it collapses, rather than wait until it creates an environmental disaster.

As erosion continues to accelerate, thousands of homes across the Outer Banks are at severe risk of being swept away by the sea. Additionally, when a home collapses, debris can spread up to fifteen miles along the coast, contaminating groundwater through failing septic systems, harming aquatic species, shorebirds, and their habitats, posing safety risks to beach visitors, and creating other serious environmental hazards. Our coastal communities cannot afford a delay any longer for proactive solutions to address these challenges.

Since coming to Congress, I have worked tirelessly to address the challenges created by our shifting shoreline, meeting regularly with local officials, representatives from NC DEQ, and the National Park Service. It is a privilege and a top priority of mine to secure federal funding to help cover the cost of projects to protect our beach communities. However, mitigation programs intended to protect threatened homes are often slow, suboptimal, and difficult to access. Advance NFIP payouts will empower homeowners by providing flexibility to prepare for or recover from natural disasters while at the same time mitigating risks to beachgoers and mariners.

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

Debbie Swick has been waging a single-handed campaign describing how dangerous a balloon is after it has been released.

“I promise you, with every fiber of my being, helium balloons do not go to heaven,” she said and suggested alternatives.

“Blow bubbles, plant a tree, scatter wildflower seeds,” the Southern Shores resident continued.

“There’s so many other things that you can do besides releasing balloons,” adding, “I would not tell people not to celebrate. I would not tell people not to mourn those that have passed on.”

For over a year, Swick has been, in her words, “a one-woman crusader.”

She describes herself as a “devout Christian” who believes “this is God’s planet, and we’re just visitors here, and let’s leave it a little better than we found it.”

Something happened to her one morning over a year ago when “God spoke to me that morning when I watched this balloon release on TV.”

Since then, she has been indefatigable, writing letters to every county manager and board in the state, innumerable municipalities, visiting counties and towns to talk about the dangers of balloons. And learning some things along the way.

She describes the impact on marine animals and wildlife, including the 2023 death of a juvenile Gervais’ beaked whale beached on Emerald Isle. The whale starved to death after a plastic balloon became trapped in its digestive tract.

“I tell everybody, speak to our commercial fishermen, ask anybody that goes out in the ocean and ask them how many balloons they encounter. It’s staggering,” Swick said.

Yet after speaking to Camden County commissioners, a new danger emerged, telling Coastal Review that a commissioner, “was saying how a farmer was complaining that he wrapped (a balloon) around his combine and broke this very expensive piece of equipment.”

And now, after months of lobbying, letter writing, cajoling and presentations, it may be that her efforts will be rewarded.

North Carolina Senate Bill 20, “An Act to Prohibit Certain Mass Balloon Releases,” filed Jan. 29, 2025, currently is in the senate’s rules and operations committee.

The bill’s primary sponsor, Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, told Coastal Review that there is “unanimous support on both sides of the aisle, both chambers, manufacturers, retailers, associations, everyone has come out in support of it.”

Hanig explained early this month that the bill would likely to stay in committee as the senate worked on their version of the budget, which was introduced April 17.

“We’ve been dealing with the budget process, so I’m hoping that over the next couple of weeks, things will start getting pulled out of Rules and start moving to committees,” Hanig said.

Cosponsored by Sen. Gale Adcock, D-Wake, and Woodson Bradley, D-Mecklenburg, the bill does appear to have the bipartisan support Hanig touted.

Adcock, Hanig said, “was a senator I worked with on several piece of legislation. We served together in the House. We have a great relationship. And Woodson Bradley, she’s new this year, she said she wanted to be on (the bill).”

Underscoring the support for the bill, Adcock wrote in an email that “I heard from a dozen or so of (her district’s) constituents after the bill was filed, and after I had signed on to the bill.”

The bill is short, less than 250 words, and straightforward in its language.

“The General Assembly finds that the release into the atmosphere of balloons inflated with lighter-than-air gases poses a harm to the scenic beauty of the State and a danger and nuisance to wildlife and marine animals,” the bill reads.

The bill includes fines for releasing balloons, and the fines can be substantial at $250 per balloon.

For Swick, that’s important. Her hope is that people will look at that and realize, “I’m not even going to chance it, because at $250 per balloon,” she said. “Four balloons is $1,000. I don’t have that kind of money to part with.”

As she continues to work to bring awareness to the issue, Swick said she has found a wide spectrum of interests supporting her efforts, including the Surfrider Foundation, and the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review.

“We have the CRC, which is the Coalition for Responsible celebrations, who works directly with Dollar Tree and Party City,” she said.

Even the balloon industry “has taken on a responsible attitude about balloons. They understand their negative impact on the environment, so they’re joining with groups like me to educate and say, ‘Listen, enjoy your balloons, but dispose of them responsibly.’”

That the legislation is enjoying bipartisan support is, to Swick, part of the backing she has seen as she has worked on the issue.

“We waste so much time fighting each other,” she said. “This is one of those things where it shouldn’t be, ‘your side, my side.’ This is for the good of all people and all things living,” she said.

RALEIGH — Historian David Cecelski didn’t mask the grief he felt while telling the “gruesome stories” littering eastern North Carolina’s past, or the mounting dread that those days will return and put the coast’s natural resources at risk of “plunder, pillaging and poisoning.”

“This may not be the kind of keynote address that you’re used to,” the mild-mannered Carteret County native told a crowd of about 150 people during the first morning of the 2025 Coastal Summit. “I’m an historian after all, a storyteller at heart, and you have to expect that I’m going to tell some stories. I’m also going to talk about our coastal history, and how we got here, and what we might learn from the past that might help guide us today.”

The April 8-9 summit, titled “Ripple Effect: Enhancing Oysters, Salt Marsh and Water Quality Together,” was organized by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review. The biennial event brought together elected officials, representatives from local, state and federal governments, conservation organizations, researchers and others invested in maintaining a healthy coast.

Board member for the nonprofit organization Allison Besch introduced Cecelski, who “divides his time between two places that he loves deeply”: Durham, and his ancestral home in Carteret County. A longtime contributor to Coastal Review, the historian has written several award-winning books and hundreds of articles about the history, culture and politics of the North Carolina coast.

“David’s writing focuses passionately on telling stories from his little corner of the world that emanates American history more broadly,” Besch said as she described his work.

Cecelski began his address, “Our Coastal Heritage: Past, Present and Future” with an illustration of the mullet fishing camp on Shackleford Banks where his cousins worked five generations ago. He also displayed photos of himself as a young boy on the family farm that bumps up to the Harlowe Canal west of Beaufort.

“When I stay at the house, like I did the other night, I sleep in the bedroom where my mother was born, and her father and his father and his father,” Cecelski said. “And in our neighborhood, people call our house ‘the new house’ because what they call the family homeplace is about a half-mile down the road on my cousin Henry’s land.”

Cecelski said that when his mother was born in the late 1920s, a New Bedford, Massachusetts, company was still trapping bottlenose dolphins in giant haul seines and slaughtering hundreds and sometimes thousands of them every year on the beach at Hatteras Island.

“The islanders would shut their windows so they would not have to hear the cry of the dolphins on the beach at night. The last haul of the day, they often didn’t have a chance to process so they would leave them alive,” he continued. “When they were old men, and I would go and talk with them, local fishermen who were hired to catch and butcher the dolphins would say they still had nightmares about what they had had to do on those beaches.”

When his grandfather was a young man, New York millinery companies, or ladies’ hatmakers, “were still paying the hunters at Cape Lookout to surround nesting colonies of seabirds and marsh birds — royal turns, oystercatchers, piping clovers, sanderlings, herons, egrets, among others,” he said. The hunters would wait until the eggs started hatching, because that was when the birds were least likely to flee, and then they would start shooting, sometimes killing 10,000,15,000, 20,000, 25,000 birds in a single day.

A century ago, the swans and snow geese did not come for Lake Mattamuskeet, and less than a century ago, sea turtles were being shipped in tin cans to four-star restaurants in New York City. A pulp mill in 1937, “without breaking any laws, began dumping untreated sulfur dioxide into the Roanoke River at a site 4 miles upriver of Plymouth. By the start of the Second World War, that mill’s waste had destroyed America’s largest and oldest herring fisheries, dating back at that site two centuries,” Cecelski continued.

And a century ago, one of North America’s great wetlands that covered hundreds of thousands of acres north and west of the Pongo River disappeared. “It was clear-cut, drained and its waters channeled into the Pamlico River. If there is an acre of it left, I have not found it. It’s ancient white cedar forest. It’s cypress glades and the entire body of the oyster grounds of the upper Pamlico River. All gone,” Cecelski said.

“When it comes to that devastating era in the history of the North Carolina coast, I’m afraid I could go on and on and on,” but everything that is loved about the state’s coast today has come about because of recognizing that path couldn’t continue, he said.

“We learned the hard way that the strength of our coastal communities, strength of our coastal families, the strength of our coastal economy, and the strength of the kind of coastal heritage that I grew up in — our traditions of fishing, of boatbuilding, of living off the land and the water, of oyster roasts and shrimp boils, of pilgrimages to the shore to restore our souls — we learned that they are all as entwined as anything can be with the health of our coastal waters, our coastal wetlands, our fields and forests,” Cecelski continued. “And we learned that we have to work together if we want to keep the North Carolina coast the kind of place that our children and grandchildren will hold as tightly in their hearts as we hold it in our hearts.”

Even though progress has been made over the last century with environmental laws and conservation efforts, “we also know that in a lot of ways, we have just got started, and I know when we see what’s going on in the country now, that things look bleak for much of what draws us and people from around the world to our shores,” he said, and the work taking place to care for the coast may be at risk.

“I know — I’m not naming names — that there are people in high office now who act as if, well, as if they never walked down the Kure Beach fishing pier on a Friday night in the autumn when the spots and bluefish are running and seeing the joy in the children’s faces and how nobody is a stranger and everybody’s helping everybody, and how much it means to all our state’s citizens to be there by the sea,” he said. “And they act as if they’ve never walked the shores of Cape Lookout when the sea is phosphorescent, the dolphins are playing in the waves and the fish are biting, and they act as if they’ve never traipsed along the edges of Currituck Sound and felt the beauty of the marshes stir their soul.”

The shackling of the Environmental Protection Agency “alone foreshadows the breathtaking descent back into the worst days of our coastal past, when our estuaries, our beaches, our fisheries and the sources of our drinking water were a free-for-all, open to plunder, pillaging and poisoning,” he said.

“I wish I had more words of comfort for you, but we all know the road ahead is not going to be easy,” Cecelski said, reminding the audience that the work of organizations like the Coastal Federation and its partners “will never, ever be greater than it is at this moment in our history.”

He closed by telling a story about how, in the Coastal Federation’s infancy, its founder, Todd Miller, recruited Cecelski as the first volunteer.

“I think that I was invited here today, hopefully not just to tell gruesome stories, but I think I was invited here because of my historical work on the North Carolina coast,” he said.

It was the early 1980s and Miller convinced Cecelski to spend a year in Swan Quarter spreading the word about a proposed massive strip-mining project.

“They wanted to mine the peat. A large, multibillion-dollar, extremely well-connected group of investors was planning to strip mine hundreds of thousands of acres of coastal wetlands stretching across Dare, Hyde, Tyrrell, Beaufort and Washington counties,” he said.

Cecelski continued that when he first arrived, he rarely met anyone who knew about the proposed plan and on the few occasions he did, they realized the project would leave their home a wasteland and devastate the region’s oyster beds and fishing grounds.

“Past experience had led them to conclude that nobody cared what they had to say, that nobody would listen to them, and there was nothing they could do about it, because it had always been that way,” he said.

His job was “a very small part of the puzzle” to let people know what was happening, and help their voices be heard.

“At that moment, I would not have bet five bucks on the chance of our success. Everything — money, power, time — was against us, but little by little, people of every background, every race, every political party and every little village, began to speak up. Hope flickered,” he said. People began to come together and believed they could make a difference, and in the end, the people of the North Carolina coast prevailed.

Though Cecelski was young at the time, he said the experience taught him that even when it looks bleak and “if we don’t give up hope, if we hold on to one another, if we look past our differences to what we hold in common, good things will happen, and sometimes even a miracle or two, even in the darkest of times.”

Cecelski said he knows he’s a terribly old-fashioned person and out of step with much of modern times.

“I still believe in the golden rule that we should treat other people the way that we would want them to treat us. I still believe what I was taught in Sunday school, that we are called to be good stewards of God’s creation and good caretakers of our lands and waters and the creatures thereof,” he said. “I still believe, and I will always believe, what I learned growing up on the North Carolina coast, that a neighbor is a neighbor is a neighbor, and we are all in this together. And I believe with all my heart that there are some things worth fighting for, and I believe that the North Carolina coast is one of them.”

The chemical manufacturing company that has publicly touted its products, business strategies and chemistries in ad campaigns aimed at polishing its image will further harm North Carolinians if it is successful in keeping thousands of pages of documents sealed in court, environmental organizations argue.

The Southern Environmental Law Center on Monday filed a court motion to intervene in a case brought against Chemours and its predecessor company DuPont, attorneys for which have asked the court to keep up to 21,000 pages of documents under seal.

Those documents, SELC argues in its motion, “will help communities understand the harm the facility has caused, and will continue to cause, to their own health, their property values, and even the lives of future generations.”

The motion was filed on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, and the Environmental Justice Community Action Network in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

In February, attorneys for Chemours and DuPont requested the court keep from public view what they say are mostly internal communications between company employees about “non-public facts” that pertain, in part, to chemical production and is therefore “competitively sensitive.”

An attorney with Brooks Pierce Law Firm, which represents public utilities and local governments downstream of Chemours’ Bladen County plant, told Coastal Review last month that many of the documents in question are already on public record.

Brooks Pierce was expected on Monday to respond to the companies’ motion to keep the documents under seal. A lawyer with the firm did not respond to a request for comment by the time of this publication.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, Brunswick County, Lower Cape Fear Water & Sewer Authority and Wrightsville Beach in October 2017 sued the companies to recover costs and damages associated with Fayetteville Works’ plant’s discharges of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, for decades into the Cape Fear River, the drinking water supply for tens of thousands of residents in the region.

PFAS are a group of more than 14,000 chemicals used in everyday consumer products including food containers, stain-resistant carpet and water-repellant gear. These human-made chemical compounds are persistent in the environment and have been found to accumulate in people and animals. Exposure to these substances has been linked to weakened immune function, reproductive and developmental issues and increased risk of some cancers.

“After intentionally hiding their toxic PFAS pollution for decades, Chemours and DuPont now want to conceal essential information that directly affects the lives of half-a-million people,” SELC Senior Attorney Jean Zhuang said in a release Monday. “And Chemours has the audacity to try to hide thousands of pages of information as the company plans to expand its PFAS manufacturing operations. After defiling these communities’ drinking water, air, soil and food for years, Chemours has no right to hide information about its toxic pollution yet ask the public to trust that it won’t harm North Carolina families again.”

In 2022, five years after the public first learned that Chemours had been knowingly discharging PFAS directly into the Cape Fear River for decades, the company announced plans to expand its monomers and Nafion production facilities at the Fayetteville Works plant.

As part of a 2019 consent order with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and Cape Fear River Watch, Chemours has taken steps to reduce its emissions of PFAS into the Cape Fear, the ground and the air. That agreement also deems the company responsible for overseeing the testing of thousands of private water wells in the region and providing a means of uncontaminated drinking water to households with private wells that contain elevated levels of PFAS.

But the brunt of costs associated with removing PFAS from raw water sources ultimately falls on the downstream public utilities that provide drinking water to thousands of customers in the region, including Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties.

“The fact that Chemours and DuPont are trying to hide from the public eye 20,000 pages of documents about their companies’ facility and its pollution is almost comically transparent, if it weren’t so dangerous and sinister; and this attempt, in and of itself, should be considered profound proof that this information needs to see the light of day, especially considering Chemours is actively seeking to expand PFAS production at the site,” Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent said in an email.

Coastal Federation Executive Director Braxton Davis said the public, “which has suffered the effects of this pollution, has a right to review documents that may shed more light on the scope and scale of contamination and the company’s response.”

In its motion to intervene, the SELC lists several categories of documents Chemours and DuPont want to keep under seal, including research into toxicological data, communications about product safety and toxicity studies, environmental assessment and toxicology research, and a list of chemical compounds associated with the Bladen County plant.

“The companies’ own motion admits that the documents are littered with information on Chemours’ and DuPont’s PFAS pollution, sampling data, air and wastewater treatment options, toxicology and health impacts associated with PFAS, environmental and human health concerns, and the public’s exposure to their toxic chemicals,” the motion states. “These and other documents are necessary for the public to understand the impacts to their own health and property values and the potential for subsequent harm from the companies’ past, current, and future air, water, and soil pollution.”

The motion goes on to say that the public “has access to many of the categories of information in the companies’ documents – in large part because the companies have touted their PFAS chemistries, products, and business strategies in public forums as a means of broadcasting their goodwill.”

Late last month, Clean Cape Fear posted an online petition for members of the community to sign in support of unsealing the documents. As of Monday afternoon, more than 1,700 signatures had been collected.

North Carolina’s roads are about to get a spring cleaning and state transportation officials say it’s not just the pollen getting swept away.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Spring Litter Sweep kicks off Saturday and runs through April 26. This biannual cleanup event invites residents across the state to bag litter and beautify roadsides, all while helping protect North Carolina’s natural charm.

Every spring and fall, the Litter Sweep rallies volunteers to roll up their sleeves, grab some gloves, and remove roadside trash.

“We’re excited to see volunteers out there starting Saturday and throughout the entire sweep,” said Jeremy Goodwin, NCDOT’s roadside environmental engineer, in a news release. “Their hard work ensures our roadsides stay clean and welcoming for everyone. Every bag of litter picked up is a win for our state. These folks aren’t just cleaning up, they’re showing pride in their communities and making North Carolina safer and more beautiful for everyone.”

NCDOT maintenance crews will also be doing their part, collecting litter and hauling away filled bags, officials said.

Volunteers can request free cleanup supplies, including gloves, safety vests and trash bags, from their local NCDOT county maintenance office.

Joining the Litter Sweep is easy, officials said. Just bring a good attitude, a love for clean communities and a strong dislike for roadside clutter.

Officials asked volunteers to share their cleanup efforts on social media using the hashtag #LitterSweepNC.

The Coastal Studies Institute is partnering with the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau to host a screening of the award-winning film, “The Cigarette Surfboard,” which uses surfing as a vehicle for a message about protecting the marine environment.

The screening, part of the institute’s monthly “Science on the Sound” lecture series, is set for 6 p.m. April 17 at the Pioneer Theater in Manteo. A pre-screening reception is set for 5 p.m. in the Pioneer Theater courtyard and is to feature a food truck and beverages available for purchase.

The lecture series brings together perspectives from across the state and highlights coastal topics in North Carolina and beyond. 

Admission is free, but seating is limited, and attendees must register in advance.

“The Cigarette Surfboard,” according to the institute’s announcement, “takes viewers around the world on a surfboard built from cigarette butts to explore the importance of the ocean and what an inspiring cast of professional surfers are doing to protect it. The film is solution-driven with an optimistic outlook for the future of our planet – it sparks a dialogue, encouraging audiences to explore how they can take action in their personal lives and local communities. Surfing is the medium, but the message is universal.”

The hand-shaped cigarette surfboards made from more than 10,000 littered cigarette butts, will be on display during the pre-party, and attendees will have a chance to meet filmmaker Ben Judkins and surfboard shaper Taylor Lane.

The film is Judkins’ directorial debut for a feature-length documentary and won “Best Feature Documentary” at the Richmond International Film Festival and Waco Independent Film Festival, and received Audience Awards at the Bend Film Festival and Cambridge Film Festival.

Led by East Carolina University, the Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese is a multi-institutional research and educational partnership of the University of North Carolina system, including North Carolina State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC Wilmington, and Elizabeth City State University.

The cleanup of more than 7,000 tons of litter in North Carolina cost state agencies, local governments and nonprofits more than $56 million in 2023, according to a new report.

Those figures highlighted in “The Cost of Litter in North Carolina,” a 14-page report created through a collaboration of nonprofits and the Duke University Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, are just the tip of the trash pile.

“That’s a severe undercount,” said Rob Clark, Cape Fear River Watch Water Quality Programs manager and a coauthor of the report. “The issue is much, much worse than this report was able to convey.”

The figures included in the report were pulled together from information obtained through public records requests, informal requests, and budgets from the North Carolina Department of Transportation and 44 nonprofits. Of nearly 40 of the municipalities requested to provide information, 19 responded. There are more than 500 municipalities in the state.

Even on the low, low end, the pounds of litter and costs associated with removing it from roadsides, ditches, and creek and river banks, to name a few, conveys a narrative that North Carolina has a costly, statewide litter problem.

But the economic impacts of litter are only part of the story, one the report’s authors hope to place into the hands of state legislators.

That’s because the basic approach to addressing litter in the state — spending money to clean it up — is not efficient, Clark said.

“It doesn’t address the issue properly,” he said. “It addresses the byproduct of the litter issue, but not the sources. It’s like you’re Band-Aiding over an artery. It’s not efficient or sufficient.”

That’s why the report, which was also compiled by North Carolina Conservation Network, Haw River Assembly, and MountainTrue, includes recommendations aimed at reducing litter at the source, keeping it out of the environment, and saving tax dollars.

One of the report’s main recommendations, Clark said, is that the North Carolina General Assembly reinstate the ability of local governments to regulate auxiliary containers, specifically single-use plastics such as grocery bags, cups, bottles and other types of food packaging.

In a last-minute move, legislators injected into the 2023 state budget language that prohibits counties and cities from adopting rules, regulations, ordinances, or resolutions that restrict, tax, or charge fees on auxiliary containers.

The provision stopped locally elected officials in Asheville from moving ahead on a vote to ban single-use plastic bags and Styrofoam food containers.

“We were really close for that to come up to a vote here locally and then the General Assembly put that provision into the state budget,” said coauthor Anna Alsobrook, French Broad Riverkeeper and MountainTrue’s French Broad watershed science and policy manager.

The law also squashed local elected officials in Durham from deciding whether to require retailers tack on a 10-cent fee for each plastic bag given out to customers in restaurants, grocery stores and shops.

“It’s really unfortunate that the state legislature took away the right of local governments to regulate pollution in their own jurisdictions,” Alsobrook said. “We’re hoping to change that.”

North Carolina Sen. Julie Mayfield, D-Buncombe, and Durham Democrats Sen. Natalie Murdock and Sen. Sophia Chitlik, last month introduced a bill that would repeal limitations on auxiliary containers.

The same year legislators banned a ban on single-use plastics, a survey conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy showed that more than 80% of some 650-700 North Carolinians polled across the state supported regulations on single-use plastics, Alsobrook said.

The report found that the amount of single-use plastic litter – everything from cigarette butts, Styrofoam, bottles, bags, and food wrappers – picked up throughout the state has steadily climbed since the late 1960s.

In the ravages left in western North Carolina from Hurricane Helene, there is one rather ominous, tell-tale sign illustrating the abundance of single-use plastics in the environment.

“There’s a ton of devastation all over the place, but there’s tons and tons of plastic films and bags hanging from trees in any given direction,” Alsobrook said. “I think that was one of the most stark things we saw for a really long time. It’s very apocalyptic looking.”

And there is ongoing research about the potential human health effects of microplastics, which are considered ubiquitous in the environment because they have been found in every ecosystem on the planet.

Other recommendations in the report include the statewide implementation of a bottle deposit system where residents would receive a deposit for returning empty, single-use bottles, using the Clean Water Act in waters declared federally impaired as a result of litter pollution, and boosting funding the state transportation department’s litter cleanup efforts.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation “by far” carries the burden for litter cleanup in the state, the report concludes.

NCDOT spent more than $25 million of taxpayer funds to clean litter in 2023, according to the report. The department has spent about $270 million on litter cleanup over the past 15 years.

Recommendations included in the report are not new, “crazy ideas,” but rather policies that exist in other states and countries, Clark said.

“We’re just trying to take good policies and procedures that have worked in other places and implement them in our state,” he said. “Litter is, I think, viewed as an individual issue in our society. It’s seen as a failure of an individual, a litterbug. But really the reality of the situation is it’s a production issue, especially with plastic. There’s just so much production that we’re essentially drowning in it. We need to seriously address force reduction if we’re really going to get a handle on it.”

State officials are monitoring water quality in an area of Duplin County where tens of thousands of gallons of hog waste spilled into an unnamed tributary and a named creek that flow into the Northeast Cape Fear River.

An estimated 84,000 gallons spilled from Murphy Brown LLC Farm off Kenan Loop Road in Wallace after equipment pumping waste between lagoons malfunctioned, according to the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality.

State Division of Water Resources staff were alerted last weekend of the spill, which began early Saturday and continued through early Sunday with hog waste reaching the unnamed tributary of Doctors Creek.

“The permittee removed waste from the unnamed tributary and returned it to a secondary lagoon on the farm site,” according to a DEQ release.

Division staff have confirmed the cleanup and collected samples at the discharge point, upstream and downstream to check water quality impacts.

There are no known public water intakes along the path of the spill, according to DEQ.

Water quality in the area will continue to be monitored by division officials. Any actions taken as a result of the spill are to be posted about online, officials said.

BUXTON — The federal cleanup of Buxton Beach has been remarkable, if only for the stark improvement in its appearance compared with a few months earlier.

With the surface building debris mostly gone, and petroleum-soaked soil removed, now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is turning its attention to the long-term well-being of both the site and the community.

“The dune is clean, the oil is gone from the groundwater, and the beach is clean,” said Brian Harris, co-vice president of the Buxton Civic Association in a recent interview with Coastal Review. Still, he said, a lot remains to be done at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore beach where a secret submarine survey base once operated.

The Coast Guard also operated a base at the site from 1982 until 2010.

“All those buildings that were once there, they’re still there — all the foundations,” he said. “So, it’s great that the beach is clean … but as this thing keeps eroding, I don’t want my son to have to deal with this in 10 years.”

Harris said that he is looking forward to participating in upcoming meetings of the Restoration Advisory Board, or RAB. Within months, the structured group of community and agency members is expected to start meeting regularly to discuss environmental restoration at the Buxton Naval Facility.

“You know, we’ve got everybody at the table now,” he said. “And that’s really what the RAB is going for — to keep this thing going forward, and the plan for the future.”

Contractor Baywest, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based environmental services company, completed removal of petroleum-contaminated soil and water before Christmas and did a final walk-through with the National Park Service on Jan. 17, according to Corps of Engineers Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) Program Manager Sara Keisler.

The $4.8 million contract will end in June 2025, after Baywest completes beach plantings.

Keisler said another contractor, Yuma, Arizona-based Nicklaus-Ensafe JV, will begin a comprehensive survey of the site in February or early March that will investigate whether more contaminants remain underground.

“Currently, the initial deliverables, which is our work plan and our safety plan, are in the process of being written and reviewed,” Keisler told Coastal Review. “Those will be reviewed by many entities, including the Corps and then we have an independent technical review that has to be done, which is done by our center of expertise.” After several other reviews, the work will be able to start.

The $177,000 contract is scheduled to end in May 2026, she said, but it can be extended if needed.

In 1991, the former Naval base in Buxton, which was a submarine monitoring station from February 1956 until June 1982, was designated as a Formerly Used Defense Site, leaving the responsibility for its cleanup to the Corps. Starting in 1989, the FUDS team removed tons of petroleum infrastructure at the 50-acre site, as well as polluted soil and water, and continued to monitor groundwater. In the last test in 2024, the contaminant levels were below state standards.

But increased beach erosion, exacerbated by rising sea levels and coastal storms in September 2023, exposed chunks of concrete and oily clumps of sand, creating dangerous debris and a strong diesel odor. As a result, the park service closed three-tenths of a mile of Buxton Beach, and a FUDS team returned to the site.

The teams spent month after month investigating the site, and after the September 2024 reoccurrence of petroleum evidence, they developed a response plan, and hired the contractors.

FUDS teams only have the authority to remove petroleum, they’re not allowed to remove underground structures unless they’re in the way. 

“While the primary purpose of the ongoing response action is to remove petroleum-impacted soil, some of the remnant infrastructures that impede excavation access to the petroleum-impacted soil have been removed, too,” the Corps’ FUDS team in Savannah District said in a press release. But workers ended up removing considerable amounts of material.

“The team began excavations Oct. 2, 2024, and … they have removed 1,442 cubic yards and 24,126 gallons of petroleum-impacted soil and water, as well as approximately 138,400 pounds of concrete, 1,153 feet of pipes and 1,088 feet of metal cables and wires.”

As of Dec. 11 2024, a total of 4,599 cubic yards of petroleum-impacted soil has been removed; 99,526 gallons of water; 278,000 pounds of concrete; 1,153 feet of pipe; and 1,088 feet of metal cables and wires, according to the Buxton Naval Facility page on the Corps’ website.

Although it took nearly a year after the first report in 2023 for the Corps to start aggressive removal of petroleum contamination, no single source has yet been identified, despite numerous early efforts by the agency.

“From our perspective, the source is previously unremoved contaminated soil and groundwater,” Cape Hatteras National Seashore Superintendent Dave Hallac told Coastal Review. “In other words, at this point, there’s no evidence that there is what you would call a traditional source of bulk product, for example, a tank that’s sitting in the ground that’s just been leaking … Rather, what’s been observed just appears to be soil and groundwater that was contaminated, perhaps decades ago by the Navy.”

Hallac added that the Corps has done some geophysical work, including with ground-penetrating radar and an “excellent” study using a magnetometer looking for anomalies. Between reviews of that work, and similar ground studies done by the park service, combined with the comprehensive survey by the contractor, the superintendent said he is confident that any remaining petroleum source will be found.

Even after frustration with the slow start on remediation and disagreements about how to address the problem, Hallac said he is appreciative of the FUDS team’s partnership.

“Yes, we feel that the Corps has made a solid effort to remove the heavily contaminated soil from the beachfront area and mitigate the impact of those soils or ground waters washing into the Atlantic Ocean,” he said.

Hallac said he’s pleased that most of the huge chunks of concrete and other surface debris on the beach are now gone. His main focus, he said, was “to stop the bleeding” with the petroleum problem.  But he’s not giving up on getting the remaining buried infrastructure removed. 

“We’re moving forward in that level of priority order,” he said. “We are still in conversations with the Corps, the Navy and the Coast Guard about what to do about everything underground.”

Corps officials are also encouraged that, at least for now, the issue with the intermittent petroleum contamination at Buxton Beach seems to have been alleviated.

“We actually didn’t have any odors after this contractor was on the site,” said Keisler, with FUDS, “and there hasn’t been any since.”

A former production manager at a chemical processing company in Navassa pleaded guilty earlier this week to knowingly discharging pollutants into the Cape Fear River.

Barry Darnell White, 63, purposely discharged tens of thousands of gallons of tert-butyl alcohol, or BTOH, and other pollutants directly into the river when he was employed by American Distillation Inc., according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office release.

“Rather than dispose of hazardous pollutants legally, this Navassa industrial site hooked a hose to a quarter-million-gallon waste tank, brazenly discharging over 50,000 gallons of pollutants into the Cape Fear River over a four-year period,” U.S. Attorney Michael F. Easley, Jr. said in a release. “We won’t let corporate polluters cut corners for cash while the rest of us bear the costs. Not in North Carolina, not on the Cape Fear River, and certainly not in Navassa, where descendants of the Gullah-Geeche people have faced more than their share of environmental calamities. We’ll fight to protect our resources and our communities – until justice rolls on like a river.”

American Distillation Inc. has not been charged or admitted wrongdoing, according to the release.

The chemical processing company has been operating off the bank of the Cape Fear River in Navassa since the early 1990s. Operations include blending and marketing industrial grade ethyl alcohol and providing services such as distillation, dehydration, reaction, carbon treating, and blending various chemicals and products from partners across the country.

ADI accepts large quantities of tert-butyl alcohol, a highly flammable, colorless oily liquid with a sharp alcohol odor, from its customer base then distills the alcohol into a usable product for its customers.

As production manager, White oversaw the movement of chemicals from tank to tank and tanker trucks in and out of ADI’s facilities. He supervised a number of employees and reported directly to ADI’s corporate management, according to the release.

Under its federally issued permit, ADI was required to properly dispose of the alcohol byproduct. But beginning in late 2019 through to early 2024, the company accepted more of that and other chemicals from its customers “than it could legally and safely process and remove,” according to the release.

“To ensure operations did not come to a halt and realize maximum profit, ADI released TBOH byproduct from Tank 14 causing it to flow into the Cape Fear River,” the release states. “ADI management had informed some of its employees that if operations came to a halt, the company would suffer serious financial harm, potentially including dissolution.”

Between 2020 and 2024, White connected a hose to a Tank 14 and released about 2,500 gallons of liquid wastewater that flowed into a pipe and drained to an outfall directly to the Cape Fear anywhere from five to six times each, according to the release.

“Our natural resources must be protected from those who blatantly disregard environmental laws by illegally discharging industrial waste into US waters,” Leslie Carroll, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s criminal enforcement program in North Carolina stated in the release. “The defendant in this case discharged wastewater containing Tert-Butyl Alcohol and other chemicals into the Cape Fear River on multiple occasions since at least 2020. Today’s guilty plea demonstrates that EPA and its partners are committed to protecting our natural resources and the communities that rely upon them.”

Time is ticking on North Carolina’s environmental agency to reissue a permit that will limit discharges of a likely human carcinogen into the drinking water sources for about 1 million state residents.

The state Department of Environmental Quality was recently notified it has until mid-April to submit to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a proposed revised permit that restricts how much 1,4-dixoane a municipal wastewater treatment plant may discharge into surface waters upstream of the Cape Fear region.

The department is in the midst of an ongoing legal challenge to reinstate the cap it had placed on the amount of the chemical solvent being discharged by the city of Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant.

In a letter to DEQ Division of Water Resources Director Richard Rogers, the EPA acknowledged the department’s challenge to a Sept. 12, 2024, ruling that revoked permit limits of 1,4-dioxane. The chemical compound is used primarily as a solvent in chemical manufacturing.

DEQ appealed Chief Administrative Law Judge and Direct of the Office of Administrative Hearings Dr. Donald van der Vaart’s decision in Wake County Superior Court.

The court has not yet ruled on the appeal, which “may affect and complicate NC DEQ’s ability to submit a revised permit addressing this objection,” EPA’s letter states.

“However, the time frames applicable to the objection process are mandatory and no extension can be granted for NC DEQ to wait for outcome of an appeal or to otherwise seek relief from the OAH decision,” the letter continues.

DEQ or “any interested person” may request a public hearing on the EPA’s objection to the permit.

A public hearing must be requested within 90 days from when DEQ received the letter.

“If a public hearing is not requested and NC DEQ does not submit a proposed permit that has been revised to meet our specific objection within 90-days of receipt of this letter, exclusive authority to issue the permit passes to the EPA” in accordance with the code of federal regulations, the letter states.

Division of Water Resources Public Information Officer Laura Oleniacz confirmed in an email that the division had received the letter “and it is under review.”

The state Department of Justice does not comment on pending litigation.

In August 2023, DEQ’s Division of Water Resources issued Asheboro a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit limiting the city water treatment plant’s release of 1,4-dioxane.

The city sued, challenging the state’s power to include the 1,4-dioxane water quality standard in the permit and argued the new limits created an excessive financial burden.

The cities of Greensboro and Reidsville joined the lawsuit after both were issued notices of violation for 1,4-dioxane discharges in November 2019 and required to include discharge limits in their draft NPDES permits.

Brunswick County, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority and Fayetteville Public Works Commission intervened in the case, asserting that upstream 1,4-dioxane dischargers placed an undue financial burden on them to sample drinking water sources for the chemical and try and reduce the level of consumption of it to their customers.

In his ruling, van der Vaart said DEQ officials did not follow the letter of the law written in state statutes when they calculated discharge limits and established an enforceable water quality standard for 1,4-dioxane and noted anticipated high costs associated with monitoring and treatment of 1,4-dioxane.

He also wrote that the EPA has not characterized 1,4-dioxane as carcinogenic to humans, but that the agency identifies it as “likely” carcinogenic to people.

In its 2023 draft revised risk determination for 1,4-dioxane as a chemical under the Toxic Substances Control Act, the EPA “proposes that exposure to drinking water sources from surface water that is contaminated by 1,4-dioxane released from industrial facilities contributes to the unreasonable risk” to human health.

Since van der Vaart’s ruling, Asheboro has released “extremely high levels” of the chemical upstream of the drinking water supply for nearly half a dozen cities, including Wilmington, and Brunswick and Pender counties, according to information made available by the Southern Environmental Law Center.

An analysis of Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant showed 1,4-dioxane discharges exceeded 800 parts per billion, “2,322 times the cancer risk level for the chemical,” the center said in a release.

“DEQ tried to do the right thing and protect North Carolinians from toxic 1,4-dioxane coming from the city of Asheboro, but three cities tried to overturn our water protection laws in an effort to shield their industrial customers rather than people downstream,” SELC Senior Attorney Jean Zhuang state in the release. “EPA’s letter sets the record straight that existing law protects people against pollution, making clear that the North Carolina Administrative Law Judge was wrong in siding with polluters and that DEQ must control toxic 1,4-dioxane pollution. Controlling toxic chemicals at the source is the only way to ensure polluters bear the burden of their pollution, not families and communities downstream. We hope that EPA will stand strong to protect people against toxic water pollution and make sure that the city’s 1,4-dioxane releases are controlled in the future.”

Not much has changed in Sledge Forest in the more than 20 years since its distinctive features were captured on the pages of a document created to offer guidance for its future use.

That, said geologist Roger Shew, is the beauty of it.

The forest that rises from the banks of the Northeast Cape Fear River and sprawls thousands of acres across northern New Hanover County is still an important part of the river floodplain, one of the largest landscape corridors in the southeastern part of the state.

Towering up from the forest bed are cypress and loblolly pine trees, some of the oldest in southeastern North Carolina, that are hundreds of years old, a “rare old-growth occurrence,” according to a biological survey published in May 2003 by the Natural Heritage Program of North Carolina, which identified the forest as a significant natural area.

The forest’s attributes have in recent weeks been thrust front and center in a rumble that tipped off when a Charlotte-based developer submitted to the county’s planning department preliminary plans to build thousands of homes on about a quarter of the more than 4,000-acre, privately owned site.

Because the land being eyed for the proposed development of more than 4,000 single-family houses, a golf course, trails and a horse farm does not have to be rezoned, the project gets pushed straight through to the county’s technical review process, effectively omitting the opportunity for public comment.

That’s simply unacceptable to Castle Hayne resident and local activist Kayne Darrell.

“It’s a by-right property so they can go in and start clear-cutting any time they want,” Darrell told Coastal Review in a recent telephone interview. “We’re hoping they don’t yet. It’s unconscionable to me that we have no opportunity to get our questions answered or have any input on what’s happening because it’s going to impact so many of us in so many negative ways.”

Attempts to reach the developer, Copper Builders, LLC, were unsuccessful. An engineer listed on the development plan application did not return a call for comment.

The homes of Hilton Bluffs, the name of the proposed development, would be built on about 1,000 acres of uplands that adjoin about 3,000 acres of protected wetlands, those that have a continuous surface connection to the U.S. Supreme Court-defined “waters of the United States” – in this case, Prince George Creek, which connects to the Northeast Cape Fear River.

Sledge Forest is one of the largest tracts along a more than 35-mile stretch of the floodplain corridor running from Holly Shelter Creek, at the north, south to Smith Creek.

Shew, senior lecturer in the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Ocean Sciences and Environmental Sciences department and a conservationist, said in an email response to Coastal Review that the forest is dominated by hydric soils that are “periodically inundated during high-tide flooding events and storm events.”

Such floods are forecast to only increase with sea level rise, the latest projections of which are a minimum of one foot by 2050.

“High-tide flooding is common along the river and has the potential to inundate much of the site,” Shew said. “And, in the future … most of the area will be inundated fully or partially with river waters. Putting golf courses, horse barns and cabins or single-family homes in this area are ill-advised.”

The roads that will connect those neighborhood amenities will have to be built over wetlands, which will, in turn, block water movement, Shew said.

“And of course, whatever (fertilizer, herbicides, etc.) is put on these areas will runoff into the surrounding wetlands and river,” he wrote.

“The best and most logical use of this land is for it to be left as a natural area that supports wildlife, rich plant communities, corridor connectivity, reduces floodwaters, and maintains all of the ecosystem services of these wetland communities for the benefit of our community in a way too fast-growing area in northern (New Hanover County),” he said. “We need to have a comprehensive plan that maintains large natural areas and this and parts of Island Creek are sights that would be best and be opportune investments for the county for its future.”

Most of the old-growth trees are largely within the project building footprint, Darrell said. A 2003 natural area inventory dated cypress to be more than 350 years old and estimated to be as much as 500 years old, and dated loblollies to be more than 300 years old.

Area residents are also concerned about what is projected to be a significant increase in traffic on rural roads in the area – more than 30,000 additional vehicles per day.

Inactive hazardous site abuts tract

Opponents of the proposed development say they’re also troubled by the fact that the development is being proposed on land that is adjacent to a state-designated inactive hazardous site.

According to information provided by the North Carolina Division of Waste Management, contamination at the site off Castle Hayne Road resulted from drums of calcium fluoride and lubricants being stored in unlined trenches during the 1960s and 1970s.

That contamination spreads across two parcels, one of which is owned by General Electric.

Contamination in groundwater in the northwest corner of GE’s roughly 100-acre tract includes uranium, vinyl chloride and fluoride.

Those contaminants spill over onto a neighboring 1,500-plus-acre parcel owned by Nuclear Fuel Holding Co. Inc., a GE affiliate, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents.

There are also contaminants in groundwater around the main plant on GE’s property. Those contaminants include tetrachlorethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), cis- 1,2-dichloroethene, 1,1-dichloroethane, vinyl chloride, benzene, and naphthalene contaminate, according to the state.

Contamination at the main plant area is contained on-site, but is also close to the northern central property line, said Katherine Lucas, public information officer for the Division of Waste Management, in an email responding to Coastal Review’s questions.

“A portion of the (northwest) Area Contamination has migrated to the adjacent property in the deep groundwater aquifer,” she said in the email.

The site was added to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Inactive Hazardous Sites Branch inventory in 1988.

The department’s Division of Water Resources conducted regulatory oversight of all remedial activities at the site until 2008, when site management was transferred to the branch as part of a reorganization between the waste management and water resources divisions.

The site was added to the branch’s Site Priority list in 2008.

“The area of the contamination has not been calculated,” Lucas said. “Ground water contamination is being remediated with a series of hydraulic control wells and pump and treatment of contaminated groundwater.”

More than 3,500 people have signed an online petition to save Sledge Forest.

Darrell, who helped organize Save Sledge Forest, said the ultimate goal is to get the land in conservation.

“That’s where it belongs,” she said. “We’re not giving up. It’s too special a place.”

HATTERAS ISLAND — With ongoing removal of petroleum-contaminated soil from Buxton Beach, along with a considerable amount of remnant building debris trucked away since September, a community meeting hosted Monday evening by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers representatives revealed notably less frustration and even a hint of a friendly partnership vibe.

“I expect them to do the very best they can,” said Jeff Dawson, a member of the Buxton Civic Association, speaking after the meeting at the Fessenden Center in Buxton in reference to the Corps’ current response.

That’s a big difference from the alarm bells the newly formed group of village residents had been ringing about the petroleum pollution and old building debris first exposed on the eroding beach by a series of storms about a year and a half earlier.

“It’s like ‘Yay!’” Dawson added. “But why did they take so long?”

Brief updates of the cleanup project were provided, but the main impetus for the meeting was to present an overview about creating a Restoration Advisory Board, or RAB in government-speak.

In a slide presentation, Alexandra Jangrell-Tackett, program manager with Dawson, the Corps’ public outreach contractor, explained that a RAB would provide an option for the community to share information about work at what is officially known as Buxton Naval Facility, a Formerly Used Defense Sites, or FUDS, as a way to keep residents updated on the actions taking place at the Buxton Naval Facility.

The 50-acre site is entirely located within the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

While a RAB allows for “concerns, needs or values” of a community to be conveyed, similar to a public meeting, it is more formal, with two co-chairs who conduct regular meetings that have agendas and minutes. It serves as a liaison between the Corps and the affected community.

“It’s important to note that a RAB is not a decision-making body,” Jangrell-Tackett said. “However, it’s that avenue for communication exchange.”

RABs are established with “sustained and sufficient” interest from communities where active environmental restoration projects are being done at Department of Defense sites, Jangrell-Tackett said during her presentation.

But a community also has the option of just holding public meetings concerning the cleanup work, she said.

While a RAB allows for “concerns, needs or values” of a community to be conveyed similar to a public meeting, Jangrell-Tackett explained, it is more formal, with two co-chairs — one from the community, one from the defense department — who conduct regular meetings that are structured with agendas, a mission statement, operational procedures and minutes.

Each RAB could have up to 30 members, each with two-year terms in the role of liaisons.

A survey on the community’s interest in a RAB was provided by the Corps, which will evaluate it after the deadline in 30 days.

Brian Harris, a member of the Buxton Civic Association, said after the presentation that he was very pleased with the Corps’ latest cleanup efforts and willingness to communicate with the community.

“Everything’s great — we love it,” he said. “Obviously, we want the RAB.”

Harris added that either a member or the overall association would be willing to serve as the RAB community member, but they’ll know more after the results of the survey are completed and further discussion is held with the Corps.

Since the Corps’ FUDS office took responsibility in 1991 for environmental restoration at the former Naval base near today’s Buxton Beach, it had removed 50 storage tanks and 4,000 tons of petroleum-contaminated soil. It has also conducted groundwater remediation and continued monitoring.

After a series of summer storms in 2023 exposed huge chunks of concrete that was once bits of buried Navy buildings, surfers and other locals started noticing strong diesel odors at the beach and a sheen in the ocean.

FUDS investigators responded, but over the months they had had difficulty determining the source of the intermittent petroleum stench.

Then, in September, more storms left an even stronger petroleum odor on the beach, resulting in the current, more visibly aggressive FUDS response.

“It was really that event that was a catalyst to get us out to that site,” said Col. Ronald Sturgeon, the Corps’ Savannah District commander, while speaking with reporters after the meeting.

Sturgeon noted that severe erosion had complicated detection of the petroleum.

“There was 15 more feet of beach there … That Building 19, the major source of the infrastructure, was 2 to 300 meters away from the ocean,” he said. “Now it’s in the ocean.”

After being back and forth doing testing at the site for more than a year, the Corps finally saw the evidence before their eyes in September, and responded.

Related: Work gets underway to pinpoint Buxton pollution source

“The release of the petroleum out of the site was a shock,” he said. “My team really pulled together and got a contractor to the site in record time. It was under two weeks … for this type of thing, it’s actually really fast.

“And once we started digging up some of the soil, removed some of the infrastructure and started to take those readings, yeah, there was a lot of (petroleum) contamination there that we weren’t tracking.”

Sturgeon said that the contractor had removed a large amount of infrastructure in order to test and access the petroleum contaminated-soil underneath, but the Corps does not have the authority to remove any additional remnant infrastructure unless it is hampering the petroleum contamination removal.

The contractors also removed about 18,000 gallons of water from the site, which was put in a machine to sort out whatever contaminants it may contain, he said.

Excavations began Oct. 2, according to the Corps, and were expected to be completed in 60 days. To date, 505 cubic yards and 11,000 gallons of petroleum-impacted soil and water, as well as approximately 82,400 pounds of concrete, 1,133 feet of pipes and 1,030 feet of metal cables and wires have been removed, the Corps said.

A contract for comprehensive sampling is expected to be awarded by Nov. 15, Sturgeon said. The sampling will delineate the nature and extent of any petroleum contamination remaining at the FUDS property.

The cleanup will be considered completed after it falls within the state Department of Environmental Quality standards. The Corps is also working closely with the National Park Service.

“We have focused in on immediate action that was required in specific zones,” Sturgeon said. “We will continue to sample within the FUDS boundary.”

But, Sturgeon said, the source of the petroleum is still unknown.

“If I knew that, I tell you what, we’d solve the problem already,” he said, adding the mystery is why the Corps is doing further work. “We have plans to sample the entire site.”

Two Wilmington-area advocacy groups are teaming up this Saturday to organize their final watershed cleanup of the year.

Cape Fear River Watch announced this week that is partnering with Keep New Hanover Beautiful for their Second Saturday Cleanup, which will take place from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. in the Smith Creek Watershed at the intersection of Princess Place Drive and Evans Street.

The groups do not have a cleanup scheduled for December, and they encourage those interested to make sure not to miss this one.

The Smith Creek Watershed in Wilmington encompasses 13,818 acres and 55.2 miles of streams. It’s also home to about 26,000 people, according to county documents.

Parking Saturday is available at 2929 Princess Place Drive. Look for the CFRW cleanup signs.

The organizations said they will provide pickers, bags, safety vests, gloves, “and a good time.” They encourage participants to dress appropriately, bring sunscreen and water.

Participants should register online.

The Army Corps of Engineers announced Monday that it is set to host a presentation next week to update the public on the ongoing response to petroleum pollution on the beach in Buxton.

The presentation set for 7-9 p.m. Monday, Nov. 4, at the Fessenden Center, 46830 N.C. Highway 12 in Buxton will also include information regarding a restoration advisory board related to the cleanup at the Buxton Naval Facility Formerly Used Defense Sites, or FUDS property near the original location of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

The presentation will be followed by an open house session.

The Navy formerly used the as a submarine monitoring station, and then the Coast Guard subsequently used the property until it was returned to the National Park Service.

The Corps is working to remove visible petroleum-contaminated soil and collect soil samples in areas along the beach and dunes where odors and sheen have been observed.

The Corps said subsequent actions will include comprehensive soil and groundwater sampling in the area to delineate the nature and extent of petroleum contamination.

For more information, visit the Army’s Buxton Naval Facility project website
or email Cesas-FUDS@usace.army.mil.

Five years after developing and acting on a collaborative approach to preventing and removing marine debris along the coast, those behind the plan met last week to review accomplishments so far and discuss ways to expand the message over the coming five years.

The roughly 20 representatives of state and federal agencies, nonprofit and community organizations, and academia with ties to the 2020-24 North Carolina Marine Debris Action Plan spent last Tuesday in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Beaufort facility discussing the plan’s background, completed actions, the results from a recent survey and reviewing goals for 2025-29.

The plan is a multiyear collaborative effort of the North Carolina Coastal Federation, North Carolina Coastal Reserve & National Estuarine Research Reserve, North Carolina Sea Grant, North Carolina Marine Debris Symposium and Coastal Carolina Riverwatch.

Marine debris is a persistent and widespread problem. The human-made products like plastics, metals, rubber, paper, textiles, abandoned fishing gear, and other lost or discarded items littering waterways can negatively impact human and wildlife health.

The Coastal Federation initiated the work in January 2017 when it brought together a leadership team to assess marine debris and debris management along the coast. Between that first meeting and when the plan was released in January 2020, the team met several times, held surveys, and established strategies and actions.

Coastal Federation Executive Director Braxton Davis told the participants Tuesday that the nonprofit had been engaged in marine debris projects for over a decade.

“I think everyone, early on, recognized that this is a thorny, complex issue, and it’s of a pretty significant magnitude,” Davis said.

The Coastal Federation, which published Coastal Review, has been working to protect the coast since 1982 and has offices in Wanchese, Newport and Wrightsville Beach.

Understanding that the work cannot be done alone, the Coastal Federation looked at similar efforts by other states and regions, and brought together groups and organizations to develop a marine debris action plan, Davis explained.

With marine debris always being present and the origins being difficult to trace, the organization is considering additional research to tailor policies and programs around efforts that will lead to prevention.

“I think that’s going to take significant collaboration with stakeholders, and it’s going to require some multifaceted solutions,” Davis said. Adding the workshop “is just one stepping stone on the path over the next five years.”

Coastal Federation Education and Outreach Director Sara Hallas said that the nonprofit really became invested in marine debris management in 2014 upon launching its lost fishing gear recovery project. Commercial fishermen are hired to find and retrieve lost crab pots from the state’s waterways early each year, “And we would always plan a volunteer cleanup along with that, to build awareness and engage the community,” Hallas said.

“And then we started looking around and realizing, surely, we’re not the only the organization doing marine debris projects, and surely, we’re not the only ones that are going to be able to clean up all of this marine debris. So how can we be a little bit more comprehensive and a little bit more strategic in our approach to make sure that we’re meeting all the needs of the coast?” she said.

This spurred the first meeting with other organizations involved in marine debris, and the work began, leading to “the first ever action plan for North Carolina in 2020,” Hallas said.

The first statewide plan to address marine debris outlined five major goals, including engaging the public with education, prevention and removal of marine debris and abandoned and derelict vessels, and encouraging research to understand marine debris and its impacts.

While 2020 had its challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic, Hallas said the team was able to continue with the action plan and reached nearly all of its individual action goals.

The current plan detailed 86 individual actions to be taken. Of those, 77.9% have been completed, 11.6% are in progress, and another 4.7% are ongoing, leaving about 5.8% of those items that have not been started as of mid-September.

“Only about five or six items of those 86 actions that we have in our action plan,” Hallas said, adding that for each year of the action plan, the leadership team has released a report that summarizes the highlights and takeaways from each of the major goals.

Working toward prevention, partners have reached more than 27,000 students and 33,000 adults with various education programs, participated in the North Carolina marine debris symposium each year, created marine debris curriculums, and rolled out the Marine Debris Free NC social media campaign.

In terms of removing marine debris, more than 9,000 crab pots have been pulled from waterways, as well as more than 3 million pounds of debris from coastal shorelines, “all just in the past five years,” Hallas said.

Preventing and removing abandoned and derelict vessels is its own category in the plan and has been a hurdle, she said.

“At the launch of the action plan, we saw some of the largest vessel removal in North Carolina history. And since then, that number has continued to grow,” Hallas said.

Since 2019, 343 vessels have been removed, and “a lot of that is thanks to bringing these groups” and resources together to solve the problem. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission helps to maintain the database, and working with these organizations to allocate funding accordingly.

To understand the source of debris, research and assessment has been an important part of this work as well, Hallas said, “so that we’re not just in this endless cycle of cleanup.” One project by North Carolina Sea Grant and N.C. State University was to study the macro- and microplastics coming through the Neuse River into the Pamlico Sound. The team is also looking to increase the marine debris data by encouraging volunteers to log what they pick up in trash collection phone apps.

“But if you can take a second to imagine, if people and wildlife of coastal North Carolina never encountered a marine debris, what would that be like? And that was our initial goal for the action plan,” Hallas said. “How can we achieve to get to this vision?”

N.C. Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve Central Sites Manager Paula Gillikin explained that the team distributed a survey on marine debris in North Carolina in 2017 and again in 2024, with the same questions. The first survey had 111 respond and the latest saw 49 responses.

One question, Gillikin said, was to ask respondents to rank the goals of the action plan from most important to least important.

“‘Prevent’ came up as most important, followed closely by ‘Remove,” and then “Abandoned and Derelict Vessels’ came out third, and then ‘Research’ came out last,” Gillikin said, acknowledging that research often is ranked a low priority.

Possible actions the group discussed for the next five years include reaching underserved communities and incorporating environmental justice into all goals, working with government entities to improve public policy that prevents marine debris as well as managing abandoned vessels, and different ways to expand educating the public on marine debris.

Like a slow-rolling disaster, the third house in four days collapsed Tuesday afternoon into the surf along the village of Rodanthe, casting tons more construction debris into the Atlantic and onto the beaches for miles within Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

“We have 30 people that are out there right now,” Cape Hatteras National Seashore Superintendent Dave Hallac told Coastal Review Wednesday in an interview, referring to park service staff who are racing the wind and tide to pick up debris, working alongside dozens of contract workers and volunteers.

Hallac described the state of the beach after the house fell Tuesday as a “total mess.” The ocean claimed two houses on Friday.

“I would say the debris field was so dense and thick, for the first quarter-mile south of the house collapse site that it was difficult to actually walk,” he said. “And that debris field continued to be fairly significant, actually, past the Rodanthe Pier.”

The superintendent also observed a large amount of “extremely hazardous” debris in the surf being “thrown all over the place as the waves were breaking.”

According to a National Park Service press release, the park has temporarily closed the beach from G A Kohler Court to Wimble Shores North Court in Waves, including the Dare County beach access on N.C. Highway 12 in Rodanthe.

Swimmers and surfers have been warned to stay out the ocean in front of the villages of Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo, and pedestrians have been cautioned to wear hard-soled shoes in the vicinity of the beach and ocean.

The latest house collapse at 23039 G A Kohler Court follows one at 23001 G A Kohler Court that fell Friday morning and another to its south at 23009 G A Kohler that collapsed shortly after 9:15 that night.

Each of the wooden houses, built on tall pilings, were unoccupied at the time of their collapse.

In a frustrating twist, plans were in the works to proactively demolish the house that collapsed Tuesday.

Hallac said the house had been foreclosed on and the bank had hired a real estate agent, who in turn hired a local contractor to tear it down. The contractor, W.M. Dunn Construction in Powells Point, was ready to go, he said, but the work was delayed by the very same high tides and powerful currents — pumped up by a couple of offshore storm systems and the full moon — that ultimately took it down. The same house had already been damaged Friday when the nearby house at 23009 collapsed.

So instead of the demolition, the contractor will be doing the cleanup of the house debris, Hallac said.

“Trying to secure the bulk of debris between the tide cycles after the third house fell,” a Tuesday post said on the contractor’s website.

A total of 10 houses have collapsed in the last four years in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and W.M. Dunn and company owner Mike Dunn have been contracted to clean up most of them. 

Although homeowners are responsible for hiring the contractor to clean up the debris from their house, the situation is complicated not just by the fact that it doesn’t stay where it fell, but also that it is mixed with debris from other collapsed houses.

Homeowners are billed by the park service for the time that park service staff dedicates to cleaning debris, Hallac said. They are also asked to move or demolish houses on the eroded shoreline that are at risk of being destroyed by the ocean. But the agency, he said, is not out to punish homeowners, many of whom bought their houses when they were far back from the ocean.

“We’re focused on working with the homeowners and finding constructive solutions,” he said. “Many of these owners have owned these houses for a long period of time.”

In the first two recent collapses, remains of the structures and whatever they contained could be found 20 miles down the beach, Hallac said.

Once debris gets into the Atlantic, it’s nearly impossible, or certainly much more difficult, to retrieve. Huge boards with nails in them and pieces of fiberglass, strands of wire, broken windows — anything and everything found in a house — could bob around the ocean, be taken far away by currents or sink into the sandy bottom.

Although the ideal solution would be getting every house off the beach before it falls, the reality is that a combination of private property rights versus public safety concerns, coastal regulations and policies, insurance compensation, legal constraints, and multiple jurisdictional issues make efficient and effective responses to eroding shorelines and other climate change complexities extremely difficult.

A report released in August, “Managing Threatened Oceanfront Structures: Ideas From An Interagency Work Group,” was the culmination of multiple meetings the work group held over two years. The group was co-chaired by Hallac and Braxton Davis. During this time, Davis was the director of the Division of Coastal Management, under the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. Since February, Davis has been the executive director of the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

According to the report, in 2020 more than 750 of about 8,777 oceanfront structures on the North Carolina coast were at risk from oceanfront erosion, a term that was defined as lacking dunes or vegetation between the structure and ocean. It also noted that “the situation is anticipated to worsen with increasing sea level rise and coastal storms.”

The task force reviewed existing policies, laws, grant funds and coastal programs, and discussed tweaks or additions to them.

None of the numerous short-term or long-term proposals detailed in the report included simple or quick solutions. For instance, one idea was updating and revising the National Flood Insurance Program, but that could require an act of Congress. Still, the report broadly outlines options and goals.

With the recent collapses, Hallac said the report is getting more attention from their partners with the state and Dare County, among others.

“Definitely, our colleagues are reading the report, and we’re having a lot of discussions about certain options that are in the report,” he said.

For instance, there is more interest in scaling up a property-acquisition program, similar to a grant program the National Seashore used recently to acquire and demolish two other threatened oceanfront structures.

“So I think there’s a lot of momentum behind the report,” Hallac said. “I can’t say there’s a specific action that has come out of it, but it has definitely been a platform for having more discussions and working towards solutions. But I will continue to say that I’m not sure there’s going to be a silver bullet,” he added. “It’s a matter of, I think, all of the ideas that are in that (report) have merit. They’re worth further discussion.”

Meanwhile, two more houses remain standing — for now — in the surf near where the other three just fell.

North Carolina’s chief administrative law judge and former head of the state’s environmental regulatory agency has eliminated a state cap on the amount of a chemical solvent some municipal wastewater treatment plants discharge.

Chief Administrative Law Judge and Director of the Office of Administrative Hearings Dr. Donald van der Vaart revoked permit limits of 1,4-dioxane for wastewater treatment plants that discharge the chemical substance, one the federal Environmental Protection Agency classifies as a likely human carcinogen, into the drinking water sources of tens of thousands of people.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality officials did not follow the letter of the law written in state statutes when they calculated discharge limits and established an enforceable water quality standard for 1,4-dioxane, van der Vaart ruled. In his Sept. 12 decision, van der Vaart also said DEQ erred by considering the chemical substance a carcinogen.

“The [Environmental Protection Agency] has characterized 1,4-dioxane as ‘likely to be carcinogenic to humans,’” he wrote. “The EPA has not characterized 1,4-dioxane as ‘carcinogenic to humans.’”

DEQ has 30 days to appeal van der Vaart’s decision.

A North Carolina Department of Justice spokesperson said by email Monday state attorneys are reviewing the decision with DEQ.

In its 2023 draft revised risk determination for 1,4-dioxane as a chemical under the Toxic Substances Control Act, the EPA “proposes that exposure to drinking water sources from surface water that is contaminated by 1,4-dioxane released from industrial facilities contributes to the unreasonable risk” to human health.

The compound is used primarily as a solvent in chemical manufacturing.

Wastewater treatments plants operated by the cities of Greensboro, Asheboro and Reidsville receive 1,4-dioxane emitted from textile, chemical and plastics manufacturers. Those wastewater treatment facilities then discharge the chemical into surface waters that flow downstream to the Cape Fear region, an area plagued with drinking water contamination from industrial releases of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

PFAS are widely used, human-made chemicals that can be found in a host of consumer products, including stain-resistant carpets, fast food packaging, and water-resistant apparel. Studies of possible human health effects of PFAS, including those found in the Cape Fear River, the drinking water source for tens of thousands of North Carolinians, have found that the chemical substances can cause damage to the liver and immune system, low birth weight, and increase risk of some cancers.

In August 2023, DEQ’s Division of Water Resources issued Asheboro a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit limiting the city wastewater treatment plant’s release of 1,4-dioxane.

The city sued, challenging the state’s power to include the 1,4-dioxane water quality standard in the permit and arguing it faced excessive financial burden because of the new limits.

The cities of Greensboro and Reidsville joined in the lawsuit after both were issued notices of violation for 1,4-dioxane discharges in November 2019 and required to consent by special order to include discharge limits in their draft NPDES permits.

Brunswick County, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority and Fayetteville Public Works Commission intervened in the case, asserting that upstream 1,4-dioxane dischargers placed an undue financial burden on them to sample drinking water sources for the chemical and try and reduce the level of consumption of it to their customers.

In his ruling, van der Vaart noted that a regulatory impact analysis, which assesses possible financial impacts of proposed rules, states that costs associated with controlling discharges of 1,4-dioxane “… are anticipated to be prohibitively expensive for local governments and the citizens served by public utilities,” but acknowledges “ongoing costs benefits associated with the monitoring and treatment of 1,4-dioxane are likely to be considerable.”

Van der Vaart was appointed DEQ secretary in 2015 by then-Gov. Pat McCrory. In 2017, under the leadership of then-Secretary Michael Regan, van der Vaart was placed on administrative leave. Van der Vaart later resigned from DEQ.

Following growing public outcry in recent years, both the EPA, now headed by Regan, and DEQ have begun to address the releases of some of these compounds – there are more than 10,000 – into drinking water sources.

Earlier this year, EPA announced final maximum contaminant levels limiting a half-dozen PFAS in drinking water.

DEQ’s proposed draft rule outlining health standards for PFOA, PFOS and GenX in groundwater is heading for public comment after a unanimous vote of the state’s Environmental Management Commission.

Groundwater supports about half of drinking water supplies in North Carolina.

The commission decided to omit five PFAS initially included in the proposed draft rule.

The board is still hashing out DEQ’s proposal to establish surface water rules for all eight PFAS. Earlier this month, the commission’s water quality committee instructed DEQ to develop a draft rule and regulatory impact analysis that would establish monitoring requirements for every industrial and NPDES permit and require every industrial and significant industrial user to include PFAS source-reduction plans in their municipal pretreatment plans.

The Republican-majority commission has come under fire for what some state officials and environmental groups are calling stall tactics.

In a meeting earlier this month, some commissioners continued to refute those claims, saying that they were committed to addressing 1,4-dioxane discharges into drinking water sources in the state.

Commission members briefly discussed a petition to the EPA asking the agency to strip North Carolina’s authority to administer the NPDES permit program. North Carolina is one of 47 states authorized by the EPA to implement the permit program.

Cape Fear River Watch, Environmental Justice Community Action Network, Haw River Assembly, and MountainTrue filed the petition Aug. 28, arguing that the North Carolina General Assembly had blocked DEQ from “effectively implementing” its NPDES permit program and protecting North Carolinians from water pollution.

The General Assembly has amended laws that dictate who appoints members of the Environmental Management Commission and Rules Review Commission, “such that these commissions have been effectively captured by a supermajority in the legislature that is hostile to environmentally protective regulation,” according to the petition.

Legislators have also enacted laws that give the Office of Administrative Hearings “final decision-making authority over NPDES permits, thereby stripping DEQ and the EMC of the roles assigned them,” the petition states.

The EPA “generally works” with a state and petitioner to resolve issues raised in a petition, according to the agency’s website.

Kelly Moser, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Chapel Hill office, confirmed late last week that the EPA is taking the petition under advisement. The EPA’s Atlanta region press office did not respond to a request for comment.

“We’ve had concerns about the legislature control over the EMC and we’re just seeing that playing out in the latest delays that the EMC has created in North Carolina’s attempts to protect people from harmful industrial chemicals,” she said in a telephone interview. “The people of North Carolina deserve to have access to clean water and the actions by the state legislature, the EMC and now ALJ van der Vaart are standing in the way of North Carolinians having access to clean water. We are confident that EPA will take our petition seriously and that the state will hopefully be forced to come into compliance.”

BUXTON — As storm-roiled ocean surf continued to unbury noxious reminders of an old submarine surveillance base, aggressive action is finally being taken this week to address the ongoing blight of a Cape Hatteras National Seashore beach.

Contractors for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are scheduled to start work Friday near Old Lighthouse Beach in an intensified effort to locate the source of intermittent fuel odors and oily soil clumps first exposed more than a year ago by storm erosion.

“The overall objective of the response action is to remove visible petroleum-impacted soils from the beach and dunes,” said Cheri Pritchard, media operations chief at the Corps’ Savannah office, in a Sept. 18 email response to questions from Coastal Review. The specific amount of material that will be removed, Pritchard said in the email, was “yet to be determined.”

The Corps in 1991 designated the former Naval facility as a Formerly Used Defense Site, or FUDS property. The Corps has since taken responsibility for cleanup of petroleum infrastructure and spills and leaks in surrounding soil at the 50-acre site. But during numerous visits over recent months to the site, the FUDS teams said that the current source of the petroleum had been difficult to pinpoint due to increased erosion, ever-changing conditions and the passage of time.

Bay West, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based environmental services company, was recently awarded a contract by the Corps to remove contaminated soils at the site.

According the information the FUDS team provided to Pritchard in the email, the contractors will work in up to four quadrants of various sizes along the beach and dunes, likely using heavy equipment such as excavators and roll-off containers.

“The contractor will excavate and containerize the petroleum-impacted soils from these areas and then properly transport and dispose of the material at an offsite waste management facility,” according to the email.

Depths of excavations of oily soil will vary, but generally would be expected to go down to the water table.

After fielding numerous questions and concerns from the community during the Sept. 3 Dare County Board of Commissioners meeting, Col. Ronald Sturgeon, the Corps’ Savannah District commander, traveled down to Buxton with other Corps officials.

About a week later, the Corps announced that it would send a district-level team in response to the fuel sheen and odors to monitor the site. According to the FUDS email, the team, which will stay until the contractors are onsite, has performed test pits on the beach and west of the dunes to identify petroleum-impacted soils.

 “We are committed to the safety of the community. Together with our federal, state and local partners, we’re going to find the contamination, and we’re going to remove it,” Lt. Gen. Scott A. Spellmon, Corps of Engineers commanding general, said in a Sept. 9 press statement.

In September 2023, the National Park Service closed three-tenths of a mile of Buxton Beach after reports of oily peat clumps on the beach, a strong odor of diesel, and an oily sheen in the nearshore ocean.

In addition to the fuel issues, the beach was littered with remnants of Naval base infrastructure, including large chunks of concrete and rusted rebar and wiring.

In the year since, the debris has been covered or partially covered by sand, then reexposed, depending on storms, tides and winds. And the fuel smells and sheen have also come and gone, although their appearance is more mysterious. But as the ocean eats away at the shoreline, each exposure seems worse than the time before.

Related: ‘Strong petroleum smells’ lead to expanded beach closure

With strong northeast winds on Sept. 5 carrying powerful petroleum odors along the beach near the FUDS location, as well as exposing more debris, Cape Hatteras National Seashore announced in a press release that it was expanding the size of an already-closed beach area.

“The precautionary expansion, implemented in consultation with the Dare County Department of Health and Human Services, closes the beach from the southern end of the location of beachfront homes in the village of Buxton, located at the end of Old Lighthouse Road, to approximately 0.25 miles south of the old lighthouse jetties,” according to the statement.

“We are working with the Coast Guard Sector N.C. and the EPA’s Regional Response team to see if there is some way the saturated sections of petroleum soil that are being uncovered can be removed to mitigate the releases into the ocean,” Dave Hallac, the superintendent of National Parks of Eastern North Carolina, said in a Sept. 5 email.  “We are also asking if something can be done to prevent the sheens that are coming out of the sand/water interface from washing into the ocean.”

Hallac was unavailable to be interviewed for this report.

Although the Buxton Naval Facility, decommissioned in 1982, qualified as a FUDS property — a status for sites transferred outside Department of Defense control prior to Oct. 1986 — the Savannah district says it does not have the authority to remove the remnant infrastructure from the property.

Still, in the process of removing petroleum-impacted soil, if it is found under remaining infrastructure, the Corps will respond.

“The response action will include excavating, with the possible removal, of petroleum-impact soil beneath some of the remnant infrastructure which may require removal of limited amounts of infrastructure that is incidental to accessing the impacted soil,” the FUDS team said in the email.

The site cleanup is made more complicated by the fact that the Coast Guard most recently used the property as a base until 2010, and left behind its own hazards, which are currently being reviewed by the Coast Guard.

According to a portion of its special use permit issued in 1956 to the Navy that the Cape Hatteras National Seashore cited on its website, it appears that the Navy may have slipped out of town before meeting its part of the deal.

Condition 11 of the permit states that “The permittee shall remove all structures, foundations, and pavements, and clean up and restore the site prior to or immediately following termination of use.”

“The Navy concluded operations at NAVFAC Cape Hatteras in June 1982;” the park service website said, “however, all buildings and infrastructure remained at the site.”

But with the Navy long gone and the Corps saying it lacks authority to get rid of the growing amount of debris, all eyes are now focused on getting rid of the petroleum pollution that is washing into the Atlantic and coating the beach.

The debris cleanup will be for another day.

Because of “strong petroleum smells” noted early Thursday, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore staff has temporarily expanded the boundaries of a previously closed section of Buxton beach adjacent to a former military site.

About 0.2 miles of beachfront where the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard had bases from 1956 until 2010 have remained closed since Sept. 1, 2023, “after naturally occurring barrier island erosion uncovered potentially hazardous infrastructure associated with the Navy and Coast Guard bases and visitors reported a strong smell of petroleum.” Since then, the park staff has been working with other agencies to mitigate the issue.

Staff said that over the past 24 to 36 hours, several feet of sand had washed away, exposing the soil and groundwater. The erosion uncovered a significant amount of hazardous remnant Navy and Coast Guard infrastructure, such as concrete, rebar, wires, PVC and metal pipes, metal fragments, and cables that have been left in the ground.

Around 8:30 a.m. Thursday, staff reminded visitors that the 0.3-mile-long section of beach was closed at what is now the Buxton Formerly Used Defense Site, or FUDS, because the “soil and groundwater that is apparently contaminated with petroleum from historic military use of the site is now exposed to the beachfront during low tide, and wave action during high tide.”

About an hour later and after consulting Dare County Department of Health and Human services, staff said the closure had been expanded 0.25 miles south of the old lighthouse jetties. The closure includes the beach in front of the southern groin and the Old Lighthouse Beach parking areas.

“The odors were impacting the area due to the strong northeast winds and erosion which is apparently exposing historic petroleum contamination at the FUDS,” according to the 9:30 a.m. Thursday update.

Seashore staff reported the observed petroleum exposure to the National Response Center, operated by the Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers and other state agencies that assist with pollution response. Staff also asked the interagency Regional Response Team, which coordinates response and provide technical advice during oil spills or pollution events, for help.

The closure may change over the coming days based on ongoing field observations and will update the public as information comes available, staff said.

Historical information about the former military site is at http://go.nps.gov/buxtonbeach. Recent and historical photos of the site are in the Buxton Beach Access photo album. 

SHALLOTTE – Brunswick County officials announced Friday that more than 11,000 gallons of treated chlorinated wastewater was unintentionally released in a construction mishap Thursday, with about 1,000 gallons reaching a nearby stream.

Brunswick County Public Utilities issued a notice that the bypass of treated chlorinated wastewater occurred at the Shallotte Wastewater Treatment Plant after a construction-related incident during the installation of a new force main.

The bypass was reported to Brunswick County staff at 3 p.m. Thursday and the problem was fixed within the hour.

“It is believed approximately 11,213 gallons of treated chlorinated wastewater were released. Approximately 1,000 gallons reached Williams Branch,” according to the county notice, which is required by state law, and noted that remediation of the affected site was ongoing.

Williams Branch is in the Lumber River basin and is classified as C and Sw, according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

Class C waters are “protected for uses such as aquatic life propagation, survival and maintenance of biological integrity (including fishing and fish), wildlife, secondary contact recreation, and agriculture. Secondary contact recreation means wading, boating, other uses not involving human body contact with water, and activities involving human body contact with water where such activities take place on an infrequent, unorganized, or incidental basis,” per NCDEQ.

Class Sw waters are swampwaters.

Reprinted from the Ocracoke Observer

One can feel helpless at times as to what one can do in the face of large-scale environmental catastrophes such as the unfathomable amount of plastic in the ocean. But individuals can take some actions that can make a positive difference and keeping the night as dark as possible is one of them.

Kaye and Rick Kohler are longtime vacation visitors to Ocracoke, during their visit in June they discussed their efforts in a talk in the Ocracoke Community Library: “Dark Skies: How to Preserve and Protect One of the Island’s Natural Wonders.” Rick also was a guest on WOVV’s “What’s Happening on Ocracoke.” 

The Kohlers live in Rappahannock County by the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

As longtime members of the Rappahannock League for Environmental Protection, they have been concerned with the harmful effects of artificial lighting on the health of people and wildlife.

In 2019, the League, working with others, was successful in getting the Rappahannock community park certified as a Silver-Tier Dark Skies Park by the DarkSky International (IDA).

The IDA’s mission is to raise awareness about the negative effects of artificial light at night on human health, wildlife, and to provide the public with information and resources to help restore the night.

They have their work cut out as every year light pollution is increasing by about 10 percent around the USA, Rick said in his talk.

Rick and Kaye’s talk focused on what the IDA says, there is overwhelming evidence that light pollution can have harmful impacts on both people and wildlife and they provided examples.

Like many animals, humans have biological clocks called circadian rhythms regulated by the natural light-dark cycle.

Artificial lighting can disrupt these rhythms, which can cause insomnia, eye strain, headaches and lead to stress, anxiety and depression.

Artificial light can harm animals and even plants.

Nocturnal frogs and toads rely on darkness to make their mating calls. Excessive lighting can adversely impact their reproduction rates.

During nocturnal migration, birds become disoriented by bright lights causing millions of deaths every year by fatal collisions with tall lit buildings, some with reflective glass walls.

Last October, more than 1,000 birds were killed striking just one lit building in Chicago which lies along a major migratory route.

Fireflies are facing a worldwide decreasing population. Their flash of light is their mating signal and without darkness, they cannot find mates.

Some plants rely on specific lengths of daylight to trigger flowering and artificial lighting can cause them to grow more rapidly, flower out of season or not at all. Light pollution can disrupt the behavior of nocturnal pollinators like moths. One study showed that moths flew toward the street lamps and away from flowering plants. This resulted in a reduction of plant pollination. 

Artificial lighting can cause sea turtle hatchlings to become disoriented and wander inland, where they often die of dehydration or predation by ghost crabs, raccoons, opossums and coyotes, according to the Sea Turtle Conservancy.

Its website notes scientists believe the hatchlings have an innate instinct that leads them to the brightest horizon, which, historically meant over the ocean.

The Cape Hatteras National Seashore provides information on how artificial light is harmful to hatchlings and what steps can be taken to reduce lighting.

Coastal communities around the world have passed ordinances that require residents to turn off beachfront lights during turtle nesting season, but not everyone complies.

In the upper Outer Banks, when sea turtles are getting ready to hatch, physical barriers, like screens or shades, are put up to block light from reaching the beach.

Ocracoke village is surrounded by dark skies, which makes stargazing and astronomy an attraction.

But Ocracoke village has grown brighter in the last several years, creating what is known as a sky glow that reduces the ability to see the stars at night.

The Kohlers say a lot of this diffused light can be remedied by using down-shielded light fixtures that direct the light downward where it is needed and does not allow the light to go upward.

Other steps include using warm-colored LED bulbs with a color temperature of 3000K or lower. These bulbs emit less blue light, which is more likely to scatter in the atmosphere.

Smart lighting systems, motion sensors and timers ensure that lights are only on when necessary, thereby reducing overall light output.

In 2021, Cape Lookout National Seashore became an International Dark Sky Park designated by the IDA. It joined 121 other national parks and is the first to receive this certification on the Atlantic Coast. This was achieved by community support from the Crystal Coast Stargazers Club, the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center and the Carteret County Chamber of Commerce.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore has completed some steps in the process, but an official application has not been submitted, according to Mike Barber, the public affairs specialist.

Unlike the challenge of combatting human-caused climate change, reducing light pollution is as easy as simply leaving lights off at night whenever possible and by directing outside lighting downward.

So, comparatively, drastically reducing one of our many forms of pollution is as easy as, well, the flick of a light switch.

Also from the Ocracoke Observer: Let’s get Cape Hatteras National Seashore designated as an International Dark Sky Park

This story is provided courtesy of the Ocracoke Observer, a newspaper covering Ocracoke island. Coastal Review Online partners with the Ocracoke Observer to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast.

A stormwater retrofit project aimed to improve water quality in the Bradley Hewletts Creek Watersheds is in progress on the campus of University of North Carolina Wilmington.

The work to replace sections of conventional asphalt at Randall parking lot with permeable pavement began in late June and is expected to be complete in about a week. This type of pavement allows stormwater to pass through to the ground underneath, rather than flow directly into storm drains.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation, UNCW and the city’s Heal Our Waterways Program have been working with Coastal Stormwater Services Inc. and DiMaio Concrete, both based in Wilmington, on the stormwater retrofit project.

The project is one of numerous that have taken place since a watershed restoration plan was adopted in 2007.

“This collaborative initiative continues to make great strides towards achieving the goals within the Bradley and Hewletts Creeks Watershed Restoration Plan. We’re thrilled to see more nature-based solutions to help protect Bradley Creek come together through the hard work and determination of this partnership,” Anna Reh-Gingerich, watershed coordinator with Heal Our Waterways, said in a statement.

Since 2019, the university, the Coastal Federation and Wilmington have installed several rain gardens and numerous parking lot paving retrofits.

“We are pleased to have this parking lot help reduce runoff and be able to showcase these techniques along with our campus rain gardens as a living classroom,” Feletia Lee, UNCW’s chief sustainability officer, said in a statement.

This stormwater retrofit project was supported by the North Carolina Division of Water Resources’ Environmental Protection Agency’s Section 319 Water Quality Program. 

The Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday it plans to begin as soon as this month geophysical work to identify any potential fuel distribution components remaining at the Buxton Naval Facility site that’s part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

In its announcement, the Corps said the subsurface survey work would begin no later than early July and that a contractor would perform comprehensive sampling at the Formerly Used Defense Site, or FUDS, site in Dare County sometime later this year.

“We’re committed to advancing our investigative efforts at the Buxton FUDS project,” said Col. Ron Sturgeon, the Corps’ Savannah District commander, in a statement. “After thoroughly reviewing the data collected to date at the site, we have determined that a more comprehensive investigation is needed within the project area to further assess the site based on current conditions.”

Officials said that once the geophysical work was complete, the results would be used in drafting a plan to follow in the comprehensive sampling. A contract for the additional work is anticipated to be awarded in October.

The Corps said these next steps were identified after recent investigations and the completion of an internal review by its Environmental and Munitions Center of Expertise. The review included thorough assessment of data from a site visit, interviews with Corps, National Park Service, Coast Guard and contractor personnel, as well as a evaluation of 40 or so documents pertaining to prior and current observations, investigations and corrective actions taken at the FUDS site. The document, called The Strategic Optimization Technical Memorandum, is available in the center’s report.

The Corps said it also completed pipe removal work at the Buxton FUDS site last month, work that also included soil sampling. The contractor was waiting to receive the raw data from the laboratory, the Corps said, and once that is received and reviewed, final results will be publicly shared.

BUXTON  — Two Army Corps of Engineers officials who oversee environmental pollution cleanup at a former Navy base at Cape Hatteras met Tuesday evening with area residents to address their frustration about intermittent petroleum odors and exposed infrastructure debris on the eroded beach near the site.

“Sometimes you see things there, and a day later they’re covered up,” Col. Ronald Sturgeon, the Corps’ Savannah District commander, told attendees at Dare County’s Fessenden Center. “It is certainly a complex site, a very unique situation down here.”   

As part of Sturgeon’s duties with the Corps, he is in charge of the Savannah District’s Formerly Used Defense Site, or FUDS, program in the Southeast that has previously removed storage tanks and 4,000 tons of petroleum-contaminated soil at the former submarine survey operation in Buxton, as well as groundwater remediation and continued monitoring. The Corps was designated in 1991 to take responsibility for environmental restoration of the site.

Although the area is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore — the landowner — the debris and apparent contamination are remnants of two military bases that operated from 1956 to 2010, first by the Navy and then the Coast Guard. Increasingly severe coastal erosion has unburied remains of base structures, including septic systems and pipes sticking out of dunes where there’s been escarpment.

Since a series of late summer storms, there have been periodic reports from the public of a strong diesel smell at Buxton Beach, as well as evidence of petroleum-contaminated soil, an oily sheen on the nearshore ocean waters, and expanding amounts of concrete, rebar and pipes exposed on the shoreline. In September, the National Park Service closed 0.3 miles of beach near the end of Old Lighthouse Road.

Sturgeon said a FUDS team has come to the site repeatedly since September. Most recently on Monday, May 13, when contractors removed a suspect pipe from the beach and collected samples from surrounding soil. Results were expected within 10 days.

If the sampling shows contamination, he said, additional funds will be requested.

Glenn Marks, chief of reimbursable programs and project management at the Corps’ Savannah District, said about 70 to 80 feet of pipe was removed as part of the $525,000 project.

When asked by an attendee about who “the onus falls on” to remove from the beach the chunks of foundation and other remains of the Navy base, Sturgeon said that the FUDS regulation does not provide the authority or funding.

“If there is not environmental hazards out there, how are we as a collective group going to take care of this?” he responded. “The U.S. Corps of Engineers has never received direct funding for that. The (Corps) would have a hand in that if funding was provided by the landowners.”

According to the National Park Service, its permit issued to the Navy in 1956 required that all structures, including foundations, be removed and that the 50-acre site would be cleaned up when the Navy ceased operations in 1982. In addition, its 1991 agreement with the Coast Guard, the agency said, obligated the Coast Guard to remove structures, restore the landscape, conduct a hazardous materials survey and take responsibility for any necessary mitigation and/or cleanup. Coast Guard Group Cape Hatteras was operating in Buxton from 1984 through 2010, when the base relocated to Fort Macon.

But as far as current cleanup obligations and responsibilities, details about who, what and when have become a bureaucratic muddle. There are also the complications created by the remove of decades and quickly changing conditions from rising sea levels and increased coastal erosion.  

The Coast Guard and the Corps, however, have worked closely with Cape Hatteras National Seashore officials to resolve the issues and determine appropriate funding and authorization options, said Superintendent David Hallac.

“We are looking forward to a complete remediation of this site,” he told the community members. “I am proud we have good partners.”

Even though all three parties are part of the federal government, each bumps up against the other’s rigid regulatory strictures, tight budgets and staff shortages, and legal fuzziness. The old Navy base, for instance, is no longer part of the Navy, but its cleanup is still managed under the Department of Defense, and it is now the Corps’ FUDS baby.

The Coast Guard, however, while military-adjacent, is part of the Department of Homeland Security, not the Defense Department. And the National Park Service is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, a huge federal agency with management concerns centered on conservation of natural resources and recreational areas, such as Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

To complicate matters further, Hallac said some Coast Guard structures are actually on top of Navy building foundations.

“I think the most important thing is we’re not going to stop working till we get all this debris off the beach,” he said. “The take-home message is there’s a lot of debris under the sand and it all has to be removed.”

Related: Park Service urges public to avoid debris on Rodanthe beach

The Coast Guard had completed an environmental site assessment in 2008 and a soil assessment for the onsite wastewater facility in 2010, according to the National Park Service.

Although polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, metals, pesticides and other contaminants above acceptable Environmental Protection Agency standards were found in the soil, remediation through the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation, and Liabilities Act, or CERCLA, process was not done at the two affected drain fields, according to the Park Service said.

In 2021, Hallac reached out to the Coast Guard, which restarted the survey work, taking numerous water and soil samples across 32 acres at the site, said Joseph Lambert, an environmental engineer with the Coast Guard’s Cleveland Engineering Unit, during a brief interview after the meeting. A report on the findings is currently being reviewed and is expected to be finalized this summer.

Coast Guard Sector North Carolina Capt. Timothy List, who also participated in Tuesday’s information session, said that the scope of contamination is not yet clearly defined, but that the Coast Guard intends to do its part, while also working with its partners, to clean up the site.

“We’re here to continue for the long haul,” he told attendees.

It remains unclear why the cleanup and removal work required under the Navy and Coast Guard permits was not completed.

Marks said that his understanding is that the Navy permit is expired, although he didn’t explain what effect that would have on the conditions that had been stipulated.

“I cannot speak for what the Navy signed up for or did not sign up for,” he said.

Julie Youngman, senior attorney with Southern Environmental Law Center, noted during the public comment portion of the meeting that any similar pollution or debris sullying a more prominent national park such as Yellowstone “wouldn’t be there a week.”

Referring to a provision in the Department of Defense manual, “Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP) Management,” Youngman asked the Corps’ representatives whether they had asked their bosses about trying to qualify the unique Cape Hatteras situation for special consideration.

According to the “Petition for Eligibility” on page 18 of the manual, “… in exceptional cases, a DoD Component may petition the … Environmental Management Directorate … for clarification or approval to consider a specific activity as an eligible environmental restoration activity.”

Responded Marks: “I’ll commit to looking into it and having me and the lawyers look into it and see if that holds water.”

In an April 30 letter from Kyle Lewis, an environmental attorney for the Corps’ Savannah District, answering an inquiry from Youngman and North Carolina Coastal Federation Executive Director Braxton Davis said that the Corps’ authority to remove the “remnant” and unsafe structures is limited to what existed at the time the Navy left the site. 

“The infrastructure that is currently being exposed by erosion was sound when transferred out of DoD control in 1982; therefore such structures are not eligible to be addressed under the FUDS Program,” Lewis wrote.

The state Department of Environmental Quality and Dare County Department of Health and Human Services also have been working with the agency partners to urge action on the cleanup and to keep the public informed.

Meanwhile, as residents reminded the officials, whether because of regulatory or funding constraints, the public beach in their community — a favorite spot to surf and swim and stroll at Cape Hatteras National Seashore — is still littered with ugly and dangerous chunks of concrete and rebar and stinks of diesel, and it’s all because of the infrastructure and contaminants that the Navy and the Coast Guard left behind.

One man named Michael who owns a vacation house near the closed beach lamented that his rental income is now “nonexistent.”

“So we can’t rent the house, we can’t sell the house, we can’t live in the house,” he said.

Trip Forman, co-founder of REAL Watersports in Waves on Hatteras Island, said during the public comment period that the negative message about the situation has become a blight on tourism.

“Something needs to be done to resolve this,” Forman said “There’s a lot of cancellations. There’s a lot of negative press. It’s spinning out of control.”

The Corps will establish a restoration advisory board, a public forum for sharing information with the community, for the Buxton site within a year, Marks, with the Corps, said. 

Dare County officials also promised to stay involved and keep the public informed about the situation.

“We’re committed to see this through,” said Dare County Board of Commissioners Chair Bob Woodard.

The state is advising the public to avoid fishing and recreational activity along a portion of Swift Creek in Craven County because of an animal waste spill in the area.

The Department of Environmental Quality Division of Water Resources staff were alerted Tuesday to animal waste in ditches from an unknown source, which was later identified as St. John Farm, permit number AWS25006, at 320 St. John Road in Grifton.

The swine farm has a capacity of about 2,450 hogs with a little more than 1,860 as of a routine state visit April 19 for a compliance inspection. That report noted evidence of incorrect land application, “outside the crop window” for soybeans. It also found that soil analysis recordkeeping was inadequate.

The state attributed the discharge to over-application of animal waste, resulting in run-off that migrated off-site to surface waters. The incident remains under investigation, including the amount discharged and the cause, and any necessary corrective actions to be undertaken, officials said.

Residents are advised to avoid any contact with the water in Swift Creek from Honolulu Road to N.C. Highway 118 west of Vanceboro. Swift Creek flows into the Neuse River near New Bern.

The division said it would continue to monitor water quality in the area. Files related to the facility can be viewed online.

BUXTON — The Army Corps of Engineers announced Monday that it is taking action related to intermittent evidence of petroleum odors and sheen at a Cape Hatteras National Seashore beach.

In a press release from the Savanah District Formerly Used Defense Site, or FUDS, program, the Corps said it will remove a pipe and sample surrounding soil to determine if it is the potential source of the petroleum.

After months of on-and-off reports from the public of strong diesel fuel odors and sheen present on the beach and in the ocean, the National Park Service told the FUDS office that a suspect pipe was observed on an eroded section of beach, the release said.

The Corps is working in partnership with the park service as part of an ongoing cleanup and investigation of pollutants related to former bases at the site that had been used by the U.S. Navy and the Coast Guard.

A contract to remove the pipe and test the soil is expected to be awarded by September, with work likely beginning by late 2024 or early 2025, the FUDS release said.

About a third of a mile of Buxton Beach has been closed for months because of the petroleum contamination concern and increasing amounts of debris exposed after a series of storms. Huge slabs of concrete, wires and other infrastructure remains now litter the national seashore where the old Navy base had once stood.

The FUDS program does not provide the authority or the funding under the Department of Defense law covering the debris removal, the Corps said. The program has previously removed petroleum pollutants from the former Navy site.

“All FUDS Program remediation efforts are authorized by Congress and are restricted to cleaning up properties formerly owned by, leased to, or otherwise possessed by the United States and transferred outside DoD control prior to Oct. 17, 1986,” according to the release.

“The FUDS Program may only address restoration activities which are determined to be the result of DoD activities,” the statement said. “However, the remnant infrastructures, exposed on the beach after storm erosion, are not eligible for removal under the FUDS Program, as those structures were not in an unsafe condition at the time the site was transferred out of DoD control.”

As part of the pipe removal contract, the Corps will establish a Restoration Advisory Board, which “serves as a forum for discussion and exchange of information between agencies and affected communities,” the statement said.

Also, a summary report that is currently under review will be posted to the Savannah District website when completed.

“The Army Corps of Engineers is committed to advancing remediation efforts authorized under the FUDS program to protect the health and well-being of communities and the environment,” the release said.

 Questions for the FUDS Program team members can be addressed to cesas-FUDS@usace.army.mil, with ‘Buxton FUDS’ in the subject line. To learn more about the project, visit Buxton FUDS.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it has set federally enforceable limits on nearly a half-dozen individual PFAS in public water systems.

The historic move also limits any combination of two or more of four per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and starts the countdown for thousands of public water suppliers throughout the country to monitor for those chemicals and report their findings to their customers.

An estimated 6 to 10% of 66,000 drinking water systems throughout the country have three years to comply. In North Carolina, a combined more than 300 municipal and small water systems sampled in 2022 had PFAS detections above the newly established maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs, according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

Utilities that have drinking water contaminated with PFAS exceeding the MCLs will be given five years to integrate technology at their facilities to reduce the amounts of the chemical compounds flowing from their customers’ taps.

The EPA’s much-anticipated final rule was hailed as a first step by a host of North Carolina environmental and advocacy organizations that have been calling for federal and state regulators to ultimately clamp down on industries that release PFAS into the environment.

PFAS are a mixture of chemicals used in a host of consumer products from nonstick cookware and food packaging to stain resistant carpets, water repellant attire and makeup.

These chemicals have been found in a number of drinking water sources in North Carolina through contaminators including industrial manufacturers, landfills and firefighting facilities.

Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent said in a statement that while the organization applauds the EPA’s decision, the federal government has for nearly 30 years known about the health hazards of PFAS.

“And even now, they refuse to regulate the corporations directly by requiring them to stop the pollution at the source, but instead put the burden on utilities to either filter this dangerous filth, or do the government’s job to pressure companies to stop discharging it. So, while we thank the EPA for this work, we implore them and our legislators and environmental regulators to recognize that decades of their entities’ negligence, and support of corporate greed, has caused the illnesses and deaths of thousands of Americans and the degradation to our ecosystems, including that of the Cape Fear River,” the statement reads.

The Cape Fear region has been ground zero for PFAS contamination in the state after researchers several years ago discovered a number of the chemical compounds in the river, a drinking water source for more than a half-million North Carolinians.

The revelation that the Chemours Co. Fayetteville Works facility, located more than 70 miles upstream of Wilmington, had been discharging PFAS into the river, air and ground for decades ignited a fury of lawsuits and state-supported investigative studies on everything from effective PFAS filtration methods and source detections to human health studies.

Chemours, which now operates under a consent order that resulted from a legal challenge by Cape Fear River Watch and DEQ has reduced the amount of PFAS it emits into the environment through various measures. These include the construction of a mile-long, underground barrier to keep PFAS-contaminated groundwater from seeping to the Cape Fear.

One of the EPA’s now regulated individual chemical compounds known commercially as GenX has been discharged specifically from the Chemours plant in Bladen County.

Shortly after the EPA in June 2022 revised the GenX health level advisory to 10 parts per trillion, Chemours sued, arguing the agency failed to use the best available science when making its determination.

The case was argued earlier this year in the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, Chemours’ headquarters. A decision has not been rendered in that case.

The new federal regulatory limit on GenX is 10 parts per trillion, or ppt.

Other maximum limits on individual PFAS include the following:

• Perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, at 4 ppt.
• Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, at 4 ppt.
• Perfluorononoanoic acid, or PFNA, at 10 ppt.
• Perfluorohexane sulfonate, or PFHxS, at 10 ppt.

Any mixture of two or more of GenX, PFNA, PFHxS, and perfluorobutane sulfonate, or PFBS, may not exceed a hazard index of 1. The hazard index is made up of a sum of fractions used to calculate humans’ exposure to levels where health effects are not anticipated to occur.

PFOA and PFOS are two of the most widely studied PFAS.

Health studies on other PFAS, including GenX, are ongoing, though the number of compounds being studied pale in comparison to the number of PFAS identified in the EPA’s registry – 15,000.

Current studies suggest PFAS affect pregnant women and developing babies, immune systems, increase the risk of certain types of cancers, and may result in elevated cholesterol levels, which increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Government leaders in various states, including North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, on Wednesday lauded the EPA’s final rule.

Cooper thanked EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who headed DEQ before taking the helm at the federal agency, for “taking this action to protect drinking water in North Carolina and across the country.”

“We asked for this because we know science-based standards for PFAS and other compounds are desperately needed,” Cooper said in a release.

DEQ has sampled 50 municipal and county water systems and more than 530 small public water systems since 2022, according to the agency.

“DEQ has already worked with water systems to measure for PFAS in advance of this rule, so they are well prepared to utilize the funding available now to take action and protect the people of North Carolina,” DEQ Secretary Elizabeth Biser said in a release.

Biser was referring to funding through the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a bipartisan bill that President Joe Biden signed into law in late 2021. That measure set aside $9 billion to help communities upgrade drinking water systems with technologies that remove PFAS.

Currently though, there are no federal safeguards in place for private well owners.

DEQ has required Chemours to test thousands of private water wells in New Hanover, Brunswick, Columbus and Pender counties and identify residents who may be eligible for replacement drinking water at the cost of the company.

The agency more recently introduced a statewide program to aid residents whose well water is found to have PFAS at or above health advisory levels. The program targets PFAS contamination of private wells in areas where there is not a designated responsible part to provide alternative drinking water.

Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear, said in a release she is grateful that the EPA “heard our pleas and kept its promise to the American people.”

“We will keep fighting until all exposures to PFAS end and the chemical companies responsible for business-related human rights abuses are held fully accountable,” she stated.

Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney Jean Zhuang said the EPA’s new drinking water standards are “a welcome backstop” and called for federal, state and municipal leaders to stop PFAS pollution at the source.

“The Clean Water Act already provides the tools necessary for agencies to stop PFAS pollution through the permitting process before it gets into drinking water sources,” Zhaung said in a release. “If existing laws are enforced, as they should be, they will keep PFAS pollution out of our waterways and downstream drinking water.”   

N.C. Conservation Network Environmental Health Campaigns Manager Stephanie Schweikert expressed similar sentiments in a statement to the media.

“EPA’s historic and protective new drinking water standards for PFAS will go a long way toward protecting North Carolinians from the adverse health impacts of forever chemicals exposure – particularly when paired with existing federal investments available to upgrade water utilities,” she stated. “North Carolina leaders must now take steps to address industrial discharges and turn off the tape of PFAS pollution at the source.”

WILMINGTON – North Carolina’s leading PFAS researchers aim to trace the chemical compounds found in waterways, air and soil in the state to the polluters emitting them.

Using newly acquired machines called mass spectrometers, scientists will also have the ability to identify per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances not in the Environmental Protection Agency’s registry, one that has steadily grown over the past several years from a few thousand to 15,000 known PFAS today.

The brand-new fleet of mass spectrometers are being disbursed to research labs on a handful of university campuses that are part of the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory’s PFAS Testing Network.

Referred to as the PFAST Network, this group of academic researchers was created after scientists at N.C. State University and the EPA discovered that the Cape Fear River, the drinking water sources for tens of thousands, contained elevated levels of PFAS.

The discovery sparked what has become a nationally-recognized, state-led effort to better understand the potential human health effects of PFAS and ways to cut down the amount of these chemicals from getting into the environment.

Academic researchers, state legislators, environmental regulators and representatives with Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the multibillion-dollar company that makes the mass spectrometers, recently hosted a press conference on the campus of the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Center for Marine Science to announce how the technology will be used to expand PFAS research here in the state.

Related: Secretaries’ Science Board to review PFAS’ effects

Dr. Lee Ferguson, an environmental analytical chemist and assistant professor at Duke University, said the investments by the North Carolina General Assembly, which has pumped millions into PFAS research, and the collaboration with Thermo Fisher, puts the network at the cusp of increasing the sophistication of its PFAS investigations.

The mass spectrometers will allow researchers to move from canvassing the state for PFAS contamination to “understanding sources, tracking those sources, fingerprinting those sources and then move into collaborations with treatment technologies and treatment engineers to try to remove those contamination sources,” he said.

“Specifically, the new instrumentation that we are getting, and already have in some cases, will allow us to do things like ultra-fast and ultra-sensitive, targeted and nontargeted analysis so that we can try to get a picture of those 15,000 PFAS compounds that may be present,” Ferguson said.

In all, five mass spectrometers are being delivered to labs at Duke University, N.C. State, UNCW and East Carolina University.

Thermo Fisher showcased a mock mass spectrometer at the March 27 afternoon press conference. The instrument is not exactly a visual marvel. It looks like a large, boxy-shaped piece of equipment you might see in any given lab.

Each machine will be used like a key that will unlock some of the mysteries about PFAS –which PFAS are in the environment, what levels of them are in the environment, where they’re coming from and what treatments are available to reduce the amount that get into the environment.

UNCW Professor Dr. Ralph Mead explained that the mass spectrometer in a lab he heads at the university’s Center for Marine Science will be used to investigate samples of everything from rain and snow to soil.

“Specifically, the questions that we’re trying to address is understanding can we use that instrument to develop a forensics approach to trace the source of PFAS, as well as understand the fate and ultimate transport of it,” he said.

As researchers gather this and other information, they will be able to create an online library, one that would be a resource for environmental regulators and law makers navigating how much to crack down on industries that use PFAS to make a sweeping array of consumer goods.

The General Assembly will, by this July, have appropriated more than $50 million for the collaboratory specifically to perform PFAS-related research in the state.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-New Hanover, one of a small number of state delegates who spoke at last week’s press conference, said North Carolina is fortunate, not because it is, in some respects, ground zero for PFAS, but because the state has some of the leading experts to take on PFAS research.

“Here we are today utilizing state-of-the-art equipment from a great company to really accomplish some of the goals that we not only want as a state, but we want as a solution to a worldwide problem,” he said.

Rep. Deb Butler, D-New Hanover, said the discovery of PFAS in the Cape Fear region is a reminder of the far-reaching consequences of unchecked pollution.

“For too long, PFAS contamination has lurked beneath the surface undetected and unchecked,” she said. “In my opinion, we have not been diligent enough on the front-end of manufacturing and that must change. We must demand stringent standards for PFAS emissions, as well as any discharge that affects our public trust resources. We must strengthen enforcement mechanisms and promote pollution prevention initiatives. By addressing the root causes of contamination rather than focusing on the cleanup, we will better serve the citizens of North Carolina.”

Morehead City officials say an estimated 1,500 gallons of untreated wastewater was discharged Monday into Peletier Creek, which flows into Bogue Sound.

According to a Morehead City press release, the discharge occurred at South Coral Drive, near the Virginia Avenue intersection.

The issue was due to underground roots that caused a crack in the pipes.

Morehead City crews were on site within 10 minutes of the discovery and all repairs were made within an hour, according to the press release.

The state Division of Water Resources was notified of the discharge and is reviewing the matter, town officials said.

Update 9:35 a.m. March 26:

A meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday in Buxton for the public to hear updates on the status of petroleum contamination and hazardous infrastructure remediation at Cape Hatteras National Seashore’s Buxton Beach Access, officials announced Monday evening.

Seashore Superintendent David Hallac will give a presentation during the meeting being held in in the Fessenden center in Buxton, and the National Park Service staff will be available to answer questions.

History about the access is at http://go.nps.gov/buxtonbeach and photos are available at Buxton Beach Access photo album.

Original post 5 p.m. March 25:

Cape Hatteras National Seashore, state and Dare County health officials issued a public health advisory Monday for the Buxton Beach Access because of petroleum-contaminated soils that recently have caused alarm.

Officials said the contaminated soils were likely exposed by beach erosion near the former site of Naval Facility Cape Hatteras and Coast Guard Group Cape Hatteras in Buxton, from the near 46285 Old Lighthouse Road to and including the first jetty.

Officials cited cases of varying mild to moderate headache, nausea and skin irritation affecting people who had participated in recreational water activities in the area.

Since Sept. 1, 2023, when the agencies and the Army Corps of Engineers issued a precautionary public health advisory, multiple soil samples have shown the presence of weathered light fuel oil, a small amount of lubricating oil, petroleum hydrocarbons, and nonpetroleum contamination.

Related: Diesel odor returns to Buxton beach; source still unknown

The beach in this area has remained closed since the issuance of the precautionary public health advisory, and on-site mitigation work has not started, officials said Monday.

Until the petroleum contaminated soils are mitigated and the area is declared safe, environmental and public health officials recommend avoiding swimming, wading or fishing in this area in Buxton until further notice. If skin comes in contact with contaminated sediment or water, thoroughly wash the affected area with soap and water.

In addition to the potential health risks related to petroleum contamination, there are a number of remnants of what is believed to be Navy and Coast Guard infrastructure, officials warned. These structures include concrete bunkers and building foundations that may pose hazards to swimmers, surfers and beachgoers.

Area residents who rely on a private drinking well should have the well water sampled to ensure it does not contain contaminants. If the well is a drinking water well, contact Dare County Department of Health and Human Services at 252-475-5088 to schedule sampling.

Those who notice plumes, sheens or fish kills in this area should call the Environmental Protection Agency National Response Center at 800-424-8802.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation announced Wednesday that it is gearing up for the annual Spring Litter Sweep, April 13-27.

Department officials said the Spring Litter Sweep is one of NCDOT’s roadside litter removal initiatives that “harnesses the power of community engagement to tackle the issue of roadside litter.” NCDOT encourages residents to participate in efforts in their area to help clean up North Carolina’s roads during the two-week period. 

“We’re grateful for the dedication and enthusiasm of our volunteers who step up each year to participate in the litter sweeps,” said David Harris, NCDOT’s Roadside Environmental engineer. “Their commitment to helping us keep our roadsides clean is truly commendable. Their hard work and passion contribute to a cleaner, greener North Carolina for generations to come.”

In addition to volunteers, NCDOT maintenance crews devote a week of their time picking up litter and collecting trash bags that are filled by volunteers, the department said. People interested in volunteering during the Spring Litter Sweep can request gloves, safety vests and bags from their local county maintenance offices. 

For those eager to lend a hand, reach out to your local litter management coordinator to get started.

Check out the Litter Sweep webpage for all the details. 

A manufacturing plant in Duplin County would have to monitor, but not limit, chemical compounds it discharges from its wastewater treatment system into the Northeast Cape Fear River under the terms of a draft permit being reviewed by state and federal agencies.

Automotive textile and technology manufacturer Lear Corp.’s draft National Pollutant Discharge Eliminations System, or NPDES, permit renewal includes a special condition that the company monitor for per- and polyfluoroalkyl, or PFAS, emitted from its treated industrial wastewater into the river quarterly.

The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources also would require the company to monitor its outtake of 1,4-dioxane, which is primarily used in as a solvent in manufacturing.

The state’s proposal to let the company monitor, and not curb, man-made chemicals the plant discharges is a slap in the face of residents already living in and downstream of an area where water quality is affected by a heavy concentration of large hog and poultry operations, opponents say.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to the water resources division’s water quality permitting section chief on March 5, one month after the draft permit was received by the agency, notifying the state it was invoking a 60-day extension to review the permit.

“The EPA will complete the review of this permit as expeditiously as possible prior to the end of the 90-day period on May 6, 2024,” the letter from EPA Region 4’s Water Quality Branch Acting Manager Christopher Thomas states.

DEQ had received by early March more than 400 emails calling for the state to require Lears cap the amount of PFAS it releases into the river, Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent said.

The state agency has since pushed back its public comment period deadline on the draft permit to March 28.

Lear declined to answer specific questions about its draft permit application, instead offering an emailed statement, saying in part that the company is working with DEQ on a permit renewal “that adheres strictly to state regulatory guidelines and standards governing the use and disposal of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).”

“We conduct rigorous monitoring of our wastewater discharge to ensure compliance with the NCDEQ regulatory requirements and have reformulated the majority of our products to eliminate the use of PFAS,” the statement continues. “We are working to transition our remaining products to a PFAS-free solution as soon as reasonably practical. We are committed to continuing to work with NCDEQ and to take appropriate environmental stewardship actions. Our highest priorities are the health and safety of people, local communities, and the environment.”

The state issued Lear’s current permit in 2018, about a year after news broke that the Cape Fear River, the drinking water source for tens of thousands of people, had been the dumping site of a host of PFAS emitted from the Chemours Co.’s Fayetteville Works facility for decades.

Under a 2019 consent order, the company had to add to its Bladen County plant various controllers, including a thermal oxidizer to trap PFAS from being released into the air and an underground retainer wall to prevent PFAS-contaminated groundwater from getting into the river.

There are well over 10,000 different PFAS being used in the manufacturing of a wide-range of consumer goods. PFAS are used in the making of everything from stain-resistant carpets and waterproof gear to nonstick cookware and disposable food containers.

Potential health effects from exposure to PFAS include changes in cholesterol, low birth weight in newborns, changes in human immune response, increased risk of high blood pressure in pregnant women and increased risk of certain cancers such as kidney and testicular cancer.

The technology Chemours is using to reduce the amount of PFAS it discharges to near non-detectable levels prove that other manufacturers can and should do the same, Sargent said.

“The DEQ is required to enforce these on these other industrial polluters and they’re not,” she said. “This is a federal law. This is the Clean Water Act. DEQ has the full authority to regulate this facility and limit their PFAS dischargers. It’s pretty clear from where we sit it’s obviously ridiculous that DEQ would be allowing any known PFAS dischargers to continue to discharge after all we’ve learned over the last seven years. They should be sticking to their mission, protecting human health and the environment.”

Under the draft permit, Lear would be required to implement the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s guidelines on PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, which the agency has classified as a likely human carcinogen.

The EPA’s final rule in a proposal to set limits on six PFAS is expected to be released any day now. The proposed rule limits the maximum allowable amount of a combination of four chemical compounds, including GenX, a PFAS specific to Chemours’ plant in Bladen County.

EPA also proposes to set maximum contaminant levels on what have been two of the most used PFAS compounds – perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS – at 4 parts per trillion.

Public comments may be emailed with the subject line “Lear Corp.” to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov.

Once the public comment period ends, Division of Water Resources Director Richard Rogers will decide whether to hold a public hearing. A hearing would be held following a 30-day public notice.

Work to clean up an area within a federal Superfund Site in Navassa began earlier this week.

The cleanup of contaminated surface soil in an area referred to as operable unit 2 of the former Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp site may take up to four months to complete, according to a release.

Officials with the Multistate Environmental Response Trust, Environmental Protection Agency and North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality are hosting a community meeting on Tuesday to update Navassa residents about the cleanup, which entails excavating contaminated soils.

Soils that are removed from the land will be temporarily stored and regularly monitored on a different area within the site that will eventually be cleaned as well. Soils that are not suitable to be stored within that neighboring operable unit will be recycled or disposed off-site.

Land within unit 2 is expected to be suitable for any future use once it is cleaned, according to officials.

Government officials will also discuss donated land that will be the site of the proposed Moze heritage center and the sale of nearly 90 acres of Multistate Trust-owned property that was once part of the former wood treatment operation.

Representatives with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will also join the meeting to update residents about ongoing restoration projects in the area.

Tuesday’s meeting will be held 6-7 p.m. in-person at the Navassa Community Center, 33 Main Street. The meeting will be livestreamed. An in-person only, drop-in session will be held following the meeting between 7-8 p.m.

To join the meeting by Zoom or phone, go to this Zoom link or enter tinyurl.com/NavassaMeetings into a browser, or call 301-715-8592. Use meeting ID 946 584 8922 and passcode 66456.

Clarification: Dare County officials noted in an email to Coastal Review that while the Coast Guard was the last owner of the site, “it was inherited from the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for the FUDS declaration so there are several parties at play that we would like to appeal to without any one party being perceived as taking the blame.” That said, the resolution states that the Coast Guard is the designated federal on-scene coordinator in the coastal zone, with a duty to assess and mitigate the problem, “when a responsible party fails to do so.”

Citing threats to the environment and public safety, the Dare County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution Monday that requests that the Coast Guard take immediate action to restore the Buxton beach access to its “pre-military condition.”

Commissioner Danny Couch presented the resolution during the board’s regular meeting in Manteo. The resolution asks the Coast Guard, as the designated federal on-scene coordinator for the coastal zone in North Carolina, to take immediate action to rectify oil discharge into the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent shoreline and remove remaining infrastructure debris.

This situation is concerning, “not just from an environmental standpoint, but from a public safety standpoint as well,” Couch said.

The area at Cape Hatteras National Seashore’s Buxton beach access at the south end of Old Lighthouse Road served as a military base for both the Navy and Coast Guard from 1956 until 2010, according to the National Park Service website.

The Army Corps of Engineers approved in 1998 the Buxton Beach Access as a Formerly Used Defense Site and began responding to petroleum contamination there.

On Sept. 1, 2023, visitors reported that erosion from two storms “uncovered potentially hazardous infrastructure associated with the Navy and Coast Guard bases and visitors reported a strong smell of petroleum,” and reported these concerns to the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Spill Response Center.

“Due to decades-long military usage and apparently incomplete restoration of the area, samples taken from the Buxton Beach Access beach tested positive in early September 2023, for petroleum-contaminated soils (PCS). Additionally, due to coastal erosion, abandoned facilities, construction debris, and septic systems associated with historic Navy and Coast Guard activities have been observed along the beach adjacent to the Buxton Beach Access,” the website states.

Most recently on Feb. 9, park staff noticed “a very strong smell of petroleum products and multiple surfers reported that their wetsuits and hair smelled like fuel and noticed a sheen on the water near Buxton Beach Access,” according to the website. Reports were again submitted to the National Response Center.

“Why should we be concerned about the closing of this beach here? I’ll tell you why,” Couch told the board. “Because it’s not a good look for National Seashore” to have houses crumbling into the ocean in Rodanthe because of erosion “and then to have crime tape” cordoning off the debris on the beach ranked No. 4 in the U.S. by Dr. Beach.

Dr. Beach is an author and director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University who ranks beaches at drbeach.org.

The area in Buxton is also where where the county has committed to preserving N.C. Highway 12 infrastructure, Couch noted.

“I’m just curious if this exact scenario had washed up on the beaches of, I don’t know, Martha’s Vineyard or the Hamptons on Long Island. Would we still be begging pleading for someone to please remediate this dangerous and unhealthy situation?” Commissioner Bob Ross asked during the meeting.

Commissioner Bob Woodard noted during the meeting that he, the vice chair and the county manager were going to travel to Washington, D.C., and, “this will be one of our top subject matters when we meet with our legislators.”

BUXTON — Surfers catching waves off a Hatteras Island beach last week had reported a sheen on the water, burning in their eyes and a noxious coating on their wetsuits. Numerous people noticed a powerful stench of diesel on the shoreline by the popular surfing spot in Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Although a similar strong odor was evident after an October storm at the same beach in washed-up clumps of peat, the source of the pollutant is still a mystery.

“We cannot address contamination if we don’t know where the contamination is,” Carl Dokter, program manager of the Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District’s Formerly Used Defense Sites, or FUDS, told Coastal Review on Thursday. “And every attempt we’ve made to drill some holes and find it reveals no peat, no organic layers, no diesel — just clean samples.”

Back in the fall, Dokter said in an interview, that since there had been fuel spills at the nearby former Buxton Naval Base that FUDS has remediated, in addition to removing tanks and contaminated soil in the early 2000s, the office had agreed in recent months to remove any remaining petroleum contamination. But with the ever-changing conditions at the beach, and the intermittent recurrence of the diesel odor, its origin has so far evaded detection by the team’s instruments.

In fact, Dokter said, when his team had gone to Buxton to investigate, the only place that tested positive for petroleum was washed-up sediment on the beach.

“Then our geologists looked for the peat layer,” he recounted in the interview last week. “And they explained to me that the beach has eroded about 30 feet vertically and 150 feet horizontally over the decades. So the peat layer, which you can see at the base of the dunes, has long since eroded away.”

During a visit on Wednesday at the Buxton beach, Cape Hatteras National Seashore Superintendent Dave Hallac noted that the diesel odor was clearly most powerful in the vicinity of a slab of concrete debris exposed in the surf zone. Even with breezy conditions that day at the oceanfront, the smell was potent and offensive.

Pointing to a pipe protruding from a nearby eroded dune, Hallac said that the odor was also discernible from whatever had been in the pipe. He later added that results received on Friday from an independent laboratory indicate evidence of the fuel. The test, commissioned by the park, detected TPH (total petroleum hydrocarbons) and DRO (diesel range organics) above “state action” levels, Hallac said.

Soil samples the Coast Guard took in Buxton in September revealed weathered light fuel oil, a small amount of lubricating oil, petroleum hydrocarbons, and nonpetroleum contamination, according to a press release.

Looking back: Navy base’s wretched reminders not just petroleum in soils

Before the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was relocated from the surf in 1999, the nation’s tallest brick tower had stood guard since 1870 from the same beach. From 1956 to 1982, just to the north, the Navy had operated a secret submarine surveillance base, which the Coast Guard acquired in 1986. When Group Cape Hatteras relocated in 2005 to Fort Macon in Carteret County, the Coast Guard was required to remove infrastructure on the base before returning the property to the National Park Service.

As has become more apparent as erosion increases and unpleasant surprises are unburied, lots of stuff was left behind: building debris, toxins from dumped pesticides, and contaminants from spilled and leaking fuel containers.

The Coast Guard was still in the process of responding to questions from Coastal Review about its current and past responsibilities and activities in Buxton, according to an email Thursday from Jonathan Lally, with Coast Guard 5th District public affairs.

Chunks of concrete with wires sticking through, various sizes of pipes and portions of concrete foundation from what was once the Driftwood Club, where sailors gathered to drink and socialize, and Building 19, the terminal “T” building where the listening cable was believed to be, now litter the beach. Just off the sand in the nearshore, surfers have to evade metal parts of several deteriorating jetties the Navy built that stick up in the water. And the Coast Guard and FUDS are still monitoring groundwater, conducting tests and/or working to remove contaminated soils related to operations at the bases.

“Every time there’s a storm, more stuff gets exposed,” said Russell Blackwood, a surfer and free diver who has lived by what is known locally as Lighthouse Beach for 50 years. “Then in a day or two or three after a storm, it covers it right back up.”

Blackwood also worked at the Navy base in the 1970s. He theorized in a recent interview that the military had redundant diesel tanks under the T building, and the fuel is pushed up during storms.

“It only comes out of the tanks when there’s ocean water over them,” he said. “You’d go there when there’s no swell, at low tide, and you’d barely smell it.”

But around Feb. 7, after heavy weather, in addition to the seawater-fuel mix looking “milky-gray” and the sheen on top of the water, he said, “you couldn’t even breathe.”

Despite beach nourishment projects in 2017 and 2022, Blackwood said, severe erosion in the last 18 months has undone much of it, especially by Lighthouse Beach.

“It’s gone,” he said. “There is no dune.”

According to the Corps’ December 2023 Buxton Naval Facility report and proposed soil survey map, seven above-ground storage tanks, 27 underground storage tanks, an oil change ramp, a pipeline between a building and a tank, and soil in several areas were removed in the 1990s and 2000s. In addition, groundwater had been sampled repeatedly and monitoring wells were installed.

The Corps’ FUDS offices are responsible for environmental liabilities at sites that were owned, operated or controlled by the U.S. Department of Defense before Oct. 17, 1986.

Dokter, with FUDS, said that his office is continuing to work with the National Park Service and the state Department of Environmental Quality on how to tackle the problem. A team went to the site last week, and a field report on the December work is due within weeks.

“We’re trying to look into every possible source for where this is coming from,” Dokter said. “But the dilemma I’m facing the most is, I can’t remove something I can’t find. And that’s where our big frustration lies right now.”

The Corps team is even considering whether the fuel is coming from prior spills offshore. If the problem continues, he added, “at that point, I have to sit down with my with my technical team and probably reach out to our center of expertise and discuss options.”

But Dokter said the pipe to which Hallac is referring is an unlikely source because it wouldn’t account for the volume of fuel that has been reported.

Hallac also said that the National Seashore is asking the Corps to follow through on the cleanup that was supposed to have been wrapped up years ago.

“And so the concern is that the project was not completed and we continue to request that the Army Corps of Engineers remove the building foundations consistent with the plans that were provided to us in 1985 and 1986,” he said.

Dokter, however, said his “hands are tied,” at least for now.

“Because our program and policy states that we address things that were a hazard at the time, hazards that arise after it was transferred out of Department of Defense control are not eligible for FUDS funding,” Dokter said. “And so each erosion creating that hazard over time, since it was transferred out of DOD control, I’m just legally not allowed to pay to fix that.”

Despite the challenges, Hallac said that he is confident that the situation will be addressed, preferably sooner rather than later.

No matter, as Blackwood sees it, the fuel will just keep coming back to remind everyone that nothing is being done.

“I guarantee you, next time we get a north swell, it’ll be back,” Blackwood said. “When the surf gets to 6 feet, that’s when they need to come here. They need to camp here.”

The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to add nine per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, including GenX, to its list of chemicals that should be treated as hazardous waste.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan signed the proposal Wednesday to modify the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, or RCRA, to include the nine PFAS, their salts, and their structural isomers, according to a release.

PFAS are manmade chemical compounds that are resistant to heat, water and grease and used to make a host of consumer products, including stain-resistant carpet, carpet cleaning products, food packaging, furnishings, cosmetics, outdoor gear, clothing, adhesives and sealants, firefighting foam and nonstick cookware.

A number of these chemicals can be found in drinking water sources in the state, including the Cape Fear River.

The Cape Fear is the drinking water source for tens of thousands in the region. Residents in that area were made aware six years ago that the Chemours Fayetteville Works plant more than 70 miles upriver of Wilmington had been discharging PFAS into the river for decades.

The EPA has evaluated toxicity and epidemiology information on the nine PFAS and determined that the chemical compounds meet the criteria to be listed as RCRA hazardous constituents, or those that are subject to treatment, according to the release.

“This change would facilitate additional corrective action to address releases of these specific PFAS at RCRA hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities,” the release states. “It would not require the suite of cradle to grave management controls that are associated with a RCRA hazardous waste.”

Those PFAS include the following: 

• perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA.
• perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, or PFOS.
• perfluorobutanesulfonic acid, or PFBS.
• perfluorononanoic acid, or PFNA.
• perfluorohexanesulfonic acid, or PFHxS.
• perfluorodecanoic acid, or PFDA.
• perfluorohexanoic acid, or PFHxA.
• perfluorobutanoic acid, or PFBA.
• hexafluoropropylene oxide-dimer acid, or HFPO-DA, more commonly referred to as GenX.

GenX is specific to the Chemours plant in Bladen County.

GenX does not remain long – three days tops – in the human bloodstream, but its health effects continue to be studied.

In 2022, more than 1,000 residents in the Cape Fear River Basin, including Wilmington, Fayetteville and Pittsboro, volunteered to have their blood sampled.

Nearly every one of those who volunteered were found to have PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS and PFNA in their blood streams.

Those synthetic chemicals get into the Cape Fear River from several different sources, including textile and furniture manufacturers, sludge from wastewater treatment plants used as fertilizer, and firefighting foams used at airports.

Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group senior vice president for government affairs, applauded the move.

“Today’s announcement by the EPA will ensure that quick action can be taken to clean up PFAS and will send a powerful signal to industry to be good stewards of their PFAS wastes,” Faber said in a statement.

The EPA will open the proposed changes to the RCRA for public comment once it is published in the Federal Register.

It’s been more than six years since the first blood samples were collected from residents in the Cape Fear region participating in a study to measure their exposure to synthetic chemicals being discharged into their drinking water source.

That study, known as the GenX Exposure Study, has since then transitioned to one that will allow researchers to examine potential long-term health effects in hundreds of North Carolinians who for years unknowingly drank water containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

Today, a little more than 1,000 residents from a town in the state’s Piedmont and east to the southeastern coast of North Carolina are part of the health study examining how past exposure to PFAS may affect human health.

“We’ve been measuring cholesterol and thyroid and comprehensive metabolic panels and height and weight and (body mass index) and so we can now look at how things change over time,” said Jane Hoppin, principal investigator of the GenX Exposure Study and professor at North Carolina State University.

Blood samples were first collected from a few hundred residents in the Cape Fear region in late 2017, just months after the public was first made aware that the Cape Fear River, the drinking water source for tens of thousands of people, had for decades been a dumping ground for a chemical manufacturing plant roughly 80 miles upstream of Wilmington.

GenX, one of more than 10,000 PFAS in existence today, is a chemical compound specific to the Chemours Fayetteville Works plant, which is under a court order to vastly reduce the amount of PFAS it discharges into the river, emits into the air and spills onto the ground.

About 500 residents in the lower Cape Fear region are taking part in the health study. Another 300 or so participants live in Fayetteville and a little more than 200 reside in Pittsboro, a town roughly 100 miles upstream of Chemours. Pittsboro’s drinking water source, the Haw River, has some of the highest levels of PFAS in the state, according research conducted through the North Carolina PFAS Testing Network.

What researchers call legacy PFAS — perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS — found in the Haw River have been traced to textile and furniture manufacturing operations.

“Having this wide range and different mixtures in different places is helpful in understanding” human health effects from exposure to PFAS, Hoppin said.

Results from a GenX Exposure Study published in 2022 showed a correlation between people found to have elevated levels of PFAS in their blood with higher total cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, the latter of which puts people at a higher risk of hardening of the arteries, heart disease, chest pain, heart attack and stroke.

That study included blood samples collected in November 2017 and again in May 2018 from nearly 350 Wilmington residents, including 55 children. Blood was analyzed to measure levels of PFOA and PFOS, fluoroethers such as GenX, and lipids.

GenX was ultimately not detected because the chemical has been found to last in blood for about three days.

Moving forward, Hoppin said, researchers overseeing the health study will collect new blood samples to look at various markers, including how PFAS may influence weight gain and changes in weight.

“We have people who are ages 6 to 90 and so we want to focus on health outcomes that impact all of us,” she said. “We’ve looked at response to COVID vaccines and, for example, there’s growing interest in how these chemicals may influence bone growth and developments.”

Ideally, those participating in the study will have their blood drawn, urine collected, weight and height measured and fill out health surveys every two to three years for the next 20 years, Hoppin said.

“It’s a very complex situation and even just trying to start to understand exposure, like why do the people on private drinking wells have similar levels of legacy PFAS as other communities that drink municipal water? How do we think about inhalation for the people who live around the plant? We’re trying to understand exposure and then move forward and have large enough sample sizes to really describe health outcomes. We want to be sure that we have sufficient statistical power to answer those questions.”

As research continues to unveil potential health impacts of PFAS in humans, public water systems including the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, have taken steps to reduce the amount of PFAS exposure in drinking water.

The Cape Fear authority and Brunswick County Public Utilities have spent millions to install treatment systems to remove PFAS from their raw water.

Nationwide, chemical manufacturers including 3M and DuPont have faced a barrage of lawsuits asking courts to hold such companies responsible for the release of PFAS into the environment.

Earlier this month, New Hanover County commissioners filed a lawsuit in that county’s superior court against more than a dozen makers and vendors of products made with PFAS.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to set limits on six PFAS in public water systems. The EPA would limit a combination of GenX and three other compounds — perfluoronanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS).

The agency also proposes to set maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs, on PFOA and PFOS each at 4 parts per trillion.

EPA estimates that between 3,400 and more than 6,000 public water systems across the country contain at least one of these compounds that exceeds the proposed limits.

Researchers are working on how to improve environmental health literacy among medical clinicians to help doctors better understand how to use health studies like the GenX study to care for their patients.

Hoppin said the hope is that the samples currently being collected in this study will be used to further research PFAS exposure and potential health effects in people.

Results of the latest round of blood samples are expected to be shared with participants sometime this spring.

Want hard-to-spot plastic straws, cigarette butts and bottle caps off North Carolina beaches? This is the droid you’re looking for.

Say hello to BeBot, the first and only solar- and battery-powered, automated beach sweeper in the state and one of less than a dozen being operated in the country.

BeBot made its North Carolina debut on Carolina Beach, where Keep New Hanover Beautiful Executive Director Dick Brightman showed it off during a pop-up demonstration in late October.

A month later, officials with various regulatory agencies gathered on Wrightsville Beach’s shore to watch BeBot in action.

As with any type of equipment, be it a dredge pipe or shoreline rake-pulling pickup, BeBot cannot be operated without a proper permit. Not even a droid can escape the rigors of passing muster with Coastal Area Management Act, or CAMA, minor permit.

BeBot is roughly the size of a zero-turn lawnmower. It weighs a little more than 1,350 pounds, can reach speeds up to 3 mph and has a battery life of a few hours.

And while it’s not designed to clean entire beachfronts – BeBot can cover about 5,000 square feet over 20 to 25 minutes, according to Brightman – what makes it unique is its ability to sweep up small, difficult-to-see plastics and cigarette butts lurking just beneath a sandy surface.

BeBot is equipped with a blade that grazes no deeper than 4 inches below the surface, pushing sand onto a metal grate that sifts the sand back onto shore while capturing trash in a back compartment. That trash then can be dumped at an area and taken off the beach.

The depth with which it scratches the surface, its size and tracked wheels make it low-impact on a shoreline, Brightman said.

And, because BeBot is remotely controlled onsite by a human, “we can maneuver it around any areas we don’t want it to be, vis-à-vis turtle nesting areas,” he said.

“It’s very, very maneuverable,” he said. “It’ll turn 360 degrees standing still. I was amazed at how easily it can be maneuvered.”

BeBot has been awarded to other beautification organizations in Florida, Ohio and Lake Tahoe in recent years by various nonprofits, including Keep America Beautiful, the national organization founded in the early 1950s that has more than 700 community affiliates.

The bot is a creation of Italy-based NITEKO Robotics and distributed by The Searial Cleaners, a subsidiary of Poralu Marine in France. All told, a single bot and a trailer to haul it costs about $80,000.

BeBot is not meant to replace human-led beach litter sweeps, but rather to be used to raise awareness about smaller pieces of trash and plastics that tend to get overlooked on beaches.

But Brightman’s hope is that BeBot will eventually circulate from beach town to beach town where it can be used to not only demonstrate how much trash is just beneath a shore’s surface, but utilized to sweep more heavily used areas of a beach, including those around piers and resort areas.

“We’re trying to get it out on the beaches now because we want to get some exposure,” he said. “Ideally what I want to do is one event a month, including in the summer season.”

He has a permit application in to the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management to operate BeBot at Wrightsville Beach’s Crystal Pier.

Beach towns interested in using BeBot will have to obtain their own CAMA minor permit to use the bot.

Katie Ryan, Wrightsville Beach’s recreation program supervisor, said the town supports Brightman’s efforts to raise awareness about trash on the beach.

“I think any effort to clean up anything on the beach is worthwhile,” she said.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality officials are interested in ideas from low-income, disadvantaged communities and communities experiencing environmental justice concerns to help guide its application for the federal Climate Pollution Reduction Grant.

As part of the federal Inflation Reduction Act, the grant program, awarded through the Environmental Protection Agency, provides states, local governments, territories and tribes with funds to develop and implement plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollutants.

NCDEQ is the lead for the interagency North Carolina Climate Pollution Reduction Grant project. The state anticipates receiving $3 million this year for planning activities and is eligible to compete for the $4.6 billion that EPA will award starting next year, officials said.

As part of the program, the state is to develop two plans. The priority climate action plan is to identify the highest priority greenhouse gas reduction measures and determine the method for ensuring equitable implementation. The comprehensive climate action plan is to update and expand the state’s existing climate strategies to be inline with the most recent available science, modeling and best practices. 

NCDEQ officials are asking any individual or group to submit ideas on projects and greenhouse gas reduction measures to implement through the program. Responses will help the agency identify opportunities to collaborate on new or existing projects. To submit a project idea, fill out this form.

The department also is accepting comments and suggestions via email at cprg@deq.nc.gov and at the coming public information sessions in January. These sessions are in addition to three held earlier this year.

Attendees will hear about the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant and will help NCDEQ determine priorities for the application and funding if awarded. Participants will learn about the types of projects that qualify for the grant funding and will be asked to describe eligible projects that would be most useful in their communities.

The first session is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 4. Information is online on how to receive a reminder and to join the meeting, or use this link. The webinar number is 2434 444 8544 and the password is S5153pr7, or 75153777 from phones and video systems. To join by phone, dial 415-655-0003 or 904-900-2303 and use access code 243 444 48544.

The next session is to take place at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 9. Attendees can register online to receive a meeting reminder and information on how to join, or use this link and webinar number 2438 976 9622 with password MMqmV5hrn77, or 66768547 from phones and video systems. to join by phone, use 415-655-0003 or 904-900-2303 with access code 243 897 69622.

More information about the grant program and material from previous information sessions available online.

If you need this information in Spanish or another language, call 919-609-2189 or send an email to Guadalupe.Jimenez@deq.nc.gov.

Federal and state officials will discuss the upcoming cleanup of an area of the Navassa Superfund site during a community meeting Thursday night.

Work that is set to begin soon on removing contaminated soil within about a 16-acre area known as operable unit 2, or OU2, and hiring and training opportunities for residents and businesses will be among the topics to be discussed at the meeting.

Officials will also share information about the upcoming sale of about 87 acres of the property owned by the Multistate Trust, which, along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, is hosting the meeting.

OU2 is part of a former wood-treatment site where, after closing operations in the mid-1970s, left a legacy of contamination of creosote on the land. Creosote is a gummy, tar-like substance used to treat wood utilized for railroad ties and utility poles.

The land was added to the EPA’s National Priorities List of federal Superfund sites in 2010.

Treated and untreated wood was stored in areas of OU2. Nearly 3,000 cubic yards of soils contaminated with creosote in that unit will be dug up, removed from the site and temporarily stored within another unit of the site.

The work is expected to take three to four months to complete and, when finished, the land will be available for unrestricted use.

Stockpiled soils will either be reused or consolidated into the cleanup of OU4, according to a release.

The meeting will be held 6-7 p.m. in person and virtually. An in-person, drop-in session will be held immediately following the meeting at the Navassa Community Center, 338 Main St.

To join online use this Zoom link or enter tinyurl.com/NavassaMeetings. To join by phone call 301-715-8592. Use meeting ID 946 584 8922 and passcode 664564.

For additional information visit the Multistate Trust website, the EPA website or DEQ.

Almost a third of drinking water systems sourced from rivers, streams and lakes in North Carolina will not meet proposed federal drinking water standards.

Those 1,500 water providers would have three years to come into compliance with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed regulation expected to be finalized by year’s end.

Whatever treatment method those water providers use to meet the proposed federal rules, they’re facing substantial costs — costs that will most likely be passed down to customers.

North Carolina’s environmental regulators are forging a path to create state-enforceable rules on industries that release per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, into the environment.

Last week, the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission was presented a timeline of the state Department of Environmental Quality’s pursuit to reduce the amount of PFAS coming directly from polluters into surface and below-ground drinking water sources.

NCDEQ Assistant Secretary for Environment Sushma Masemore said regulators will provide the commission in March with a certified fiscal note, which is an estimate of the proposed regulations’ financial impact on the state budget, and ask the board to consider greenlighting the department to open a public comment period on proposed rules next summer.

It’s an “aggressive” timeline, she said during the commission’s meeting Nov. 9 in Raleigh, but one the department is working to meet.

Masemore emphasized that the state needs to protect its drinking water sources, and make sure the water that people drink is below the primary drinking water standards.

“We need to do what we must do,” she continued, to make sure surface water discharges and groundwater systems are as clean as possible. “We need to reduce the treatment costs burden of these drinking water systems by addressing those upstream discharges.”

As the EPA is looking at primary drinking water standards, it’s up to states to determine surface water standards by looking at upstream PFAS discharge sources, she said.

“As a result, the cost impact for those ratepayers will be reduced and so it is not a cost that’s borne by one group of people that are usually downstream of such sources, but that it is borne across all contributors,” Masemore said.

The EPA announced earlier this year its proposal to set limits on six PFAS in public water systems. The agency is expected to finalize limits on a combination of four chemical compounds: GenX, perfluorononanoic acid, or PFNA, perfluorohexane sulfonic acid, or PFHxS, and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid, or PFBS; and set maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs, of 4 parts per trillion each of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, two of the most widely studied PFAS.

Under the proposed rules, public water providers would have to monitor for those PFAS and report the results of sampling to the public if any level of PFAS exceed the proposed regulatory standards.

Masemore explained that DEQ wants to go beyond what EPA is doing and address additional PFAS specifically found in drinking water sources in North Carolina and identified in DEQ’s PFAS Priority List.

North Carolina is joining other states that are developing their own regulations or addressing PFAS within their own programs because they either have manufacturing facilities that are large-scale contributors of PFAS in surface and ground waters, air and soil. PFAS do not occur naturally in the environment.

Those states are at the forefront of analyzing current and ongoing studies on the human health and environmental effects of various PFAS, of which there are thousands, Masemore said.

“As a result, those states are also proposing similar regulations that are in effect and many people are actually going back and readjusting those regulations because of the new science being brought to everyone’s attention,” she said.

DEQ is taking a two-pronged approach to addressing PFAS: stopping future PFAS contaminants known to have adverse human health effects from getting into the environment, and cleaning up sites the state knows exist today.

Public water supply systems provide drinking water to more than 9 million North Carolinians. There currently are 380 municipal drinking water systems in 97 of the state’s 100 counties.

NCDEQ has identified 50 drinking water systems that contain elevated levels of various PFAS. Testing of those systems in 2022 revealed that 43 of those systems had concentrations of PFAS above the EPA’s proposed limits.

About 1,500 or so drinking water systems that rely on groundwater sources in the state serve 500 or fewer residents. Of those, 17% contain PFAS above proposed federal limits.

Extensive private well water testing is ongoing throughout multiple counties affected by PFAS contamination.

Masemore said the state must not forget about private well water users. The department’s Division of Waste Management has developed a variety of programs to support sampling and testing private wells. The state has also initiated a pilot program to assist low-income residents in covering costs to install filtration systems for wells that contain elevated levels of PFAS.

When asked whether the state has received feedback from industries known to be discharging PFAS into the environment about the prospect of state regulatory standards, Masemore said the response has thus far been “cautious and worried.”

“But also many sources realize that this is part of their future. They’re going to have to address it either through the state or federal government,” she said.

Residents of the Cape Fear region and environmental advocates balked at the EPA’s recent decision to allow the company responsible for discharging PFAS into the Cape Fear River for decades to import GenX into the state.

As first reported in NC Newsline, the agency last month notified Chemours the company could resume exportations of up to more than 4 million pounds of the chemical from its plant in The Netherlands to its Fayetteville Works facility in Bladen County to recycle or reuse the chemical.

But the EPA last week request the company pause imports, according to WRAL.

In a statement to the television station, an EPA spokesperson said that the agency “takes these concerns seriously and will review the notices that the company has provided to ensure the public remains safe.”

That statement came shortly after Gov. Roy Cooper sent a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan earlier this month urging the agency to reconsider and reverse its decision. Brunswick County commissioner Chairman Randy Thompson also wrote Regan, asking the agency to guarantee Chemours significantly reduces the amount of PFAS going into the Cape Fear River before allowing the company to allow more PFAS into the state.

Chemours has not imported shipments of GenX into the state this year and none are en route, according to the EPA.

In a statement to Coastal Review, a Chemours spokesperson last month explained that the plant recycles GenX to reuse it in manufacturing processes “for use in applications like semiconductor and electric vehicle production.”

“Reclaiming and recycling HFPO-DA (GenX) is an important circularity activity that helps reduce the need to manufacture larger volumes of new, virgin HFPO-DA,” the spokesperson stated.

Clean Cape Fear co-founder Emily Donovan said in an interview last month with CRO that North Carolinians cannot trust a company that knowingly discharged PFAS into the environment for years, news that first came to light in June 2017 in a story published in the Wilmington Star News.

“This is what really bothers me for our community is that this is not a company that has a track record of proactively taking a precautionary stance with this dangerous chemical that they’re making and they want to shift the burden to us, which they have been, while they made record profits for decades,” she said. “I just don’t have patience anymore for this company and for the loopholes that are allowed to exist. We knew six years ago that the only way a company of this size was able to get away with doing what they did for so long was because they had successfully managed to break the system to create the loopholes that benefited them.”

This story has been updated to include omitted partners in the effort.

A whale calf that washed ashore last week on Emerald Isle’s ocean shoreline died from ingesting a plastic balloon.

Scientists who performed a necropsy on the Gervais’ beaked whale removed a crumpled-up plastic balloon that had obstructed the calf’s gastrointestinal tract, ultimately causing its death, according to a University of North Carolina Wilmington release.

The whale, a nursing, female calf just under 11 feet long, was first spotted by beachgoers in shallow waters, before eventually washing onto the beach and shortly dying thereafter on Oct. 30.

Gervais’ beaked whales typically live several hundred miles offshore at the edge of the continental shelf and beyond.

Marine mammal experts, including those with the UNCW Marine Mammal Stranding Program, veterinarians, and students from various state educational institutions and agencies studied the deceased whale.

UNCW Marine Mammal Stranding Program Director Michael Tift said in a statement that there are a many reasons why marine mammals strand on beaches, including diseases, wounds from other animals, ship or boat strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, and ingestion of human-manufactured products such as plastic.

“Unfortunately, it is common for us to identify plastic ingestion as the cause of death in these rare deep-diving marine mammals,” Tift said. “Ingestion of these balloons can cause pain, suffering and ultimately the death of many wild animals. It is terribly similar to the ingestion or encounter with plastic straws and other plastic products many have seen cause injury or death in sea turtles and sea birds. I have seen Mylar® balloons in some of the most remote places on the planet and have witnessed their devastating effects on wildlife.”

About 125 marine mammals, including whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals and manatees strand on North Carolina’s beaches every year, according to Tift. The only way to determine a cause of death in these cases is to investigate each one, he stated.

Tift, an assistant professor in the university’s Department of Biology and Marine Biology, encourages lawmakers to consider banning plastic products. He and other members of the network also encourage consumers to consider using biodegradable alternatives to balloons, including paper decorations, flowers or candles.

Consumers who use balloons are asked to deflate them and remove all gases before throwing them away.

The necropsy of the whale was performed at North Carolina State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology, or CMAST and included teams of marine mammal scientists, veterinarians and students from UNCW, NC State’s College of Veterinary Medicine, NC Aquariums, Duke University Marine Laboratory, North Carolina Maritime Museum Bonehenge Whale Center, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Sciences and the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries.

Marine mammal strandings may be reported by calling the following numbers:

• Outer Banks: 252-455-9654.
• Central coast: 252-241-5119. 
• Southern coast: 910-515-7354.

BUXTON — Petroleum spilled and partially cleaned up at a long-abandoned U.S. Navy base at Cape Hatteras recently reemerged in clumps of peat soil after a storm. Last month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stepped up to take responsibility for the cleanup, even though its source is technically uncertain.

But the diesel smell and oily mudballs, now temporarily reburied, are only one of the wretched souvenirs left behind on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore beach by the Navy and later, the Coast Guard, including chunks of building debris, metal shards from deteriorated jetties and possibly other soil contaminants. 

“Looking at the historical evidence and knowing that the Navy had a release, we’ve decided that we are going to address any petroleum contamination that may still be present,” Carl Dokter, manager of the Corps’ Formerly Used Defense Sites, or FUDS, program based in Savannah, told Coastal Review.

The Corps responds to environmental liabilities at sites that were owned, operated or controlled by the U.S. Department of Defense before Oct. 17, 1986, he said. The Navy had operated a submarine surveillance operation in Buxton under a special-use permit from the National Park Service from 1956 to 1982. The Coast Guard acquired the site, near the original location of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, in 1986, operating as Group Cape Hatteras until the base relocated in 2005 to Fort Macon in Carteret County.

According to a 1999 Corps site assessment, the state Department of Natural and Environmental Resources had issued a notice of violation to the Buxton facility in 1997, citing at the time groundwater samples containing chemicals 1,2,3,4 trimethylbenzene and naphthalene.

After discovering that the petroleum storage tanks on the base had apparently leaked, Dokter said, the Corps in the early 2000s removed the tanks and a significant portion of contaminated soil.

The stink after the storm

Cape Hatteras National Seashore Superintendent Dave Hallac got a call Sept. 1, after Tropical Storm Idalia, from a Hatteras Island resident concerning a strong diesel smell coming from the old Navy base, as well as a sheen in the ocean waters.

When staff arrived at the site, they didn’t see any sheen on the water, but they did note a slight smell of diesel, Hallac told Coastal Review. After Hallac reported the problem, Coast Guard members from Sector North Carolina came to the site and took soil samples that showed contamination from petroleum. The park service then closed that section of beach, which remains closed.

Hallac said the odor had followed strong swells from the offshore storms that caused erosion and uncovered the polluted soil. But about two weeks later, the situation worsened, with surfers in the area reporting headaches and rashes. On Sept. 26, the Dare County Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies issued a public alert to avoid swimming, fishing or wading in the area. Big clumps of oily peat soil, also called mudballs, were scattered over the beach.

“It was obvious that the odors were coming from those soils,” Hallac said. “I mean, it was very strong.” 

The Coast Guard then made another visit and took more samples, finding “weathered light fuel oil, a small amount of lubricating oil, petroleum hydrocarbons, and non-petroleum contamination,” according to the county’s news release.

“Totally coincidentally,” Hallac added, the Army Corps happened to be at the site when the odor was strongest, doing the groundwater remediation it has been conducting here on and off for years. The Corps also took a soil sample, which confirmed petroleum contamination.

Dokter, with the Corps, said that the agency has been addressing residual contamination in groundwater since it removed the tanks years ago. The Savannah district has been working with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to reduce the amount of methylnapthalene to acceptable levels.

“We have a series of injection wells and monitoring wells and we have been injecting a proprietary product … (that) binds with the petroleum and petroleum byproducts for neutralizing, but it doesn’t happen quickly,” he said. The last injection was done about 18 months ago, he added, and the Corps has continued sampling and monitoring on a quarterly basis. After the results are below regulatory levels, the site will be closed.

When the mudballs started washing up, it was clear that the petroleum contamination in the area was broader than previously understood. But Dokter said certainty as to its providence was close to impossible, especially since the oily peat clumps had already been reburied, and the beach has likely eroded 150 feet or more in recent years.

“We briefly considered trying to do what we call fingerprinting to establish, is it older petroleum or is it ’90s or later-type petroleum?” he said. “And there’s a marker that can tell you the difference. The problem is saltwater complicates everything, and the results are likely to be inconclusive if we even managed to get a sample of the (peat) product.”

Coordinated effort to determine corrective actions

The Savannah district announced Oct. 23 its intention to coordinate efforts with NCDEQ to determine corrective actions.

“While tremendous progress in technologies and techniques addressing environmental contamination have been made throughout the years, currently, there isn’t a fail-proof method that will provide a 100 percent certainty all environmental concerns are discovered and can be completely addressed,” the statement said. “The Corps does everything it can to ensure when its work is complete, human health and the environment are protected.”

Meanwhile, according to Hallac, the Coast Guard is in the process of implementing a Phase II environmental assessment of potential contaminants at the site. 

The Coast Guard has not responded to multiple phone calls and emails from Coastal Review seeking information. 

According to an online report, the Coast Guard was scheduled to start a $500,000 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or CERCLA, investigation at the old U.S. Coast Guard Group Cape Hatteras site around June 15. “The contractor shall provide professional architectural and engineering services to perform continued CERCLA investigation in order to determine the extent of groundwater and soil contamination,” the posting said. “The contractor shall provide recommendations for additional remediation where applicable at the USCG Group Cape Hatteras (decommissioned) in Buxton, NC.”

In a Coastal Review report published July 1, 2013, a Coast Guard environmental engineer said that preliminary testing at the Buxton site detected evidence of chemicals that include benzanthracene, benzopyrene, chlordane, dieldrin, and endrin, as well as traces of heavy metals arsenic, chromium and mercury.

At the time, the Coast Guard was seeking $200,000 for remediation costs. No further information about the proposed cleanup has been provided.

Visible remnants

Far more visible remnants of the military’s former presence at Cape Hatteras’ oceanfront have become an increasingly obnoxious eyesore and hazard to beachgoers and surfers, including sharp shards from three concrete and steel groins the Navy installed in 1970 to stem beach erosion.

Although there had been previous discussion about repairing or removing the structures, which locals call jetties, no agency claimed responsibility, and they were left to further deteriorate after the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was moved from the beach in 1999.

“There’s stuff that’s sticking out of the sand now,” said Carol Busbey, an owner of Natural Art Surf Shop in Buxton.

The “first jetty,” a favorite surf spot at Lighthouse Beach, has fallen apart to the extent that Busbey now has a piece of it standing in her shop’s parking lot.

“We’re actually going to sink it into the ground,” she said. “People have been cut by it. I wish they would do something about it. The surf break isn’t there anyway.”

Busbey blames the jetties’ demise and accompanying changes in the sandbar for ruining surfing at the spot. “It changed it completely,” she said. “It used to be such a great surf break. But the beach’s reputation keeps surfers coming anyway to catch what they can. Unfortunately, sometimes the jetties can be dangerous.

“The third jetty — the north jetty — it’s got horrible spikes sticking up,” she said. “At high tide you can’t see those pieces sticking up.”

In addition to litter on the beach from the oil-soaked peat clumps, which probably originated from the salt marsh, there are also chunks of debris from the old bases being exposed by erosion, much of it since September.

“There is a historic wastewater tank that is essentially on the beach — the foundation of it — that has been exposed,” Hallac said. “The building upon which the listening cables that we believe the Navy used, the foundation of that building, pipes leading into that building, chunks of concrete — and I mean very large chunks of concrete — all of that is now exposed, septic drain field pipes, PVC pipes.

“It’s to the point where it’s not safe,” he said. “There’s too much concrete, rebar, metal pipes along the beach section here that’s it’s really not safe to walk up and down the beach.”

Hallac has been discussing his concerns with both the Coast Guard and the Corps. He said he will likely reach out to the Navy soon. But, he said, the Corps is not optimistic that it could help with the problem.

As it is, the Corps has plenty of concerns with Buxton on its plate. After its risk assessment on the petroleum in the peat is completed, Dokter said the Corps will consult with NCDEQ about how to move forward, since it’s yet to be determined whether it’s even possible to remove a layer of contaminated peat soil.

“We haven’t really established a feasible way to do that,” he said. “Essentially, to remove a subsurface layer involves some level of dewatering. It’s not impossible to dewater a beach, but the costs would be astronomical.

“This is a challenge,” Dokter added. “We’ve included some of our chemists, geologists and environmental engineers, what we call our center of expertise within the Corps, because it’s a little more challenging of a problem than my typical project sites.”

The smell of diesel fuel permeated the air in downtown Beaufort Saturday night after an overflow from a recreational vessel moored at the Beaufort Docks.

The U.S. Coast Guard received the report at about 9 p.m. Saturday, telling Coastal Review that the spill was the result of “an internal fuel transfer between two of the vessel’s fuel tanks when one tank overflowed through a tank vent.”

The discharge into Taylors Creek continued for an estimated 40 minutes, according to information from Coast Guard Lt. Andrew Jacot with Sector North Carolina Public Affairs in Wilmington. An estimated 60-70 gallons of diesel was discharged during this time.

“The Oil Spill Response Organization, Atlantic Coast Marine Services, was hired shortly thereafter and was able to recover an estimated 80% of the discharged product,” according to the Coast Guard.

Beaufort Public Information Officer Rachel Johnson told Coastal Review Monday that the cleanup contractor hired by the owners of the vessel completed its work Sunday and normal operations had resumed at the municipal docks.

Interested in working a job to restore land that was once part of a wood-treatment facility in Navassa?

Local contractors Carl & Sons Construction Co. Inc. and SR&R Environmental Inc. are seeking area companies and Navassa residents to work as either employees or subcontractors on a portion of the Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. Superfund Site.

Those companies are hosting a hiring outreach event Tuesday from 4-6 p.m. at the Navassa Community Center, 338 Main St.

Individuals with experience as truck drivers, flaggers, heavy equipment operators, and field technicians are of particular interest to the contractors. Training opportunities for those who wish to work but do not have experience will be made available on an as-needed basis.

Work will take place in an area of the site the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency refers to as operable unit 2, or OU2.

A little more than 1.5 acres of surface soils within the 16-acre area are contaminated with levels of dioxin and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons considered to pose an unacceptable risk to people and the environment.

Nearly 3,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil will be dug up from the area and moved to another portion of the Superfund Site and temporarily stored.

The land was added to the EPA’s National Priorities List of federal Superfund sites in 2010 after creosote contamination was discovered in the soil, marsh and groundwater in various portions of the site.

More than 40 years of wood-treatment operations occurred on the site before the plant was shut down for good in the mid-1970s.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources announced Friday that it was monitoring a fish kill in the Neuse River.

The affected area includes New Bern near Union Point and Bridgeton, downstream to Riverdale, officials said.

Officials said conditions present in the river this summer make fish kills more likely. They said there was no indication of a chemical or toxin component in conjunction with the fish kill, but residents should always avoid water where a fish kill is present.

Menhaden is the predominant species affected in this fish kill, as is typical under the type of conditions the area has been experiencing. 

DEQ said it was also monitoring for algal blooms that have been seen in the area, although cyanobacteria or algal toxins had not been detected.

Officials said the combination of environmental factors, including intense heat, a tropical storm and otherwise low amounts of precipitation, all lead to stratification of waters with very low dissolved oxygen in the lower depths.

Related: Study of estuaries finds lower acidification than in oceans

Low dissolved oxygen, or hypoxia, commonly occurs during the summertime as the waters warm up and the biological metabolism of river water constituents consume oxygen. These conditions, in addition to the effects of continuous algal blooms, can combine to exacerbate the problem, resulting in fish kills.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services advises that people who see a fish kill, or conditions in which more than a few fish or shellfish are dead, dying, acting erratically or have sores, take the following precautions:

• Stay away from these waters while those conditions exist. Don’t go into the water.
• Do not eat, use or collect any fish, crabs, other animals or items from these waters.
• Do not let pets swim in or eat fish from these waters.

If you come in contact with the water where fish or shellfish are dead, dying, appear sick, or have sores, do the following:

• Remove wet clothing and keep separate from other items until it has been washed.
• Wash with soap and clean water any body part (except the eyes) that comes into contact with these waters. Rinse eyes with lots of clear, clean water.
• Use waterproof gloves when handling pets and items that have come into contact with the waters.
• See your doctor or health provider if you experience any symptoms (e.g., confusion, vomiting, diarrhea) that might be caused by exposure to these waters.

More information on fish kills is available online. Residents can report fish kills directly to DEQ and view recent reports on an online dashboard.

For more information on algal blooms, visit the Division of Water Resources algal blooms webpage.

A study of the country’s two largest estuaries reveals that inshore coastal waters are not necessarily experiencing what scientists say is a worrisome global trend of increasingly acidic oceans.

The recently published paper is the latest in a small collection of studies highlighting the complexities of coastal zones onshore.

In this case, researchers looked at trends from data collected more than 20 years within the Neuse River Estuary-Pamlico Sound waters and Chesapeake Bay and found that things like nutrient pollution and algal blooms play a role in how carbon dioxide is dissolved in inland coastal waters.

Research Assistant Professor Nathan Hall with the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City and co-author of the study explained that eutrophication is effectively causing, in some cases, estuarine waters to have lower acidification than that of the ocean.

Eutrophication happens in waters that become overloaded by nutrient runoff, leading to harmful algal blooms, fish kills and areas of low oxygen where aquatic life cannot survive.

“We think of ocean acidification as bad, eutrophication as bad,” Hall said. “But eutrophication also in these estuaries can prevent, at least in the surface layers, the effects of ocean acidification from showing up. So, it adds a lot of complexity in the coastal zone. It’s not just as simple as gauges going down everywhere because we’re pumping CO2 into the air. In a lot of cases estuaries, because we load them with so much organic matter and the rivers feeding into them usually have more CO2 than they can take to begin with, they usually are releasing CO2 back into the atmosphere.”

The release of that CO2 into the atmosphere means that the carbon dioxide does not often have the same influence on the pH — or measure of how acidic or basic water is — alkalinity, in an estuary.

The measure of pH ranges from 0-14. A measurement of 7 is neutral, those less than 7 indicate acidity and those greater than 7 indicate a base.

Scientists say increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere driven by human activity is causing the ocean to absorb more carbon dioxide, which decreases pH, causing the ocean to become more acidic.

Increasingly acidic seas are threatening species like oysters, corals and some calcifying planktons. Threats to these species, scientists say, will create a rippling effect up the ocean food chain.

The Neuse River Estuary-Pamlico Sound and Chesapeake Bay study corroborates previous findings of how production of phytoplankton, or microalgae that float in the upper layer of fresh and marine waters, swamp out from estuaries signals that detect acidification in the ocean.

But the study also found something Hall was not expecting.

Scientists assess the amount of phytoplankton in water by measuring concentrations of chlorophyll. Phytoplankton contain chlorophyll to carry out photosynthesis by absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide to create sugars for fuel.

“If chlorophyll is going up we assume that there’s more production,” Hall said. “And, in most cases, we think that should increase the pH as CO2 is taken out of the water from phytoplankton production. But what we actually saw in both of these estuaries is that, during the summer, periods of high chlorophyll were correlated with low pH water and that was a real headscratcher. The pH is going down during these phytoplankton blooms.”

Researchers think that, during the summer, nutrient loading that cause algal blooms also load a lot of dissolved organic carbon, which is fuel for bacteria. As the bacteria break down that organic carbon that produces CO2.

“So even though the phytoplankton are growing on the nutrients that came in from the pulses of runoff, the bacteria are growing and producing more CO2 than phytoplankton are taking the CO2 up,” Hall said. “It’s not something that I think had been seen or really shown before. It just makes things complex. The more you learn about something the more you realize, holy cow, this really is not straightforward.”

He theorizes that swamps in the watershed inundated by flooding from tropical cyclones load a lot of that organic matter into the estuary while, at the same time, dumping a lot of nutrients into the estuary that cause algal blooms.

“I think that’s fuel and the production of all the carbon dioxide that ends up making the pH go down,” he said.

This complicated system makes it challenging for researchers to provide definitive answers for how to try and manage these waters.

As Hall sees it, the study reveals eutrophication in estuaries as a kind of double-edged sword, a trade-off.

“I think that’s something that people are really just starting to talk about,” he said. “I think another thing the study shows is we have this global pressure of higher CO2 levels in the atmosphere, but how that affects pH is very estuary-specific and so we just can’t make assumptions that estuaries are going to decrease in pH. A lot of estuaries are probably not going to be really sensitive to the increase in atmospheric CO2 and some may be. We’ve really got to take it by an estuary-to-estuary basis to really understand which ones are going to be more sensitive and which ones are not.”

This report was updated to include the swim advisory.

Water quality conditions along the North Carolina coast appear to be one of the most quickly identified problems resulting from rainfall associated with Tropical Storm Idalia. Officials on Thursday put in place immediate temporary closures of shellfish areas in much of the state’s coastal waters and advised against swimming.

State recreational water quality officials on Thursday advised the public to avoid swimming in North Carolina coastal waters from Wright Memorial Bridge in Kitty Hawk south to the South Carolina state line.

Division of Marine Fisheries Director Kathy Rawls, upon the recommendation of State Health Director Dr. Betsey Tilson with the Department of Health and Human Services, announced the closures early Thursday morning in a proclamation.

“These temporary closures are due to heavy rainfall and resultant runoff associated with Tropical Storm Idalia,” according to the proclamation.

Areas in the northeastern part of the state are permanently closed to shellfishing.

It is unlawful for any person to take or attempt to take any oysters, clams or mussels or possess, sell or offer for sale any oysters, clams or mussels taken from the following polluted areas:

• All those waters bordered on the northeast by a line beginning at the Cedar Island Ferry Terminal, running southeasterly along the shore of Cedar Island to Camp Point; thence running southeasterly near Wainwright Island to a point on Core Banks at 34° 59.0185′ N – 76° 09.9344′ W; and bordered on the southwest by the South Carolina state line, to include all waters in Brunswick, New Hanover, Pender, and Onslow counties, as well as Bogue Sound, Newport River, North River, Ward Creek, Straits, Back Sound, Whitehurst Creek, Sleepy Creek, Jarrett Bay, Oyster Creek, Brett Bay, Nelson Bay, Thorofare Bay, Cedar Island Bay, and a portion of Core Sound.
• All those waters bordered in the east by a line beginning at Long Shoal Point, running southwesterly to the southern tip of Hog Island; thence running southwesterly to Bluff Point; thence running westerly to the southern tip of Great Island Marsh; thence running southwesterly to Maw Point, thence running southeasterly to Flashing Beacon “NR”, thence running southerly to Point of Marsh, thence running southeasterly to Point of Grass, thence following the shoreline of Cedar Island to the Cedar Island Ferry Terminal, to include Long Bay, West Bay, Turnagain Bay, Neuse River, South River, Adams Creek, Bay River, Jones Bay Pamlico River, Pungo River, Spencer Bay, Rose Bay, Swanquarter Bay, Juniper Bay, Wysocking Bay, and Long Shoal River.
• All those waters bordered on the north and west by a line beginning at a point 35° 28.2328′ N – 75° 29.0549′ W on the Outer Banks, running westerly to a point 35° 28.2938′ N – 75° 31.2790′ W on Gull Island; thence running southwesterly to Brooks Point.
• All those waters bordered on the north and west by a line beginning at Brooks Point, running southwesterly to the southern tip of DOT Island near Hatteras Inlet at 35° 12.1796′ N – 75° 45.6698′ W; thence running southwesterly to Channel Marker “6” off Ocracoke Village; thence running southwesterly to the northern tip of Beacon Island at 35° 05.9383′ N – 76° 02.8513′ W; thence running southeasterly to the southern tip of Ocracoke Island.

Shellfish Sanitation maintains an online temporary closure public viewer to help the public interpret written shellfish closure proclamations.

Swimming advisory

The storm caused flooding of streets, yards and housing that have resulted in some municipalities having to pump floodwaters into the ocean, state recreational water quality officials said. Avoid swimming near ocean outfalls, including the wet sand where the floodwater is pumped, even if no sign is posted.

“Severe weather events like tropical storms and hurricanes bring excessive amounts of rain, storm surge and cause extreme flooding. These conditions increase levels of harmful bacteria in our coastal waters that can cause illness,” said Erin Bryan-Millush, manager of the N.C. Recreational Water Quality Program. “The sources of bacteria can vary and include failing septic systems, sewer line breaks and overflowing manholes.”

While state officials do not have immediate laboratory confirmation that disease-causing organisms are in the water, storm impacts increase the chance that contamination is present thus increasing the risk of adverse health effects from swimming in these waters.

Residents and visitors should avoid swimming in these waters until bacteriological testing indicates sample results within the state’s and Environmental Protection Agency’s standards. Testing will begin as soon as conditions are safe and areas are accessible. The advisory will be lifted in part or in whole as test results become available.

Since the impacts are widespread, it is not possible to post signs in all areas.  

Recreational water quality officials sample 215 sites throughout the coastal region, most of them on a weekly basis, from April to October. Testing continues on a reduced schedule during the rest of the year, when fewer people are in the water.

A portion of land that once was the site of a wood treatment plant in Navassa is up for sale.

Claire Woods, Greenfield Environmental Trust Group director of environmental justice policies and programs, announced during a community meeting Tuesday night in Navassa that the bidding process is now open, kicking off a long-awaited move to get some of the land on the market.

“The invitation to bid includes 87 acres,” she said to those attending a quarterly meeting hosted by agencies overseeing the remediation and cleanup of the former Kerr-McGee property.

The areas for sale include about half of a 100-acre chunk known as the Eastern Upland, which is contamination-free, and operable units 1 and 2.

Bidders have until Nov. 9 to submit comprehensive development plans explaining in detail how they would use the land.

The property was added to the National Priorities List of federal Superfund sites in 2010 after creosote contamination was discovered in the groundwater, soil and sediment within portions of the 200-acre site. Creosote is a gummy, tar-like substance used to treat wood, including railroad ties and electric utility poles.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency divided the site into operable units to distinguish geographic areas within the property, the level of contamination within those areas, and to determine the best course of action in remediating and cleaning those areas.

The EPA removed operable unit 1, or OU1, from the National Priorities List more than a year ago after the more-than-20-acre site was deemed contamination-free and suitable for residential use.

Cleanup efforts will start in the coming weeks within an area of OU2, a unit of about 16 acres where treated and untreated wood were stored during plant operations. The wood treatment plant was closed in the 1970s.

EPA Remedial Project Manager Erik Spalvins said Tuesday that contaminated soil from about 1.6 acres will be excavated from OU2 and moved to OU4, where the soil will be stockpiled for an undetermined amount of time.

He said that removing the contaminated soil will clear the land within OU2 for unrestricted use.

Ngozi Ibe, senior project manager for the Multistate Trust site in Navassa, further detailed the cleanup efforts, saying the work to remove about 2,900 cubic yards of soil from OU2 will likely begin in December.

Trucks will bring in clean soil to backfill the areas excavated in the unit.

Contaminated soil taken to OU4 will be placed in two stockpiles – one that will hold a majority of the excavated soil secured in a geotextile membrane. A separate stockpile of soils containing a higher a concentration of contamination will also be lined and covered, Ibe said. The stockpiles will be regularly monitored.

The Multistate Trust has selected two local contractors to do the work in OU2. Those contractors will, in turn, conduct a community outreach event seeking locals to assist with the work.

Work on OU2 is expected to wrap in March.

The EPA, in consultation with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, oversees the trust, which was court-appointed to own the Superfund site and is responsible for managing the remediation of the property.

As work is done within OU2, officials will be conducting site investigations of operable units 3 and 4.

OU3 includes about 30 acres and consists of marshland. Officials will continue to gather information to assess the condition of the marsh, which will help them determine a remedy for OU3.

“It’s a slow process, but it’s thorough so, when we finally get the information we’re really going to be able to move on that remedy,” Ibe said.

OU4 is the pond and process area where chemicals were stored during plant operations. Ibe said additional soil samples will be collected and more monitoring wells will be installed on that site to determine how best to remedy that portion of the site.

About $94.8 million, the result of a court settlement with the prior owners of the site, has been set aside to cover the costs associated with cleaning the land for reuse.

To date, about $23.3 million has been spent on everything from environmental investigations, risk assessments, project planning, operations and maintenance, legal and other accounting costs, beneficiary oversight and community engagement efforts, according to Woods.

Navassa will receive a donation of about 27 acres under a conservation easement. The town plans to build a heritage center on that property and including walking trails and other ecotourism-related amenities.

Cleanup of contaminated surface soil within an area of a Superfund site in Navassa is expected to begin this fall.

That cleaning process will be discussed during a meeting 6-7 p.m. Tuesday at the Navassa Community Center, 338 Main St. An in-person only drop-in session will immediately follow the meeting.

To join the meeting online use this Zoom link or tinyurl.com/NavassaMeetings. To join by telephone call 301-715-8592. Use meeting ID 946 584 8922 and passcode 664564.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, and the Multistate Environmental Response Trust, which is responsible for managing the remediation of the former wood treatment plant site, are hosting the meeting.

Officials will discuss safety measures, including traffic control, air monitoring and other precautions to minimize impacts to the small Brunswick County town during cleanup of operable unit 2, or OU2, according to a news release.

Two local firms that will administer the cleanup and related employment and training opportunities also will be covered at the meeting.

Cleanup plans include excavating surface soil and temporarily storing the soil in operable unit 4 where it will be covered and managed. The stockpiled soils will then either be reused or consolidated when OU4 is cleaned.

Soils that cannot be stored on-site will be recycled or disposed of in accordance with state and federal laws, according to a news release.

The work is expected to take three to four months.

Once the cleanup is complete, the land within OU2 will not require long-term monitoring and be available for unrestricted use.

OU2 includes about 16 acres of land where treated and untreated wood was stored when the plant was operated by various companies, including Kerr-McGee, between 1936 and 1974.

Wood was treated and preserved with creosote, a gummy, tar-like substance later found in the groundwater, soil and sediment on portions of the more than 200-acre site. The Multistate Trust owns a little more than 150 acres of the property.

Investigations of operable units 3 and 4 and the future sale of nearly 90 acres of Multistate Trust-owned property on the site will be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting, as well.

Environmental groups this week have filed a petition asking that the state be required to make industries with discharge permits install equipment that will keep pollution out of rivers and streams.

The Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf Cape Fear River Watch, MountainTrue, and Yadkin Riverkeeper has petitioned the N.C. Environmental Management Commission to rule that the state Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, to mandate industrial permittees install available technologies in order to stop pollution at the source.

“DEQ’s inconsistent application of the law leaves communities in North Carolina vulnerable to harmful industrial water pollution,” SELC Senior Attorney Patrick Hunter said in a release. “The Environmental Management Commission has an important opportunity to confirm DEQ’s longstanding legal obligation to consistently apply the protections of the Clean Water Act to communities across the state. Consistent application of the law will better protect North Carolinians from harmful pollutants like toxic PFAS, or forever chemicals, and 1,4-dioxane.”

Industries that discharge pollutants are required under the Clean Water Act to obtain a permit. Permits have to include existing technologies that can reduce and omit pollutants from entering the environment.

The groups filing the petition argue that DEQ “bypasses” that technology-based requirement “in the majority of permits it issues for industries that discharge pollution directly into local waterways.”

“Our rivers and streams are not dumping grounds and we expect industrial dischargers to minimize the amount of pollution they put into streams that are used for swimming, fishing, and drinking water across the state,” Gray Jernigan, general counsel for MountainTrue, said in the release. “Today, we’re asking DEQ to consistently apply technology-based requirements under the Clean Water Act to protect downstream communities and fish that people rely on for sustenance.”

DEQ has applied technology-based controls in permits for Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant in Bladen County and Colonial Pipeline, the latter of which led to an 86% reduction in the amount of benzene Colonial may discharge into waterways, according to the release.

Chemours, under a Consent Order with DEQ and Cape Fear River Watch, has installed an underground barrier wall to keep per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, from seeping from the plant through groundwater and into the Cape Fear River.

Emerging compounds including PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has identified as a probable carcinogen, have been found at various levels throughout the Cape Fear River. The river is a drinking water source for tens of thousands of North Carolinians.

“Proper application of technology-based controls has led to significant water quality protections in our community,” Yadkin Riverkeeper Edgard Miller said. “We commend DEQ for applying technology-based controls in the Colonial Pipeline permit and we hope that a ruling by the Environmental Management Commission will ensure those protections are extended across North Carolina for all its residents.”

The commission has been asked to require DEQ to evaluate current pollution control technologies for all industrial facilities in the state and set limits based on technologies that are available at the time permits are issued.

“Our petition asks DEQ to apply the same laws it applied at Chemours to other industrial dischargers within the Cape Fear watershed and across the state,” Cape Fear Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette said. “Technologies are available that can dramatically reduce industrial water pollution. Communities in North Carolina are depending on DEQ to issue permits that require industries to use those technologies to better protect water quality and communities.”

More fish advisories, this time for saltwater species, could be announced for the Cape Fear River pending the results of fish tissue samples being analyzed for dozens of human-made chemicals polluting the river.

Frannie Nilsen, a toxicologist with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, said during a presentation Tuesday to the Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board that she’s hopeful the state will not need to add more fish from the river to the list of species found to have high concentrations of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS.

“We don’t know what this data will say so hopefully you don’t need to create an advisory,” Nilsen said during the presentation. “One thing I will say is that many saltwater species do have lower PFAS and PFOS concentrations because they have a wider home range and a more diverse diet so they’re not as concentrated for some of these compounds, at least based on the studies that exist in the literature.”

Results of the saltwater fish tissue currently being studied will be presented to the advisory board in the late fall or early winter, she said.

Those results will wrap up a study of multiple species of fish collected from the Cape Fear River, just south of Fayetteville to the Atlantic Ocean.

It’s been less than one month since the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services released an advisory recommending people limit the amount of freshwater fish they consume from the middle and lower Cape Fear River after several species were found to contain PFOS.

PFOS is a group of related chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which are synthetic chemical compounds used in a host of consumer goods, including state and water-resistant products.

Nearly 280 fish from across 14 different species were collected and tested for 56 different PFAS, including GenX, a human-made chemical specific to Chemours Fayetteville Works Facility more than 70 miles upriver of Wilmington.

Under court order, Chemours has been chipping away at reducing the amount of PFAS the plant had been releasing into the river, air and groundwater.

Communities along the river had been pushing the state for fish studies since the public was made aware in 2017 that the plant had been discharging PFAS into the river for decades.

The species that were tested were specifically targeted because they are the most frequently fished and eaten from the river.

Fish were collected from one of 11 different sites along the river. Each site spanned just under 12.5 miles in length.

While PFAS were found in all of the freshwater fish tissue samples collected, PFOS concentrations were highest in bluegill, flathead catfish, largemouth bass, striped bass and redear sunfish.

PFOS was also found in American shad, blue catfish and channel catfish, but at lower concentrations.

“This is not entirely what was expected, but this is not uncommon or irregular in terms of freshwater fish samples,” Nilsen said. “If you look at just the PFOS concentrations at each site for each species, they are variable, but they’re not significantly different. They’re variable between species, but within the species they’re not so different. So, while the PFOS concentrations did look much higher than all the others, they don’t vary so much between the sites in the river. This is really providing a very comprehensive data set to inform additional fish studies in the future and looking retrospectively at ones that exist in literature.”

Analysis of 67 saltwater fish across nine species taken from three sites between Wilmington and the mouth of the river at Southport are starting to come in to the state, she said.

Those fish include black and red drum, Atlantic croaker, sheepshead and southern flounder. Tissue samples from speckled trout, flathead catfish and striped bass were also taken from those sites.

Virginia Guidry, DHHS Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology branch head, explained that the fish advisories do not create legal or regulatory restrictions on fish consumption, but rather health recommendations.

And while other states have PFAS-related fish advisories, she said it is difficult to make direct comparisons with those issued for the Cape Fear River.

Guidry said that, to her knowledge, North Carolina is the first state to issue advisories based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest reference doses on PFOS, which were released in March.

“We did this so that we could base our advisories on the most current scientific data and be as health protective as we can,” she said. “This uses the same science as the proposed maximum contaminant levels for drinking water supplies. The concentrations of PFOS that we found in North Carolina are similar to levels that are found nationally, but our advisory is more restrictive because we are using that new EPA reference. These advisories are important information that we want to share with the public so they can reduce their exposure to PFAS.”

She emphasized the delicate balance of warning people against eating too much of the fish listed under the advisory while acknowledging that fish are an important source of nutrition and that fish are culturally significant to Native American tribes and other communities.

Guidry noted that neighboring states, including South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Georgia, do not have PFAS-related fish advisories.

The state is hosting community meetings later this month about the advisories. The schedule is as follows:

• Aug. 17 at Bladen Community College from 6-8 p.m.
• Aug. 22 at Navassa Community Center from 6-8 p.m.
• Aug. 24 virtual meeting from 6-8 p.m.

Additional information will be provided on the DHHS website.

This report has been updated to remove the trademarked product name referenced in the study, which is not the device shown in the photo.

A recent study estimates that 230 billion tiny pieces of plastic the thickness of a human hair and 670 million microplastics about than the size of a grain of sand flow into the Pamlico Sound from the Neuse River Basin each year.

To reach that estimate, North Carolina State University and North Carolina Sea Grant researchers sampled 15 freshwater locations between Wake County to Craven County from August 2020 to July 2021.

The presence of microplastics, which are less than a fifth of an inch, were found at all 15 sites, though the concentration varied depending on location, according to the research funded by National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration Marine Debris Program and North Carolina Sea Grant. The most common microplastics detected were polyethylene and polystyrene.

“This study effort completed the first sampling of microplastics (smaller than 5 mm) for North Carolina freshwater rivers and streams,” states, “Engaging Partners to Evaluate Plastics Loading to the Pamlico Sound from Urban and Rural Lands via the Neuse River in North Carolina,” the study published earlier this year.

Microplastics come in a variety of shapes such as fibers, fragments, pellets, spheres, flakes, foams and films, and originate from point and nonpoint sources including wastewater, industrial processes, tire wear, and degraded plastic bags, bottles, food containers and other discarded plastics.

The primary goal of this study is taking “the first step in characterizing and quantifying the annual loading of plastic pollution to our coastal waters from inland sources by examining contributions through the Neuse River watershed to the Pamlico Sound. The secondary goal was to use research results to raise awareness of plastic pollution since quantifying the scale of the problem in a local context has been shown to increase stakeholder engagement and interest,” according to the research.

The Neuse basin is home to over 2.5 million people, mostly concentrated in the highly developed upper watershed, while the lower watershed is mostly agricultural and forested land uses. Sample locations were selected to include a range of drainage area sizes, a variety of land uses, and to encompass locations throughout the basin, the research notes.

The highest number of all microplastics were observed in urban streams. “There was a significant correlation between streamflow and MP concentration in the most urbanized locations,” the study states. The study refers to microplastics as MPs.

The authors of the study, North Carolina Sea Grant extension specialists Dr. Barbara Doll and Gloria Putnam, and NC State Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering research scholar, Jack Kurki-Fox, shared highlights of their research in the article, “A River of Plastics,” in the summer edition of Coastwatch, North Carolina Sea Grant’s quarterly publication.

“Our study was the first to sample microplastics in North Carolina’s freshwater rivers and streams, focusing on 15 locations throughout the Neuse River Basin, from Wake County to Craven County. We evaluated the presence of microplastic particles by trawling for several minutes using a net with 335-micron openings (about the size of a small grain of sand) and by bailing 100 liters (about 26.4 gallons) of water through a 64-micron mesh opening (roughly the thickness of a human hair),” they wrote in the Coastwatch article.

“We estimate that about 670 million microplastic particles larger than 335 microns enter the Pamlico Sound from the Neuse River Basin each year. For microplastics larger than 64 microns, that estimate is about 230 billion particles per year,” the article continues.

Researchers sampled for macroplastics, as well, according to the study. They used three different methods in the upper portion of the river basins. They regularly collected trash at seven streams, captured debris during stormflow at two highly urbanized streams using a trap device and visually counted floating trash during stormflow events at two large tributaries and at one small highly urban stream in Raleigh, according to the research.

All three macroplastic sampling methods show that the bulk of trash washing into streams is plastics.

“Floating trash was nearly all plastics and plastics also dominated the litter captured during storm flow using the trash collection boom and basket (96%). Styrofoam pieces were the most common litter type observed using these two sampling methods,” the study states. “Grid samples in contrast contained a more diverse trash profile with plastics comprising about 74% of all samples collected.”

Urban streams were found to produce much higher counts of trash and macroplastics. The study’s findings indicate that plastics are commonly transported downstream during high flows and are likely flowing into the mainstem of the Neuse River where it will continue to wash into the Pamlico Sound.

“Therefore,” the executive summary concludes, that “programs to prevent this litter from being deposited on the ground and washed into the stormdrain system are critical to plastics from entering stormwater systems in urban areas and being transported to downstream rivers and estuaries of critical social, economic and environmental importance.”

“Most of us don’t witness the ‘plastic flows’ in our state because we aren’t out during storm events,” Putnum told Coastal Review.

“But our trash traps and the visual assessments of floating trash we conducted during high stream flows, show there is a large quantity of plastic, especially plastic bottles and foam pieces, moving through some of our urban streams,” she continued. “Next, we need to identify where it ends up and move toward prevention, because removing it once it’s in the water is costly and extremely challenging.”

Doll, who also is on the faculty for the NC State Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, told Coastal Review that, in a way, it was not surprising they found microplastics in all of their samples, and found strong links between the macroplastics and the microplastics.

“Polystyrene, polyethylene these were really common microplastics and lo and behold, very close to the items that we were finding in our trash collection research component as well,” she said.

Doll explained that she has long history with freshwater streams and has worked on nonpoint source pollution and stream improvement for all her career, and “trash has always been at the forefront of my concern from childhood.”

After hearing about the funding through Sea Grant to work on marine debris and plastics, Doll said they decided to take advantage of the funding opportunity.

Because of her work conducting stream morphology assessments, or collecting data on streams, she said she sees in the urban areas “a lot of garbage and it’s pretty disheartening.”

She was also hearing more about the issue of microplastics. She mentioned international articles about researchers looking at pollutant loading into the ocean from riverine systems.

“I believe it,” she said about what she had been reading, “because of all of the garbage I see in just our small creeks, and these creeks are connecting to bigger waterways and into the main river, and then that’s going to go into our estuary. And in some cases, like the Cape Fear, dump right out into the ocean.”

Between the amount of trash she was finding while out in the field and the recent attention on microplastics, it made her ask, “How do we get a handle on that? We had not heard of any type of this work looking at trash and plastics — microplastics and riverine systems — reaching coastal waters in our state.”

Doll said that she anticipates a push to regulate debris in waterways. If that’s the case, there needs to be research on how to quantify the debris, how to prevent it, determine what the real scale is, and “Would this be the right thing to do, to require cities and counties to clean up?” Doll said. These questions are important, and the funding seemed like a real opportunity to jump in to get answers, data and experience.

“We were very interested in this topic,” she said, and since there’s a lot of questions “let’s just start to take a bite out of that, and here’s some funding that could help us.”

Doll said the team had to adapt early to some obstacles when they began collecting samples. One was the amount of organic material they had to sort through.

“This was our biggest challenge. We spent several months, maybe almost a year, dealing with the amount of organic matter that had to be digested, filtered out, removed, separated, so we could quantify these plastics,” Doll explained, adding that the Plastics Ocean Project Executive Director Bonnie Monteleone and her team separated the plastics from the debris in their laboratory in Wilmington.

Once that was resolved, they had a solid procedure for getting that separated and identifying the plastics.

Another challenge that was surprising, Doll noted, is that when these plastics break down and degrade in the environment, it changes the plastic’s chemical signature, but the databases they were using to identify what kind of plastics they were finding were based on pristine plastic. “That became a big challenge as well,” she said, because some samples would give a signature of a food additive, but they were actually degraded plastics.

Capturing the trash during storm flow also took some adapting. The first net they put across a stream to catch trash, collected, leaves, pine straw and sticks, and ultimately failed.

“We had to kind of research about different trash-capturing devices and found some people that have been doing work in that,” including the litter getter trash trap.

During the project, Doll said they learned so much about the sampling techniques that now they can share that information with municipalities and others on how to monitor for microplastics, macroplastics, or general marine debris.

“We’ve learned a lot, and I think that that’s really important to moving ahead in the future, where we really start to grapple with this serious issue. We found very high levels of trash and microplastics from the urban areas, and that increases with higher levels of storm flow,” Doll said. “That says that those are the areas we really need to target to reduce this contribution in our particular rivers and sounds here in North Carolina. We need good strategies, and good tools and practices and to be consistent.”

Third in a series on the Albemarle region’s environmental-economic connections.

Persistent algal blooms on the Chowan River are nothing new, but there was a time when the problem, one affecting public health, the environment and the coastal economy, got better. Then the blooms returned, and researchers are still trying to determine why.

Blue-green algal blooms return each summer to rivers in northeastern North Carolina and linger. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality on July 18 issued a warning to avoid the Chowan River from Tyner on Indian Creek in northern Chowan County to Edenton.

Related: Lingering Chowan River algal bloom prompts state advisory

A 30-month program administered by the Albemarle Resource and Conservation Development Council is more than a year into looking at why the Chowan, Perquimans and Pasquotank rivers are so prone to the blue-green algal blooms that are caused by cyanobacteria feeding frenzies on nutrient-rich waters. These bacteria are potentially toxic to humans and animals and are associated with hypoxia, or deprivation of oxygen, in the water, leading to fish kills.

Albemarle Resource and Conservation Development Council Executive Director Elizabeth Bryant, a longtime resident of the Edenton area, said the problem is significant and real, and affects the area’s most important resources.

“With blue-green algal blooms in Edenton Bay and then farther north on the Chowan River,” Bryant said, “They’ve been severe to the point where warnings had to go out about people not swimming, that if they’re boating, they should steer clear of algal blooms. And not touch the fish in the area. Obviously, that restricts tourism.”

The council serves 10 northeastern North Carolina counties: Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hyde, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell and Washington.

Bryant said the algal blooms can be breathtaking and affect towns across the region.

“If you get out of your car, and you can hardly breathe because of the scent of algal blooms, you’re going to get back in your car,” she said. “That will inhibit tourism to Edenton to Elizabeth City.”

Some of the region’s smaller towns’ economies depend on the summer travelers to or from the Outer Banks, Bryant added.

The 30-month-long study, Bryant noted, will yield data for the council’s entire service area. The grant requires gathering samples consistently throughout the year and, importantly, water samples are collected at tributaries and streams, and not necessarily the larger rivers.

The study is funded through the Environmental Enhancement Grant program administered by the state attorney general’s office. The program is part of a 25-year agreement that resulted from the state’s hog waste pollution case settlement with Smithfield Foods.

Attorney General Josh Stein, speaking at an event in May in Bertie County, said that in the 22 years since the agreement was signed, about 210 projects had been funded with awards totaling more than $40 million. Numerous awards have supported different strategies to improve water quality, Stein said.

Colleen Karl is the chairperson of the Chowan Edenton Environmental Group. She and others in the organization are among the numerous amateur, or public, scientists who are gathering samples for analysis as part of the program.

“It’s a very large watershed and we’re sampling on a lot of back roads,” she said.

The Chowan Edenton Environmental Group is sampling the waters of Potecasi Creek, a tributary of the Chowan River that joins the river at almost the same location as the Meherrin River.

“Some of those tributaries that come off Potecasi Creek, were earmarked as pretty high in nitrogen,” she said.

Nitrogen and phosphorous have long been known to contribute to cyanobacteria blooms, but other factors have also been identified, including those related to climate change.

Dr. Hans Paerl and Dr. Nathan Hall of the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences are analyzing the samples. Paerl, who has published papers on climate change and how it affects blue-green algae, explained that the organisms are influenced by changing weather patterns.

“These bloom organisms are particularly sensitive to climate change, including overall warming of the globe’s atmosphere and water, but then also more extreme events, like bigger storms and bigger droughts,” Paerl said. “Those things have come into the equation to more or less complicate factors in terms of coming up with recommending management strategies.”

Paerl has been studying the Chowan River watershed since the 1980s, when herring was still abundant in the river.

“When I first started working there, they had big herring pickling places (where) I used to buy my herring over in Colerain,” he recalled.

He was part of a team that came up with an early management plan for reducing the nutrient load entering the Chowan.

“When I first got hired to look at the blooms on the Chowan River, that was back in 1980, I believe. We did a good job. We identified both nitrogen and phosphorus and came up with some recommendations for how much reductions needed to take place in terms of input of those nutrients, and it proved to be pretty effective,” Paerl said.

It was a temporary reprieve.

“Then 15 or 20 years later, the blooms returned to the Chowan — pretty much the same players. So now we’re trying to figure out what has happened in the interim,” he said. “We’re still really aiming for nutrient reductions. We may need to reduce them even more now than we did before. The additional thing is climate change.”

But climate change does not completely explain why there has been an increase in algal blooms in rivers like the Chowan. As Hall explained, when the Albemarle Resource and Conservation Development Council first approached the researchers, they wanted to know where the nutrients had originated. In reviewing data and literature on nutrients in the rivers, a sudden spike wasn’t apparent.

“We have flow gauges (on the rivers) and the Division of Water Resources measures the concentrations. So, we have flow, we have concentrations, we can calculate loads,” Hall said. “Those major rivers don’t look particularly spectacular as far as how much load. The concentrations in the rivers really aren’t that high.”

What was apparent though was that relatively minor tributaries to the Albemarle Sound where gauges were in place or were otherwise monitored seemed to have significantly higher nutrient loads.

“For the few small streams where we do have concentration data, like the Scuppernong River, the Pasquotank River, the Perquimans River — these are smaller tributaries to the Albemarle Sound area — the concentrations are really high,” Hall said.

Those concentrations are also being found in the tributary streams — concentrations so high that they may be a significant contributing factor to algal blooms.

“A lot of the smaller streams are three times higher concentration than the big rivers. So if they’re carrying a proportional amount of flow and they’re about 15% of the watershed, they’re carrying three times higher concentration, they could be 40% of the load,” Hall said.

The study recently passed the 12-month mark, and there are still a number of unanswered questions. It remains unclear, for example, where or how the nitrogen is entering the river system.

“The organic nitrogen component is something that’s increasing in a lot of the streams in North Carolina. And it’s been kind of a head-scratcher as to where it’s coming from,” Hall said.

He explained that one of the goals of the project is to look across some of the streams that have different watershed and land-use characteristics, that are higher agriculture use, or include urban development, and try to investigate what the dissolved organic components look like.

Land use may be the key to mitigating extreme algal blooms, but to date the role of land use, how it affects nutrient loads, is not completely clear. To North Carolina State University researcher Dr. Chris Osburn, who is analyzing the data, the information is by no means definitive.

“Preliminary evidence points to changes in land use and climate (especially extreme rainfall events) that can mobilize DON (dissolved organic nitrogen) from wetlands and forested landscapes into tributaries, which could be driving some of the increases in DON observed in the Chowan River. Research into the sources of DON to these tributaries is ongoing,” Osburn responded to Coastal Review in an email.

Even if the sources of nutrients that are creating algal blooms in the Albemarle Basin are identified, Paerl said limiting the blooms is about the best that can be accomplished.

“We’re probably never going to be able to get rid of cyanobacteria in these slow-moving systems, and even in Albemarle Sound,” he said. “But we can keep it from getting worse.”

He said that’s essentially the point of mitigation strategies: holding back an issue or a problem from getting worse. “After all, cyanobacteria have been around on Earth for 2 billion years. They’re not going to go away.”

Cape Fear River Watch has released a scathing response to the state’s public notice of a hog waste spill from a Bladen County farm into a nearby creek.

The “special alert” issued Monday afternoon from Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette calls a press release put out last week by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality “pathetic.”

“It didn’t say where the spill happened and it didn’t list the name of the creek the spill entered. It didn’t warn the public about the dangers of bacteria and pathogens that were in the water. And finally, it suggested that a beaver dam had contained the spill,” Cape Fear River Watch’s release states.

Related: Bladen farm releases untreated animal waste into creek

The release goes on to explain that water continually runs over and through beaver dams.

“They cannot and do not stop bacteria, pathogens, nutrients, antibiotics, heavy metals, or any of the other dangerous constituents of untreated hog waste,” the release states.

DEQ’s Division of Water Resources was notified of the spill, which is estimated to be about 30,000 gallons from Murphy-Brown hog farm into Little Turnbull Creek on the evening of Friday, Jan. 27.

Little Turnbull Creek flows into Turnbull Creek, which is a tributary of the Cape Fear River.

DEQ issued a press release the following Saturday, Jan. 28, explaining that the spill was caused by a recirculation pipe failure.

Farm personnel tried pumping the waste out of the creek, where much of the waste appeared to be contained by a beaver dam, according to the state.

Cape Fear River Watch and the Division of Water Resources collected water samples on Monday, Jan. 30, three days after the spill.

Results of the samples collected by Cape Fear River Watch were reviewed by a state-certified lab, according to the release. An upstream sample indicated 19 colonies of fecal bacteria per 100 milliliters of water.

The downstream sample contained 220 colonies of fecal bacteria per 100 ml of water. That is higher than the state’s freshwater standard of 200 colonies per 100 ml of water.

A division spokesperson late Monday afternoon released results of state-collected samples taken from five sites. Those include the following:

• Upstream of where the spill entered Little Turnbull Creek: 64 colonies per 100 ml of water.
• Near the site where water entered the stream: 640 colonies per 100 ml of water.
• Road crossing downstream: 163 colonies per 100 ml of water.
• Beaver dam: 540 colonies per 100 ml of water.
• Downstream of the dam: 46 colonies per 100 ml of water.

“DWR staff plan to continue sampling,” Josh Kastrinsky, public information officer with the Division of Water Resources and the Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources, said in an email.

Cape Fear River Watch criticizes the large hog farms industry, calling it an environmental and public health disaster.

“Despite promising to clean up their act over twenty years ago the industry continues to use the antiquated lagoon and spray field system to manage waste. They refuse to invest in proven and available technology because they value profits over people and the environment. Our rivers and our communities are suffering,” the river watch’s release states. “We sure hope [DEQ] do a better job next time – because there will definitely be a next time.”

The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources is investigating the release of tens of thousands of gallons of animal waste into a Bladen County creek over the weekend.

A recirculation pipe failure is suspected in discharging what is estimated to be nearly 30,000 gallons of untreated waste from Murphy-Brown Farm into Little Turnbull Creek, according Josh Kastrinksy, public information officer with the Division of Water Resources and the Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources.

Little Turnbull Creek flows into Turnbull Creek, a tributary of the Cape Fear River.

State water resources officials were notified Friday evening of the pipe failure, and operators at the Murphy-Brown facility had pumped waste from the creek that night until Monday morning, Kastrinksy said in an email late Monday afternoon.

Animal waste was observed about 0.69 miles from a secondary containment facility and appeared to have been contained in the area by a beaver dam.

“DWR staff have taken samples at five locations downstream in Little Turnbull Creek and expect lab results to be returned toward the end of this week,” Kastrinksy said.

The division will “take appropriate action” based on the results of its investigation, according to a DEQ release.

Blue whales off the coast of California may be consuming as many as 10 million pieces of microplastics per day, finds a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications.

More research is needed to determine the extent of the problem for whales off the East Coast and beyond, where previous studies have identified microplastics in the ocean food chain.

These tiny pieces of plastic material have been commercially produced or are the breakdown of larger pieces of plastic like water bottles, children’s toys and disposable containers. Because of their small size, less than 5 millimeters, microplastics can be hard to detect, but when they enter the environment are a hazardous pollutant.

A group of California scientists decided to investigate the extent to which whales off the coast of California might be exposed to microplastics pollution.

“They’re really big animals that strongly affect the ecosystem if they’re going to be faced with other stressors,” said Dr. Shirel Kahane-Rapport, postdoctoral scholar at California State University, Fullerton, and lead author on the study.

Kahane-Rapport and her team used data collected by 191 tag deployments on baleen whales off the coast of California. The tags are noninvasive monitoring devices that attach to the whale via suction cups. The data collected by the tags helps the scientists record things like where the whales are, when they are feeding and how often they are feeding.

They were able to juxtapose this tag data with published works detailing the microplastics concentrations in both the water column and the prey species that the whales target.

Microplastics are likely primarily passed through the food web, and the scientists predict that the exposure to microplastics corresponds to the number of organisms the whales are eating.

Therefore, blue whales that go after many small krill are consuming much higher levels of microplastics than a humpback whale, which goes after smaller numbers of bigger fish. Blue whales off the coast of California could be consuming about 10 million pieces of microplastics per day, whereas humpback whales may be consuming 200,000 pieces per day.

Even though microplastics are small, plastic consumption at this volume is substantial. According to Kahane-Rapport, the size and weight of microplastics vary.

“You may have a piece of cellophane, or you may have a piece of more dense plastic, like the top of a water bottle — those of course weigh differently,” Kahane-Rapport said. “So people generally, in this work, have been counting pieces and not weight.”

But, Kahane-Rapport said, it could mean that baleen whales are consuming an average of 20 kilograms of plastic per day. That weighs roughly the same amount as a 5-gallon bucket of water.

According to Kahane-Rapport, quantifying the exposure of this human-caused pollution on whales is not just important for the health of the animals, but the rest of the ecosystem, too.

“It could seem like just a sad story about whales,” Kahane-Rapport said. “But it’s also a story about humans.” Humans eat many of the same fish species as whales, making us part of the same food web. “It’s all part of our ecosystem. And if that part of our ecosystem is damaged, it will affect us too. It’s not really just a story about whales, it’s also about us.”

Now that they’ve quantified exposure, Kahane-Rapport will continue studying the effects that microplastics have on whales, in terms of how it moves through the whale’s system.

The other aspect of this work is to examine this issue in other locations. Whales like the North Atlantic right whale, which depend on habitat off the coast of North Carolina, are already critically endangered, and yet nothing is truly known about their exposure to microplastics.

This is not just an issue in California, Kahane-Rapport explained, but in ocean waters across the world.

“Solving microplastic pollution is going to be a global project,” Kahane-Rapport said.

Joe Huie was not expecting this.

Sections of docks and roofs, lumber and handrails tossed by Hurricane Ian-driven waves and wind-littered soundfront shorelines in southern Brunswick County.

“This is the worst we’ve seen so far,” Huie said. The debris field scattered along sound banks back into marshlands from Brick Landing in Ocean Isle Beach to Sunset Beach was staggering, “for such a weak storm, to be honest.”

Huie and a small crew of fellow fishermen headed south from their base in Sneads Ferry four days after the Category 1 hurricane made landfall near Georgetown, South Carolina, a small town nearly 80 miles from Ocean Isle Beach.

Within three days, the crew filled a 40-yard dumpster with what they’d picked up so far.

Much of what is being removed makes the case that North Carolina needs to reinstate building codes for residential docks and piers and that property owners should thoroughly vet the contractors who build these waterfront structures, environmental stewards argue.

“Hurricane Ian provided a really good illustration of how persistent this kind of debris is, the docks and piers in our coastal wetlands,” said Kerri Allen, manager of the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s southeast regional office and coastal advocate. “This is a storm that really had minimal impacts to the North Carolina coast yet it still brought a tremendous amount of dock and pier-related debris.”

Huie’s crew have been removing debris for the past 3.5 years from coastal marshlands spanning from Swansboro south to Brunswick County.

On cleanup days, the crew collects about 1 ton of material a day. Their work is part of a broad-scale effort by various agencies and groups, including the Coastal Federation, to remove marine debris clogging coastal marshlands and clumping up on spoil islands. The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review.

These areas are largely tucked out of view from boaters skimming across sounds.

Until he was hired by the Coastal Federation to walk through marsh and remove debris, Huie said he never saw what lay scattered just beyond the shorelines of the New River.

“The debris we’re talking about is in the marsh and it’s everywhere in the marsh,” he said. “If you don’t get out and walk it, you don’t see it. We had no idea there was that magnitude of debris there.”

In the days following Hurricane Ian, he found an intact porch structure in an area of marsh near Sunset Beach.

“It’s very nice. The tags were still on the decking boards where it was built not too long ago,” Huie said.

Such a find is not unusual, or so debris removal crews have learned these last few years through the large debris removal program.

“That’s been something that’s been really startling for us is how many new structures that go into place that just aren’t up to par,” Allen said. “Unfortunately, there’s a number of contractors who purposely build subpar structures either to meet a price point or sometimes to keep themselves in business so it’s really important to do your research and find a contractor worth their salt who really knows the wave energy and engineers a structure that’s going to last.”

In 2020, the Coastal Federation partnered with government agencies, community groups and scholars to create the North Carolina Marine Debris Action Plan, one that focuses on cleaning debris and stopping it at the source.

One of the recommendations resulting from that plan is a push for stronger state building codes by reinstating rules pertaining to residential docks and piers.

“With all the awareness that has come about through the marine debris removal program we’re hoping to use that and lobby the North Carolina Building Code Council to put docks and piers back in and hopefully strengthen that language,” Allen said.

The council is a 17-member, governor-appointed board that adopts and amends state building codes.

A handful of local governments have amended their town ordinances in an effort to reduce marine debris by banning the use of unencapsulated polystyrene foam in the construction and repair of floating docks.

Wrightsville Beach earlier this month became the fourth town to ban the material. Over the summer, all three towns on Topsail Island added the ban.

The Coastal Federation’s work educating those beach towns about how much polystyrene litter has been found in coastal marshes has also made property owners aware of the issue, Allen said.

Funding for the cleanup came from a North Carolina General Assembly appropriation, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program.

The Coastal Federation has applied for additional funding from the NOAA Marine Debris Program to launch a full-scale education and outreach campaign around the issue.

“I think the biggest takeaway for the coastal property owners is to really just choose their contractor wisely,” Allen said. “A dock that you build in Wrightsville Beach is going to be very different than one you building Emerald Isle because of the wave energy and location and environment. No one wants to be rebuilding their dock after every major storm and so by investing a little bit more research and sometimes money upfront they’re going to have a structure that’s going to last many years longer and also not end up as marine debris on our coast.”

Allen said the federation is in the process of developing a cost-benefit analysis to give property owners an idea of the difference in costs to build a dock or pier designed to last several years through multiple storms versus those that may be damaged or destroyed in one storm.

“In general, the individual components range from about 30% to 100% more expensive in what we’ve seen,” she said.

Staff are also exploring insurance incentives where insurance companies reward customers who have better built structures by lowering their rates.

In the meantime, the Coastal Federation plans to post a brochure on its website that will give property owners tips on how to find reputable contractors and what to consider when determining the best type of structure for the area in which it is to be built.

“Really it’s making sure that you both understand what the specific conditions are at the site of your dock and making sure that they are building a structure that is going to fail at a point that you both agree on,” Allen said.

Huie said he’s concerned about marine debris from larger, more powerful storms than Hurricane Ian.

“I’m just really worried what would happen if we had a Category 2 or Category 3,” he said. “It would take us years to clean up. It may alter some of the habitats forever just from the debris.”

East Carolina University and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality are among 32 recipients across the country that are to receive more than $9 million in pollution prevention, or P2, grants from the Environmental Protection Agency.

The grants allow states and tribes to provide businesses with technical assistance to prevent or reduce pollution before it is created, while also reducing costs, the EPA said in its announcement Thursday.

The grants are in addition to $12 million in P2 grants that were announced in September and made possible by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s $100 million program investment in the EPA P2 program.

“For more than 30 years, EPA’s P2 grants have helped businesses implement best practices to reduce dangerous pollution in communities, including those that are overburdened and vulnerable,” said EPA Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pollution Prevention Jennie Romer in a statement. “Preventing pollution before it starts is an important step in our work to deliver on President Biden’s ambitious environmental agenda, tackle the climate crisis and advance environmental justice.”

The EPA said many proposed projects center on communities with environmental justice concerns.

Both rounds of grants are part of the president’s initiative that aims to deliver 40% of the overall benefits of climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, clean water, and other investments to disadvantaged communities. The agency anticipates most grants will successfully direct at least 40% of their environmental and human health benefits onto disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution.

The United States produces billions of pounds of pollution each year and spends billions of dollars per year controlling this pollution. Preventing pollution at the source, which the EPA said is also known as P2 or source reduction, rather than managing waste after it is produced is an important part of advancing a sustainable economic and environmental infrastructure. P2 can lessen exposure to toxic chemicals, conserve natural resources, and reduce financial costs for businesses, particularly costs associated with waste management, disposal and cleanup, the EPA said. These practices are essential for protecting health, improving environmental conditions in and around disadvantaged communities, and preserving natural resources like wetlands, groundwater sources, and other critical ecosystems.

Selected grantees are to, if awarded, document and share P2 best practices that they identify and develop through these grants, so that others can replicate these practices and outcomes. Each selected grantee will address at least one of six National Emphasis Areas, or NEAs, which were established to focus resources to achieve measurable results and to create opportunities to share information among P2 grantees and businesses affiliated with similar NEAs. Each selected grantee is to also develop at least one case study during the grant period on P2 practices that are new or not widely known or adopted, or where detailed information on the P2 practices could benefit other businesses or P2 technical assistance providers.

The agency anticipates that it will award the grants once all legal and administrative requirements are satisfied. Grants supported will be incrementally funded at the time grants are awarded.

Updated Oct. 6 to include comments from the EPA

DOWNTOWN WILMINGTON — North Carolina is home to two of the top five watersheds in the country that had the highest amounts of toxins discharged in 2020 – the upper New River and the lower Cape Fear River, a new report finds.

With the Cape Fear River as a backdrop in downtown Wilmington, advocates released the findings of the study, “Wasting Our Waterways: Toxic pollution and the unfulfilled promise of the Clean Water Act,” published Sept. 28, to a handful of journalists Tuesday morning on the riverwalk.

“We’re here today along the banks of the Cape Fear River because North Carolinians deserve clean water. Our waterways should be safe for swimming, fishing and drinking, and our children deserve a toxic free future,” North Carolina Public Interest Research Group Education Fund State Director Katie Craig told reporters. 

“Yet today, 50 years after the passage of the Clean Water Act, we continue to allow companies to use chemicals linked to a wide range of health threats, including cancer, developmental damage, reproductive damage and more.” 

NCPIRG is a state-based, citizen-funded advocacy group that is an advocate for the public interest. Environment America Research & Policy Center and U.S. PIRG Education Fund produced the report based on data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory, or TRI.

There were 10,266,141 pounds of toxins released in the upper New River watershed located in North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia and 5,017,810 pounds in the lower Cape Fear that year, according to the report. 

Industrial facilities released at least 193.6 million pounds of toxic substances into U.S. waterways in 2020, including many known to cause cancer, reproductive problems and developmental issues. Of the top ten 10 states by total releases of toxic substances, North Carolina came in at No. 6 with 9,746,239 pounds behind Texas, Indiana, Virginia, Louisiana and Alabama.

The report finds North Carolina to have the highest levels in the country of dumped toxins linked to developmental delays, Craig said. These toxins cause developmental effects that interfere with the processes of growth and change in the body from conception through adolescence. 

“In 2020, over 4.5 million pounds of developmental toxins were released by industrial and government facilities into our waterways across the country,” she said, adding that facilities in the state released the most developmental toxins of any state at over 600,000 pounds.

“With facilities dumping so much pollution, no one should be surprised that so many of our rivers, lakes and streams are still unsafe for swimming and fishing and other recreational activities. But we should be outraged, North Carolinians’ waterways should not be a dumping ground for our polluters.”

She explained that the full scope of toxic pollution flowing into waterways was even greater than that reported to the inventory, which is data collected from the polluting facilities to the Environmental Protection Agency.

“For example, the TRI data does not include releases of thousands of toxic PFAS chemicals, of which only a very small segment were reported for the first time to this report in 2020, and likely under reported at that, ” she said, adding toxic chemicals industrial facilities send to sewage treatments, toxins from stormwater and agricultural runoff are also not included.

“That’s why we’re calling on federal agencies like the EPA, as well as federal and state governments, and even manufacturers and retailers themselves to take action to drastically reduce the use of these toxic chemicals,” Craig said.

Craig said the restriction on the use of PFAS and other toxic chemicals needs to be dramatic, especially when safer alternatives already exist. The state and federal agencies need to update their abilities to hold polluters accountable and stop toxic chemicals from being permitted to end up in our waterways in the first place, she said.

Cape Fear Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette with Cape Fear River Watch said the local grassroots environmental nonprofit focuses on the water quality of the Cape Fear River.

“This report is especially important, and especially troubling,” Burdette said. “We drink this river, and we eat the fish out of this river and the shellfish out of this river. And we swim in the water from this river.”

The area has been drinking PFAS-contaminated water for 40 years, he said. 

“The technology exists to remove PFAS pollution. We can remove almost every nanogram of PFAS pollution created by polluters and we have to start doing that now. We can’t wait for more and more of these chemicals to be regulated,” Burdette said. “Even more important than removing the PFAS pollution that we create every day is stopping the production of what we know is an incredibly toxic class of chemicals.”

The report also highlights that nitrate pollution makes up about 90% of pollution in the country’s waterways.

“Nitrate pollution is important because it causes fish kills, algal blooms, sometimes toxic algal blooms and can even cause entire dead zones and waterways and estuaries and coastal areas,” Burdette said. 

He also expressed worry that, while the report covers an enormous amount of self-reported data from the Toxic Release Inventory, it’s clear there’s even more contamination in waterways across the US, and especially in the Cape Fear basin. 

“We’re the center of production in this country for poultry right now. North Carolina produces more poultry than any other state in the country, and the Cape Fear basin is the most densely concentrated area for swine production in the entire world,” Burdette said. “So while this report highlights reported pollution, there is an enormous amount of pollution that is unreported that combines with this reported pollution to impact water quality here in the Cape Fear River.”

Burdette noted that the Clean Water Act turns 50 years old this year, a significant accomplishment if not perfect.

“It dramatically improved water quality, but the Clean Water Act has a long way to go,” he said. “We still have a long way to go until the Cape Fear River and other waterways across the country are swimmable and fishable and drinkable. And we need to be moving in that direction. And this report really highlights the urgency there.”

About the Clean Water Act

Larry Cahoon, professor of biology and marine biology at the University of North Carolina  Wilmington, teaches marine and freshwater science to graduate students and undergraduates. His curriculum covers the Clean Water Act.

“I grew up before the Clean Water Act was passed. And so I had an opportunity to live through the experience of seeing waters that were multicolored every day. Waters you didn’t dare swim in or wait in or fish in,” he said.

Cahoon said the point he wants to drive home is that the Clean Water Act made it very clear that the waters do not belong to polluters or the government.

“The government is supposed to be the steward of that resource that belongs to us. And I want to get that point across to everyone who’s listening: This is our river. It belongs to us. We should be able to fish and swim in that river and drink its water safely and the fact that we can’t do that means we have a lot of work left to do under the Clean Water Act.”

An EPA representative provided the following response to Coastal Review’s request for comment:

“EPA is currently engaged in active studies and rulemaking to update pollution control standards for meat and poultry processing plants, power plants, and all industrial dischargers of PFAS chemicals. In 2021, EPA announced new rulemakings to address discharges from both coal-fired power plants and facilities engaged in meat and poultry processing. Additionally, in EPA’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap published in October 2021, the Agency announced a number of activities, including new studies and regulations, to better identify, measure, and ultimately control industrial discharges of PFAS, including new rulemakings for facilities engaged in the manufacturing of PFAS and facilities engaged in metal finishing and electroplating.

“EPA is also moving quickly under the PFAS Roadmap to enhance PFAS reporting under the Toxics Release Inventory. This fall, EPA plans to propose a rulemaking that would increase PFAS reporting under TRI by, among other changes, removing the eligibility of the de minimis exemption for PFAS for reporting and supplier notification purposes – reversing the approach set forth by the previous Administration.”

Several North Carolina environmental groups are backing Gov. Roy Cooper’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the legislature-appointed commission tasked with reviewing and approving rules adopted by state agencies.

The Southern Environmental Law Center recently filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Wake County Superior Court on behalf of the groups supporting the governor’s challenge to the North Carolina Rules Review Commission.

The governor’s office filed a lawsuit in the same court two years ago, arguing that the commission, which was created by and whose members are selected by the General Assembly, violates the state constitution’s Separation of Powers clause.

That clause mandates that the legislative, executive and supreme judicial powers of the state government “shall be forever separate and distinct from each other.”

The environmental groups supporting the governor’s challenge include Cape Fear River Watch, Carolina Wetlands Association, CleanAIRE NC, Democracy Green, Haw River Assembly, MountainTrue, North Carolina Black Alliance, Sound Rivers, West End Revitalization Association and the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review.

“The groups we represent in the amicus wanted to join to show how this matters in real life and demonstrate that this isn’t just a meaningless power struggle between the governor and the legislature. This is about things that affect real people,” said Kym Meyer, a senior attorney with Southern Environmental Law Center.

The case is pending before a three-judge panel of state Superior Court judges and a hearing has been set for Nov. 9.

Challenging absolute power

Whether the rule is one that a state agency has created about wetlands protections or cadmium exposure in the workplace, the Rules Review Commission determines which rules do and do not make it on the books.

“It’s not about something about a license plate,” Meyer said. “It’s about E. coli in your water or which wells we’re going to protect or climate change issues and so the stakes are really high and dramatically affect the interests of all the client groups who signed on who are working really hard to protect resources, but can only do so if government agencies are going to be able to do their job and enforce the law.”

In the decade before the General Assembly created the Rules Review Commission in 1986, legislators had formed the Administrative Rules Review Commission, a panel of nine legislators who could object to, but not veto, proposed rules.

Related: Rules Review Commission meets Sept. 15

The Rules Review Commission, a 10-member body for which the legislature’s appointees serve two years, remained an advisory board until the mid-1990s when a series of amendments were made to the North Carolina Administrative Procedure Act.

In 2003, rulemaking agencies were granted the right to file for court-issued judgments in cases where the commission vetoed proposed rules.

The structure of the Rules Review Commission has, for years, been subject to lengthy legal debates and its decisions have been challenged over the years.

In 2004, the Environmental Management Commission sued the Rules Review Commission for declining proposed stormwater rules opposed by real estate developers and homebuilders. A few years later, the General Assembly approved a compromise that included scaled-back requirements for protecting water quality.

In 2014, the North Carolina State Board of Education filed a lawsuit against the commission, arguing the board of education was not constitutionally bound to submit its policies to the Rules Review Commission.

Three years later, an appellate court overturned a lower court’s ruling in favor of the board of education.

Two of the three appellate court judges who reviewed the case determined the Rules Review Commission is authorized to review and approve the board’s policies.

The dissenting judge argued that the state constitution gives the state board of education, not the Rules Review Commission, the power to administer and supervise public education.

A roadblock in the process

The environmental groups, Meyer said, are starting to feel like the commission is putting a roadblock in the rule implementation process by either slowing it down, stopping it, or potentially leading to agencies shying away from creating rules.

A 2004 paper published in the North Carolina Law Review points out that unlike administrative agencies, the commission is not restricted from being contacted by lobbyists.

Powerful lobbying groups get a voice in the legislative process, one that includes votes that go before both the House and Senate and, if passed, are signed off by the governor.

“That’s how we make law,” Meyer said. “But the problem here is this isn’t about making law. This isn’t the legislative process. This is about how, once laws are on the books, how they’re actually enforced in real time and that’s the governor’s job.”

Environmental justice groups that have aligned with the governor’s challenge to the Rules Review Commission depend on the governor to be able to do that job, Meyer said.

“They don’t have the same level of voice in the legislative process that powerful, rich interests might have so you can see the more political all of these processes become the more problematic it is for marginalized communities,” she said.

North Carolina’s environmental regulatory agency should require large-scale hog farms to use cleaner technologies when storing the animals’ waste so it can be converted to energy, according to environmental groups legally challenging the state’s new general biogas permits.

The Environmental Justice Community Action Network and Cape Fear River Watch are taking to task the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, challenging the agency’s digester waste management system general permits, which allow concentrated feeding animal operations, or CAFOs, to use what the groups call “outdated” lagoon-and-sprayfield systems.

The groups argue that storing untreated hog feces and urine in capped pits then spraying the waste onto fields produce more harmful emissions, polluting air, waterways and groundwater, a drinking water source for rural communities in which these operations occur.

DEQ’s general biogas permit, which went into effect July 1, lacks protections to account for that additional anticipated pollution, strips residents of the rural, largely Black, Hispanic and low-income communities where the hog farms are located from being able to engage in public input, and fails to comply with state law requiring cleaner technology, opponents argue.

“We think it’s DEQ’s obligation under the law to require whatever cleaner technology is best for a particular hog operation because the scale and size of these hog operations that may apply for the biogas general permit vary significantly,” said Blakely Hildebrand, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, or SELC.

As of Sept. 27, 2021, 15 out of more than 2,083 permitted swine facilities in the state have one or more animal waste digester systems, according to information on DEQ’s website. A little more than half of those are in Duplin County, where pork giant Smithfield Foods and Dominion Energy have plans to build a biogas facility.

Digesters are used to convert manure into biogas, which produces naturally when microorganisms break down organic matter in an oxygen-free, or anaerobic process.

According to the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center, biogas created through the anaerobic process consists of about 60% methane gas.

Methane-based biogas can be converted to renewable natural gas through a process that increases the methane concentration from about 60% to 96% while reducing the gasses’ moisture and carbon dioxide content, according to the center’s website.

Environmental and community groups say the lagoon-and-sprayfield system offers the least environmental protection because the ammonia and other gases trapped in covered lagoons will produce higher amounts of nitrogen, which gets sprayed onto farm fields when the lagoon-and-sprayfield system is used.

Covered lagoons can contain up to 3.5 times the amount of nitrogen as uncovered lagoons, according to the Colorado State University Extension.

“Because this permit could apply to numerous hog operations it raises a lot of concern among community members and the conservation community around additional pollution that will result from this permit,” Hildebrand said.

She made clear that the groups are not recommending one specific technology.

“There is certainly room for an anaerobic digester in an overall waste management system that addresses both the climate crisis as well as the underlying pollution and sickness that is caused by storing billions of gallons of hog waste in giant pits in the ground and then spraying it on fields,” Hildebrand said.

Take, for example, Premium Standard Farms Inc., a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, which operates a CAFO in northwest Missouri that uses an advanced nitrification and denitrification system.

This system is designed to reduce odor, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide air emissions from wastewater treatment sources and the amount of nitrogen sprayed onto the land by at least 50%.

Sherri White-Williamson, cofounder of the Environmental Justice Community Action Network, pushed back against suggestions the group wants to put an industry out of business. Rather, she said, they want the industry to be more responsible for the environment in which the residents they represent live.

“A general permit is a one-size fits all system, regardless of the number of animals you have,” she said. “That doesn’t seem to make good environmental sense. At the very minimum we would like to see the denitrification system that has shown to be better for taking care of the toxins that come out of this process. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened.”

DEQ also should step up its monitoring requirements from once a year to at least quarterly, she said.

DEQ’s own Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory Board in written comments to the agency called for monitoring.

The four individual biogas permits the state issued to hog farm operators last year, “do not require any regular air or water monitoring to assess the nature or volume of any emissions or discharges or the impact thereof on public health or the local environment,” according to the board.

Cape Fear Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette did not return a call seeking comment, but he stated in a news release that the North Carolina General Assembly’s passage of the Farm Act of 2021 and DEQ’s general permit, “are just the latest in a long line of decisions that ignore the devastating effect that the hog industry has on our environment. Far from a solution to our climate crisis, this permit gives industry a rubber stamp to keep polluting our air and water rather than holding them accountable to the law.”

Related: New laws: Biogas, clean water funds in budget; rule tweaks

Smithfield Foods has partnered with Dominion Energy to invest more than $500 million in biogas development in North Carolina, Virginia and Utah.

The companies have formed Align Renewable Natural Gas LLC, which is proposing to link 19 farms in Duplin and Sampson counties through a pipeline to a facility in Duplin County.

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the legal challenge on behalf of the groups July 29 in the North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings.

This is the latest challenge against the state’s biogas permits, which apply to swine, cattle and wet poultry operations. The general permit for swine may be obtained by existing operations of 250 or more hogs.

In January, the SELC filed a complaint with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of the Duplin County branch of the NAACP and North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign, launching an investigation into whether the state’s issuance of four biogas permits violated civil rights.

Hildebrand said the EPA has not made an announcement, but she hopes to hear something soon.

“It’s easy to talk about these abstract contexts of biogas making pollution worse, but I think what’s also really important to remember in all of this is that people live near these hog operations,” Hildebrand said. “They have dealt with this noxious odor and polluted water and dirty air for decades. There’s a real human cost to this permit and to industry’s insistence on doubling down on the very harmful lagoon-and-sprayfield system. This is a significant environmental justice issue in eastern North Carolina and one that demands and deserves the attention of our elected officials and the agency that is charged with protecting the environment and the health of people who live in the state.”

The Chemours Company is suing the Environmental Protection Agency for its recent health advisory for GenX, one of the contaminants discharged for years into the Cape Fear River from the company’s plant in Fayetteville.

Chemours is challenging the EPA’s review of the agency’s health advisory for hexafluoropropylene oxide dime acid, or HFPO-DA (GenX), arguing the agency failed to use the best available science when making its determination.

“Nationally recognized toxicologists and other leading scientific experts across a range of disciplines have evaluated the EPA’s underlying analysis and concluded that it is fundamentally flawed,” according to a Chemours release. “EPA’s own peer reviewer called aspects of EPA’s toxicity assessment (which serves as the basis for the health advisory) ‘extreme’ and ‘excessive.’ The agency disregarded relevant data and incorporated grossly incorrect and overstated exposure assumptions in devising the health advisory. The EPA’s failure to use the best-available-science and follow its own standards are contrary to this administration’s commitment to scientific integrity, and we believe unlawful.”

The suit filed Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia specifically names EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who is also former secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

Chemours warned it might take legal action against the EPA after the agency’s assistant administrator for water, Radhika Fox, announced the final health advisory June 15.

Fox made the announcement at the third National PFAS Conference held in downtown Wilmington, a city and surrounding region thrust into the national spotlight five years ago when the news broke that Chemours’ Fayetteville Works Facility had for decades been discharging per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances into the Cape Fear River, air and ground.

Related: Health advisories for GenX, PFAS announced at conference

The EPA’s final health advisory for GenX is 10 parts per trillion, or ppt and, for perfluorobutane sulfonic acid, or PFBS, at 2,000 ppt. PFBS has not been found in significant concentrations in samples in North Carolina, according to DEQ.

The agency also issued updated interim health advisories for perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS.

GenX was created to replace PFOA, which was voluntarily phased out of production more than 10 years ago in the U.S.

Chemours states in its news release that HFPO-DA is not a commercial product and does not pose human health or environmental risks “when used for its intended purpose.”

Health studies of animals that ingested GenX show health effects in the kidneys, blood, immune system, liver and developing fetuses, according to the EPA’s toxicity assessment.

Chemours argues that the GenX toxicity assessment issued October 2021 was “materially different” from a draft assessment published in November 2018 and that the EPA did not provide public notice or allow for public comment on the new assessment.

“Upon review of the October 2021 Toxicity Assessment, Chemours and external experts identified numerous material scientific flaws, including its failure to incorporate available, highly relevant peer-reviewed studies and that it significantly overstates the potential for risk associated with HFPO-DA,” according to the release.

The EPA did not respond to an email request for comment Wednesday.

EPA Deputy Assistant Administrator Benita Best-Wong defended the GenX toxicity assessment in a letter to a law firm representing six North Carolina health and environmental groups, stating the assessment “was subject to two rigorous independent peer reviews by scientists who were screened for conflicts of interest in 2018 and 2021.”

Best-Wong went on to write that the agency asked the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences National Toxicology Program to conduct an independent review of the liver histopathology slides from two studies.

The agency published detailed responses to comments from both peer reviews and the assessment was put out for public review and comment for 60 days, she wrote.

That letter was in response to the groups’ call for the EPA to order Chemours to conduct health studies on 54 PFAS. Those groups, including Cape Fear River Watch, Center for Environmental Health, Clean Cape Fear, Democracy Green, the NC Black Alliance and Toxic Free NC, filed a lawsuit against the EPA for failing to require Chemours to conduct the studies.

The EPA’s health advisory for GenX replaces the state’s 2018 provisional drinking water health goal of 140 ppt.

A consent order between DEQ, Cape Fear River Watch and Chemours requires the company to provide whole house filtration for households that rely on private water wells where GenX concentrations are above the health advisory.

“We expect Chemours to meet their obligations under the Consent Order and to the communities impacted by the PFAS contamination,” Sharon Martin, DEQ deputy secretary for public affairs, said in an email Wednesday.

Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent said in a telephone interview she was “shaken” by the lawsuit.

“This is going to be seriously infuriating for the community to hear this news and to still be looking at commercials and this nonsense saying (Chemours) are good neighbors,” she said. “I think Chemours needs to recognize that they can’t continue to claim that they’re good neighbors while suing the nation’s regulatory agency based on their assessment of the GenX toxicity level, which was done under strict calculations based on available science on the health impacts of GenX. The science is science.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to excavate contaminated soil from portions of a more than 15-acre tract where chemically treated wood was once stored on the Navassa Superfund site.

During a meeting Tuesday evening, officials discussed the agency’s preference to have about 2,800 cubic yards of surface and subsurface soils dug up and removed from an area referred to as operable unit 2. The contaminated soils would then be disposed of at an EPA-approved landfill.

About 1.6 acres of operable unit 2, or OU-2, contains soil that pose unacceptable risk to human health, according to the EPA’s findings, which are based on numerous soil samples. About 14 acres of the 15.6-acre site do not pose unacceptable risk to human health.

The EPA is proposing to have a little more than 2,500 cubic yards of surface soil at a depth of up to 1 foot excavated and taken off the site. About 295 cubic yards of subsurface soils 1 to 2 feet below the ground’s surface would be removed.

This is one of four site remediation alternatives the EPA has considered for the site. Other alternatives include the following:

• Taking no action.
• Excavating contaminated soil and possibly stockpiling the soil on a different operable unit to eventually use as backfill. If it is determined that the soil cannot be reused it would be taken to an EPA-approved landfill.
• Covering contaminated soil with 1 foot of clean fill material and planting clean dirt with ground cover such as local grasses to prevent erosion. The vegetated soil would have to be monitored every five years.

Charles King, EPA interim remedial project manager, explained Tuesday that, though the agency’s preferred alternative is the most expensive – $1,578,000 – it would not require long-term maintenance.

Removing contaminated soil from the site would allow for unlimited use and unrestricted exposure to the land, making it suitable for residential development.

Navassa residents have expressed a particular interest in having at least some of the Superfund site used for housing.

The former Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. site includes more than 254 acres where a wood-treating facility was operated for nearly 40 years.

The land was added to the National Priorities List of federal Superfund sites in 2010 because creosote, a tar-like substance made of hundreds of chemicals and used as a wood preservative, has been found in the groundwater, soil and sediment on portions of the site.

Since 2016, the EPA, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and the Multistate Environmental Response Trust have hosted more than 20 community meetings in Navassa to update residents on the process and receive their feedback.

The EPA, in consultation with DEQ, oversees the Multistate Environmental Response Trust, which is court appointed to own the Superfund site and take responsibility for managing the remediation of the property.

The site has been broken down into five operable units.

OU-1, which includes the northernmost 20.2 acres of the property, was deleted from the National Priorities List last September. The land is also being eyed for residential use.

Operable units 3-5 will be addressed in future proposed plans.

OU-3 includes about 30 acres of marsh.

The 36 acres within OU-4 include a pond, process area and storage area for treated wood.

OU-5 includes groundwater affected by wood-treatment operations.

OU-1 is adjacent to 82 acres known as the eastern upland area, which is free of contamination and not part of the Superfund site.

Town officials hope that area will become the site for the proposed Moze Heritage Center and Nature Park. This would be the first cultural heritage center in the state dedicated to preserving the stories of enslaved Africans who worked the rice plantations along river banks in southeastern North Carolina.

After King’s presentation Tuesday at the meeting, which was held in person and virtually, a handful of attendees asked questions about the proposed remediation plans for OU-2. No one spoke in favor of or against the EPA’s preferred alternative to get the land ready for residential use.

The EPA’s public comment period on the proposed remediation of OU-2 ends June 30.

King said all comments will be reviewed after the deadline and, if those comments are generally acceptable of the EPA’s preferred alternative, that would shorten the time it takes the agency to release its record of decision.

If the preferred alternative is selected, officials anticipate work would begin on the site in early to mid-September and take two to three months to complete.

Comments may be submitted by telephone or email to EPA Remedial Project Manager Erik Spalvins, 404-562-8938, Spalvins.erik@epa.gov; or EPA Community Involvement Coordinator L’Tonya Spencer-Harvey, 404-562-8463, Spencer.latonya@epa.gov; or by mail to U.S. EPA Region 4, 61 Forsyth Street, S.W., 11^th Floor, Atlanta, GA  30303-8960.

WILMINGTON – New and updated federal drinking water health advisories have been issued for four chemical compounds, including GenX, a contaminant that for years has been discharged into the Cape Fear River.

Shortly after the announcement was made Wednesday morning at the third National PFAS Conference, the company responsible for releasing chemical contaminants into the river for decades pushed back on the new advisory for GenX, hinting it might fight the matter in court.

Radhika Fox, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s assistant administrator for water, told the more than 100 at the conference that the agency is setting final health advisories for GenX at 10 parts per trillion, or ppt, and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid, or PFBS, at 2,000 ppt.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality stated in a press release Wednesday that PFBS has, to date, not been found in significant concentrations in samples taken in the state.

EPA is also issuing updated interim health advisories for perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS. The 2016 federal health advisories for PFOA and PFOS were set at 70 ppts.

“The updated advisory levels are based on new science including more than 400 recent studies which indicate that negative health effects may occur at extremely low levels, much lower than previously understood for both PFOA and PFOS. Based on that peer-reviewed science we are setting interim health advisory levels for PFOA at 0.04 parts per trillion and for PFOS 0.02 parts per trillion, so near zero,” Fox said, her statement followed by applause.

These synthetic compounds are a tiny fraction of the thousands of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that exist today.

The Cape Fear region has been cast in the national spotlight since the public was first made aware that the Chemours Co.’s Fayetteville Works Facility had been discharging PFAS directly into the Cape Fear River, the raw drinking water source for more than a quarter-million people, for decades.

PFAS are also being released into the air and groundwater around the plant some 75 miles upriver from Wilmington.

“Our new interim health advisories are important milestones to help protect the public while EPA works to finalize our drinking water standards,” Fox said. “I hope you see that these four health advisories demonstrate EPA’s commitment to following the science to protect public health.”

A short time after Fox concluded her comments at the conference, Chemours released a statement saying that it supports government regulation, “based on the best available science” and that the EPA did not use that science to establish its health advisory on GenX.

“Nationally recognized toxicologists and other leading scientific experts across a range of disciplines have evaluated the EPA’s underlying analysis and concluded that it is fundamentally flawed,” the company stated. “The agency disregarded relevant data and issued a health advisory contrary to the agency’s own standards and this administration’s commitment to scientific integrity.”

The statement goes on to explain the company GenX, or hexafluoropropylene oxide-dimer acid, HFPO-DA, is not a commercial product and that the company uses it and its ammonium in manufacturing processes for four fluoropolymers, which are used to produce semiconductors, cellular phones, hospital ventilators and other products.

“It is not broadly used like older generations of PFAS, such as PFOA,” according to Chemours. “HFPO-DA does not break down to form PFOA or any other PFAS in the environment.”

“We are already using state-of-the-art technologies at our sites to abate emissions and remediate historical releases. We are evaluating our next steps, including potential legal action, to address the EPA’s scientifically unsound action,” the company stated.

GenX was created to replace PFOA, which was voluntarily phased out of production more than 10 years ago in the U.S.

Health studies of animals that ingested GenX show health effects in the kidneys, blood, immune system, liver and developing fetuses, according to the EPA’s toxicity assessment.

Studies on PFBS show health effects in the thyroid, reproductive organs and tissues, kidneys and developing fetuses.

“We are moving with all haste in the development of a national drinking water standard for PFOA, PFOS and I will say that we are developing the options for this rulemaking to see if we can include other PFAS, not just those two,” Fox said.

DEQ and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services “are moving quickly to evaluate the state’s drinking water supplies based on these health advisories and determine appropriate next steps to assess and reduce exposure risks,” according to the DEQ news release.

The EPA’s health advisory for GenX will replace the state’s provisional drinking water health goal of 140 ppt developed in 2018.

Under a consent order among DEQ, Cape Fear River Watch and Chemours, the company is required to provide whole house filtration for households that rely on private water wells where GenX concentrations are above the health advisory.

DEQ estimates that more than 1,700 additional private well users will be eligible for whole house filtration or connection to a public water supply based on EPA’s new health advisory.

“DEQ is directing Chemours to proceed with the implementation of the health advisory and additional information will be provided to residents about their options and next steps as soon as possible,” according to the release.

North Carolina stands to receive additional federal funding to address PFAS in the state.

Fox also announced Wednesday that $1 billion in grant funding through President Joe Biden’s $108 billion bipartisan infrastructure law will help small and disadvantaged communities to address PFAS and other emerging contaminants. The funds will be the first installment in monies dedicated to addressing PFAS.

“Because of this investment for the first time ever we have $10 billion available to support cleanup, testing, monitoring for PFAS and other emerging contaminants,” Fox said to a group of reporters following a tour of the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s Sweeney Water Treatment Plant.

DEQ Secretary Elizabeth Biser said the state anticipates receiving about $28 million a year.

“This additional billion for small and disadvantaged communities will be on top of that. That is great,” she said.

The state will need to continue working with federal partners to identify additional funds for addressing PFAS-related issues.

Fox and Biser were given a tour Wednesday of the $43 million addition currently under construction at the Sweeney plant in downtown Wilmington after Fox spoke at the PFAS National Conference.

The plant is being upgraded with the addition of a granular activated carbon, or GAC, system expected to filter out on average 90% of PFAS from its raw water source, the Cape Fear River.

Following the tour, Brunswick County Public Utilities Director John Nichols made a presentation to Fox and Biser about what that utility’s multi-million-dollar upgrade to a low-pressure reverse-osmosis system to remove PFAS.

Both utilities have had to pass down the costs of removing PFAS from drinking water to their water customers.

Proposed legislation would require companies responsible for releasing PFAS above health thresholds to pay costs public utilities incur to remove chemicals from their raw drinking water sources.

House Bill 1095 would authorize the Environmental Management Commission to adopt maximum contaminant levels for chemical compounds.

DEQ is in the process of establishing maximum contaminant levels for 10 to 15 compounds specific to North Carolina. The department will implement drinking water standards through its permitting program.

MOREHEAD CITY – State recreational water quality officials said Wednesday that swimmers should avoid certain Cape Hatteras National Seashore ocean swimming areas where septic system failures are possible as a result of a lingering coastal storm system.

Extreme high tides accompanying the low-pressure system that continued to affect the Outer Banks Wednesday may have inundated septic system drain fields or caused sewage line breaks at homes in certain areas, officials said. The public should avoid swimming in waters near exposed pipes and should be particularly cautious in the following areas:

• Rodanthe – ocean waters near Beacon Road, along GA Kohler Court, and near Ocean Drive.
• Buxton – ocean waters along Tower Circle.  

Officials said that while they do not have laboratory confirmation that disease-causing organisms are in the water, there is an increased chance that contamination is present in the areas identified and that those swimming have an increased chance of adverse health effects. Wastewater exposure can cause adverse health effects such as diarrhea, abdominal cramps and skin infections, the public is advised to avoid bodily contact with these waters.

Residents and visitors should avoid swimming in these waters until tidal conditions subside and bacteriological testing indicates sample results within state and Environmental Protection Agency’s standards. Testing will begin as soon as the area is accessible, state officials said, and test results will be announced as they become available.

Recreational water quality officials sample 215 sites throughout the coastal region, most of them on a weekly basis from April to October. Testing continues on a reduced schedule during the rest of the year, when waters are colder.

For more information on the Recreational Water Quality Program, which is part of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Division of Marine Fisheries, or to a view a map of testing sites, visit the program’s website, and follow the program’s Twitter feed.

Litter traps are being placed in creeks and rivers throughout the state to catch plastics washing off roadways.

The statewide effort to install Trash Trouts, a device that traps litter in stormwater, is part of a growing effort to lower the amount of macroplastics and microplastics getting into waterways and, eventually, into the ocean.

Waterkeepers throughout the state will be monitoring the amount of trash collected from the traps and use that information to boost collaborations with local governments to cut down on the amount of plastics making it into the sea and, more importantly, advocates say, curtail consumption of single-use plastics.

“Plastic pollution isn’t a problem we can clean our way out of, although it’s important to get it out of our waterways,” said White Oak Waterkeeper Rebecca Drohan. “We kind of envision the Trash Trouts’ role in that as having data on what sorts of litter, what sources they could possibly be coming from, track that and use that to work with our municipal leaders to inform some of the plastic problems that we’re seeing.”

Coastal Carolina Riverwatch partnered with Jacksonville to install earlier this month a Trash Trout on Scales Creek, a tributary of the New River.

The creek is an unintended recipient of roadside trash, making it an ideal location for a litter trap to catch plastic debris from getting to the Atlantic Ocean.

Trash Trouts were designed by the nonprofit environmental group Asheville GreenWorks. The device works like a metal strainer, capturing and holding trash on the surface of the water.

The litter traps are funded through a North Carolina Environmental Enhancement Grant as part of a statewide microplastics research and pollution prevention infrastructure project sponsored by Waterkeepers Carolina.

Up to 75% of trash in the nations waterways comes from roadside litter. A majority of that trash is plastics.

When they enter waterways, larger pieces of plastic, referred to as macroplastics, begin to break down into smaller pieces known as microplastics. These tiny pieces of plastic are consumed by marine life and humans.

At least 14 million tons of plastic ends up in the ocean each year, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, an organization made up of more than 1,400 government and civil society organizations.

Last year, about 5,500 pounds of trash was rounded up during cleanup efforts throughout the White Oak and New River watersheds, according to Drohan.

The amount of trash collected during cleanups this year overseen by Cape Fear River Watch surpasses that.

“We’re over 6,000 pounds of trash and recycling this year alone and it’s only April,” said Rob Clark, Cape Fear River Watch water quality programs manager.

Roughly 80-85% of the litter collected is plastic of some kind, he said.

The Trash Trout Cape Fear River Watch is installing in Burnt Mill Creek by ARIUM apartments in May will complement litter traps to be placed in storm drains in Wilmington and Leland.

The storm drain devices called LittaTraps, which are catch basins designed by New Zealand-based company Enviropod, are tentatively scheduled to be installed in four locations over the next couple of weeks. The traps were funded by a grant through the Jandy Ammons Foundation.

Related: Project to gauge how well storm drain traps catch litter

In Wilmington, a trap is to be placed in a curbside drain at Waterline Brewing Co. on Surry Street and in a storm drain at the intersection of South Front and Dock streets downtown.

“The idea of the projects is, if we can remove macroplastics from the waterways, we can reduce the levels of microplastics because a lot of microplastics come from macroplastics that break down in the water over time,” Clark said.

A year after the Trash Trout’s installation, river watch will continue sampling and comparing levels of microplastics before and after the trap was placed in the creek. There is a second, controlled site at Island Creek where samples will also be compared.

Two quarts of water will be collected at each location and shipped to the Watauga Riverkeeper in Boone, where water samples are analyzed under a microscope, Clark said.

“Microplastics seems to be a persistent problem globally,” he said. “The structural solutions are super important to collect data and reduce litter levels, but we really need to figure out some source-based reduction because we’re just getting swamped with this stuff. It’s hard to stay on top of the issue without reducing it at the source in some way or another.”

Cutting back at the source was a topic of discussion Friday during the North Carolina Plastic Policy Workshop at the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort.

Michelle Nowlin, a clinical professor of law at Duke and co-director of Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic headed a session at the workshop discussing policy tools local governments can use to stem the tide of plastic waste going into fresh and marine waters.

Nowlin spoke to Coastal Review a couple of days before the workshop. She said it is incredibly important to draw public attention to litter traps and their effectiveness in reducing the amount of plastic getting into the ocean.

“What we need to do is keep the trash out of the waters to begin with,” she said.

That’s something that can be managed at every level of government, but particularly at the local level.

“The General Assembly has pretty unlimited authority to adopt comprehensive legislation and obviously that would be more effective if they would do so, but the General Assembly has had several bills that various lawmakers have proposed over the years to try to have more effective waste management policies and those have not made it out of committee,” Nowlin said. “Waste management really happens at the local level. Local governments have considerable authority to decide what is the best waste management strategy given the concerns and considerations in our community.”

Nowlin and other researchers have done comprehensive research looking at what other states and cities across the country and national governments throughout the world have done to address plastics in their communities to put together a list of several options local governments here can use.

Those options include everything from banning certain types of single-use plastics by, for example, working with local school districts to rid the use of Styrofoam, to imposing consumer fees on plastic shopping bags, which research indicates is more effective than banning bags outright.

One of the easiest things a local government can do is require vendors it contracts with not use single-use plastics or products contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS — think GenX.

“That’s a very easy, straightforward thing that local governments can do and it doesn’t require any new authorizing language,” Nowlin said. “They can decide as Durham County has done that we’re not going to provide single-use plastic water bottles anymore at county-sponsored functions.”

The Dare County Public Works Department says it will collect household hazardous waste May 12-14 at three locations. 

The hazardous waste collection is for Dare County property owners, year-round residents and farmers, officials said. Residents can use any of the three locations during the household hazardous waste collection event. 

Hazardous waste can be dropped off for safe disposal at the following locations:

• Northern Beach collection: Kitty Hawk Town Hall, 101 Veterans Memorial Drive, 9 a.m. to 3  p.m. Thursday, May 12.
• Buxton collection: Buxton Transfer Station, 47015 Buxton Back Road 2-4 p.m. Friday, May 13.
• Manteo collection: Dare County Public Works, 1018 Driftwood Drive, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 14.

Accepted materials include paints, polishes, varnishes, paint-related materials, turpentine, aerosol cans, adhesives, motor oil, antifreeze, fuel additives, household cleaners, herbicides and insecticides, gasoline, mercury, pesticides, pool chemicals, fluorescent light bulbs, automotive batteries, small batteries and automotive fluids. 

Materials that are not usually accepted include commercial, business and industrial waste, as well as explosives, bullets, radioactive material, 55-gallon drums of material and cylinders and other than propane and fire extinguishers.

Dare County residents and property owners are asked to mark any unlabeled containers that they intend to drop off during the household hazardous waste collection. 

North Carolina Cooperative Extension centers in three coastal counties are set to host events in April where residents may dispose of pesticides or hazardous household waste.

Collection events are scheduled in Currituck, Carteret and Pamlico counties.

Household hazardous waste such as pool chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides or household batteries are to be collected for safe disposal from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. April 2 at the Currituck Judicial Center at 2801 Caratoke Highway in Currituck.

The collection is part of a day of activities and resources to maintain a healthy environment offered by the Currituck Cooperative Extension Center and the Currituck County Public Works Department. County residents may also take advantage of free document shredding 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

The rain-or-shine event is to include food trucks and interactive booths where attendees can learn about and participate in environmentally friendly activities. Booths are to include rain barrels, kitchen scrap gardening, native plants, seed bombs and vermicomposting. The public works department is to hold a free raffle for a chance to win a backyard composter.

Corolla residents can take their household hazardous waste to the Southern OBX water plant 10 a.m.-12 p.m. and receive informational packets on a variety of environmental topics provided by Cooperative Extension. For more information on what types of household hazardous waste are accepted and more, view the video from Currituck Agriculture Agent, Adam Formella at https://go.ncsu.edu/householdhazardous.

For more information contact Cooperative Extension at 252-232-2261 or the Public Works Department at 252-232-2504. For accommodations for persons with disabilities contact Cameron Lowe at cameron_lowe@ncsu.edu, or call the Currituck Extension Center at 252-232-2261 no later than 10 business days before the event.

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and Cooperative Extension offices in Carteret and Pamlico counties are hosting pesticide collection events April 5 for residents in their surrounding areas.

The extension offices said nearly all pesticide products will be accepted. For liquid pesticide containers larger than 5 gallons or for unlabeled pesticides, residents should contact the Cooperative Extension Office for information before bringing to the collection event. No gas cylinders are accepted but assistance information can be provided.

Collections in both Carteret and Pamlico counties are set for 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

In Carteret County, the collection point is to be at the North Carolina State University Center for Marine Sciences and Technology, or CMAST, parking lot, 303 College Circle in Morehead City.

In Pamlico County, the collection point is to be at the Pamlico County Heritage Center, 10642 N.C. 55, Grantsboro.

For more information contact Shawn Banks at the Carteret County Extension Center, 252-222-6352, or Daniel Simpson at the Pamlico County Extension Center, 252-745-4121.

State officials recently announced that $1.3 million in federal funding is available for watershed restoration projects.

Local governments, agencies, nonprofits, educational institutions and communities in areas with a state-approved watershed restoration plan have a little more than a month to get their application together for the grant to help improve and protect water quality.

The funding is provided for in Section 319(h) of the federal Clean Water Act, a provision typically called the 319 Grant Program. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency funds projects designed to reduce nonpoint source pollution, such as stormwater, and the Division of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources selects the qualifying applicants that have an approved restoration plan for a water body listed by as impaired.

“The 319 Grant Program allows governments and organizations to actively engage in protecting North Carolina’s water resources,” said Richard W. Gannon, supervisor of the division’s Nonpoint Source Planning Branch, in a statement. “Projects that incorporate climate change adaptation or benefit historically underserved communities are encouraged to apply for this funding.” 

Nonpoint source pollution usually comes from land runoff, rain and snow, from the atmosphere, drainage, seepage or hydrologic modification, according to the EPA. When rainfall or snowmelt moves over and through the ground it collects and carries away natural and human-made pollutants, eventually depositing the pollutants into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and ground water.

The application deadline is midnight May 4. An interagency workgroup is to review the proposals and schedule interviews for eligible candidates in June. Awards are to be announced this summer.

About 10 projects have been awarded each year since the program began in 2005. The nonprofit North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, has worked on 17 projects funded through the 319 program, federation Deputy Director Lauren Kolodij said.

Kolodij explained that intense rainstorms cause flooding and water quality degradation as the runoff funnels pollutants to coastal waters. “It is the greatest polluter of our creeks, rivers and sounds,” she said, adding that “increased flooding from the greater frequency, intensity and duration of heavy rain events is plaguing the coast and the state. Altered hydrology from land use is contributing to the severity and impact of storms.”  

The EPA section 319 grant is a source of funding that communities across the state depend on to develop, design and construct restoration projects in jurisdictions with an approved watershed restoration plan, she said, adding that the funding is invaluable for communities that want to use hydrologic restoration at a watershed scale to become more flood-resilient.

The federation works with communities, researchers, local governments and state agencies to address flooding and water quality problems and priorities. Recent projects include the Bradley and Hewletts Creek watershed restoration plans in Wilmington, a watershed restoration plan in Pine Knoll Shores, a project to reduce stormwater runoff at the Swansboro Municipal Complex, and work to reduce stormwater volume on the University of North Carolina Wilmington campus, as well as in Beaufort and Swansboro.

“The plans developed by the federation and partners all share a strategy for watershed restoration that is based on maintaining or mimicking the natural hydrology of the landscape and a key component of stakeholder involvement,” Kolodij said. “The plans have resulted in the use of cost-effective nature-based stormwater strategies to mimic the natural capacity of the landscape to manage billions of gallons of water, built community buy-in for a watershed approach, and provided a foundation for securing federal, state and local funding for plan implementation.”

She said that science demonstrates that there are fewer flooding incidents and better water quality in watersheds where natural hydrology is protected, restored or mimicked.

The Coastal Federation has “embraced a watershed restoration framework built on the key benefits of hydrologic matching and has been implementing the framework across the coast,” she added.

Dr. Bill Hunt, a William Neal Reynolds distinguished university professor and extension specialist in North Carolina State University’s Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, told Coastal Review that he had worked on five or six 319 projects, mostly in Wilmington focusing on Bradley, Hewletts, and Burnt Mill creeks.

Nonpoint source pollution impacts many things that people who live, or visit, the coast care about such as swimming. “When we devise potentially inexpensive ways to keep pathogens out of our creeks, we open up the opportunity for currently restricted water-based activities to be enjoyed again by lots of people,” he said.

He said he most recently worked on a now-complete 319 project in Jacksonville, and about 18 years ago, he worked on a project focusing on the White Oak watershed, leading to projects in both Carteret and Onslow counties.

“Much of what we have examined has been to trial practices that we know will work, but maybe not know exactly how well — and then monitor them as part of the project. The monitoring helps us determine the exact benefit these treatments can have,” Hunt said.

One recent accomplishment was evaluating how well shallow media depth, shallow water table bioretention cells worked, both in Jacksonville and Wilmington.

A bioretention cell, one of many nature-based, stormwater management strategies, is an area that has been dug out and then filled with media, or specific soils, plants or grass, and is designed to temporarily hold and filter stormwater. Current state standards require no less than 2 feet of soil or plants, depending on the plant, and the lowest point of the bioretention cell must be a minimum of 2 feet above the seasonal high water table.

Hunt said that while the type of bioretention cell they used does not currently meet current state standards, the “style” of coastal-specific bioretention did well removing residual water treatment, or WTR, pollutants of both pathogens and nutrients.

 The success of this bioretention cell is leading N.C. State to recommend to the Department of Environmental Quality to consider the new design for the coast, he added.

There are benefits from putting these best management practices in the ground, Hunt said. “People can see and touch their tax dollars at work. Beautifying a parking lot or creating simple infiltration zones can lead others to want to copy. That’s what we are hoping for.”

One of the best parts of working in coastal North Carolina are the town staff and officials. N.C. State cannot do these projects alone, and by working with staff at the city of Jacksonville or Wilmington, lots of improvement is possible, he said.

Applications must include an approved watershed restoration plan for a water body named on the 303(d) Impaired Water list as described in the Clean Water Act, division officials said. Instructions to create a plan and case studies are available on the DEQ website. 

The Nonpoint Source Planning Branch approves the watershed plans required to apply for a 319 grant, after review by appropriate Division of Water Resources staff and any needed revisions to meet EPA’s nine elements to develop a watershed plan.

The division can wholly fund, partially fund or not fund any proposal or any component of any Section 319 grant proposal. Availability of grant funds, amounts and award schedules are conditioned on Congressional Approval of the EPA budget and subsequent allocation to the state of Section 319 funds.

TOPSAIL ISLAND – An island-wide initiative to cut down on plastic waste is gaining traction as Topsail’s three beach towns consider banning a type of material used to make floating docks.

Topsail Beach is leading the charge in adopting an ordinance that would prohibit unencapsulated polystyrene from being used in repairs and new construction of docks.

Town commissioners there recently gave administrators the green light to create a draft ordinance for the board to consider adopting at their April meeting.

Surf City and North Topsail Beach are expected to follow suit in what would be a major step in an island-wide waste reduction campaign that aims, in part, to promote plastic waste reduction by local businesses.

If approved, the ordinance would be the first in North Carolina banning the use of unencapsulated polystyrene in docks, Topsail Beach Mayor Steve Smith said.

Polystyrene is a plastic used to make various consumer products such as Styrofoam food packaging and coolers. When unencapsulated, polystyrene can break up with weathering, scattering clumps and small fragments in waterways and on shorelines. The material can degrade into microplastic, which can easily be ingested by wildlife.

“There’s no way that that can be cleaned up,” said Kerri Allen, coastal advocate and southeast regional manager of the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s Wilmington office.

Since 2019, Coastal Federation-led crews have removed more than 2 million pounds of marine debris including abandoned boats, storm-damaged docks and homes, fishing gear, poorly managed construction sites, plastics in wastewater and stormwater discharges, and litter from coastal estuaries up and down the North Carolina coast.

Three- to four-man crews continue to pick up on average 2 tons of debris a day, Allen said.

About 75-80% of that is from docks, piers, gazebos and other waterfront structures.

Ability to choose

In 2020, the Coastal Federation launched the N.C. Marine Debris Action Plan in partnership with community groups, government agencies and academia, to clean up the clutter and promote building codes for structures like docks aimed at reducing post-hurricane and other coastal storm debris.

“As coastal property owners, anyone who has a dock or pier, you really do have the ability to choose a strong contractor that selects these best-management practices,” Allen said.

A majority of microplastics being recovered on the beaches are polystyrene beads, she said. Next month, the Coastal Federation is kicking off program where volunteers from North Topsail Beach in Onslow County down to Sunset Beach in Brunswick County will collect microplastics from the beach.

Topsail Beach commissioners during their March 9 meeting discussed what they would like to see in a draft ordinance, one that would require new docks be built using encapsulated polystyrene. Older, storm-damaged docks that have unencapsulated polystyrene would have to be repaired with encapsulated material.

A property owner must obtain a town permit to build a dock or pier.

Smith noted that most contractors are now using encapsulated polystyrene, “but the non-encapsulated is still available and so we want to ensure that as we go forward the non-encapsulated is not used.”

“There’s other issues here that we’ll have to work, but in terms of coastal management it’s taking the next step, no matter how small, it needs to be done at this point,” he said.

Carbon-copy ordinances

Surf City Mayor Doug Medlin said the plan is to essentially have a carbon-copy ordinance in each town.

“We’ll probably do something similar,” he said, adding that a unified ordinance will be discussed March 24 during the Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission, or TISPC, meeting.

TISPC Vice-Chairman and North Topsail Beach Board Mayor Pro Tem Mike Benson said he expects a proposed ordinance for that town will be on the board of aldermen agenda next month.

“For me it’s a no-brainer because it’s the simple thing to do and it’s going to protect the environment,” he said. “We are in favor of everything that can be done to manage plastics on our beach.”

Between the staggering amount of debris being collected through the Coastal Federation’s initiative and firsthand observations by boaters and kayakers on the water, Smith said people are willing to start taking small but important steps that will eventually reduce waste.

“Our hope is that these three towns can really create a pilot ordinance that other towns can adopt,” Allen said.

Big turnout

Earlier this year, a meeting of stakeholders — everyone from town officials from each of the municipalities, business owners, realtors and property owners — was held for those in attendance to discuss ways to reduce the use of plastics and other disposable products on the island.

Pender County Tourism Director Tammy Proctor was hoping for a turnout of about 30 stakeholders. That number surpassed 90.

They’ve decided to take a step-by-step approach, one that is less about mandates and more about positive messaging that encourages property owners and tourists to change their habits.

“Glass on the beach (is not allowed). (Tourists) pack for the day and they bring it to the beach,” Proctor said. “Those are the kinds of things that we want to raise awareness for and a sign at the beach isn’t enough. We want to reach folks before they get here. This is all of our beaches. This is all of our waterways. Let’s all of us take care of our natural resources.”

Scott Franko, who sits on the board of the Greater Topsail Area Chamber of Commerce and is the marketing director of Treasure Realty, plans to promote reusable shopping bags printed with a design of the island to grocery stores in the area and the beach municipalities on the island.

He had 10,000 bags made last year and began distributing them last August to businesses that are typical tourist hotspots.

Franko is also the man behind the BEach Clean poster with a short and to the point leave-no-trace message: use trash containers; no glass on the beach; pick up after pets; and fill in holes on the beach.

“It’s an educational program,” Franko said. “It’s an informational program. Over time we’re hoping to change consumer behavior. Over time we’re hoping to get the businesses around here to also change their behavior to change the consumer’s behavior. The goal is you want people to wanna. If they wanna do something that’s better than mandating something and to get to the point of wanna and buy-in you have to nurture a message enough and hope that a majority of the people get it.”

The U.S. House of Representatives last week passed a bipartisan measure that would treat toxic exposure as a cost of war, including judicial relief for victims of drinking water contamination at Camp Lejeune.

The Camp Lejeune Justice Act was attached to House Resolution 3967, the Honoring our PACT Act of 2021, which passed the House 256-174 on March 3. The bill had the support of all 222 Democrats and 34 Republicans and would improve access to health care and benefits for over 3.5 million toxic-exposed veterans.

That’s according to a statement issued by North Carolina 3^rd District Congressman Greg Murphy, who introduced the Camp Lejeune Justice Act and provided one of the Republican yes votes. The provisions are “long-overdue,” he said.

“When we send our men and women overseas, we make a promise to care for them when they come home,” said Murphy. “We failed our veterans when they were exposed to toxic drinking water at Camp Lejeune, and it is up to us to make it right. My bipartisan bill, the Camp Lejeune Justice Act eliminates burdensome red tape to ensure that those exposed to toxic chemicals, including servicemembers, Marine dependents, civil servants, and contractors, can receive their day in court. As the proud representative of more than 89,000 veterans, I am honored to lead the effort to make sure our Camp Lejeune community gets the care and benefits they’ve earned. I am relieved to see bipartisan support for the Camp Lejeune Justice Act today, and I look forward to bringing this much-needed bill across the finish line for families in Eastern North Carolina.”

According to the Veterans Administration, those who served at Camp Lejeune or Marine Corps Air Station New River for at least 30 cumulative days from August 1953 through December 1987 — and their family members — are eligible for health care benefits. The VA will reimburse out-of-pocket health care costs that were related to various illnesses associated with the contamination, including cancers and infertility or miscarriages. The bill would go further.

“PACT” in the bill’s title refers to “Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics.” The Honoring our PACT Act was introduced last year by Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

The measure would create new procedures for the VA to follow when establishing new presumptions for toxic exposure and improve data collection by VA. It would include those exposed to airborne hazards, burn pits, radiation and Agent Orange. The bill also authorizes the VA to conduct additional research studies and develop an outreach program and standardized training on toxic exposure.

“For too long, Congress and VA have been slow to act on toxic exposure — but today, the House took a bipartisan vote to change that and finally make good on our promise to toxic-exposed veterans by passing my Honoring our PACT Act,” said Takano. “After years of diligent input from toxic-exposed veterans, my colleagues, our staff, VA, and VSOs, we passed the most comprehensive legislation to date to treat toxic exposure as a cost of war and ensure that all toxic-exposed veterans can access the care and benefits they’ve earned. This fight is not over, but I will not rest until our veterans have a guarantee in statute that their government will take care of them when they come home— no matter the cost.”

Environmental officials will discuss, among other topics, plans for the impending removal of contaminated soil from a former wood treatment storage area on the Superfund site in Navassa.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, and Multistate Environmental Response Trust officials are hosting two community meetings and a drop-in information session Tuesday at the Navassa Community Center.

Officials will update residents and stakeholders about the proposed plan for Operable Unit 2, or OU2, which includes about 80 acres free of contamination and is not part of the Superfund site; ongoing environmental investigations and activities on the site; natural resource restoration projects; and redevelopment planning efforts.

The community meetings will include the same presentation, following by a question-and-answer session. Those meetings are set for 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. and again from 6:30 p.m. to  8 p.m. and aired live online at this Zoom link, by entering tinyurl.com/NavassaMeetings into your browser, or by calling 301-715-8592. Use meeting ID 946 584 8922 and passcode 664564.

The drop-in session from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. is in-person only and will provide the public an opportunity to talk with officials one on one.

From 1936 to 1874, Kerr-McGee and other companies used 70 acres of the 246-acre former Kerr-McGee property for creosote-based wood treating. The site was added to the National Priorities List of federal Superfund sites in 2010 after contamination by creosote-related chemicals were confirmed in the soil, sediment and groundwater in areas of the site.

Last year, the EPA deleted OU1, which consists of a little more than 20 acres, from its National Priorities List, clearing the way for the unit to be reused.