Whether tempted to dip your toe or cannonball into a pond, lake or other waterbody this summer, check the color of the water first.

Elevated temperatures, increased sunlight, low or no water flow, and increased nutrient loads create a recipe for harmful algal blooms, which can be toxic to humans, pets and aquatic organisms.

The N.C. Division of Water Resources is reminding people to avoid contact with discolored water, which could indicate the presence of an algal bloom. 

While algae naturally occur in all waterbodies, certain environmental conditions can cause rapid algal cell growth, which leads to blooms, according to the division.

“You cannot tell for sure by looking at a bloom whether it is harmful or not,” according to a division release.

Algal blooms may be reported to the nearest state Department of Environmental Quality regional office or via an online report. Reported algal bloom events may be viewed at the division’s Fish Kill & Algal Bloom Dashboard.  

DEQ may collect water samples for further testing to an algae lab for analysis based on preliminary reports received through the reporting tool if an investigation is needed and resources are available.

To help staff, please provide detailed reports with a high-quality photo, contact information and a description of the bloom. 

The public should steer clear from coming in contact with large accumulations of algae and children and pets should be prevented from swimming or ingesting water water in an algal bloom.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health suggests safeguarding against algal blooms through the following steps:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue, discolored or scummy.
• Do not handle or touch large mats of algae. 
• Avoid handling, cooking, or eating dead fish that may be present. 
• If you come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly.
• Use clean water to rinse off pets that may have come into contact with an algal bloom. 
• If your child appears ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, seek medical care immediately. 
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger, or collapse after being in a pond, lake or river, seek veterinary care immediately.

For tips on water safety, heat protection and food safety visit the health and human service’s website.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving ahead with plans to strike down the nation’s first-ever health standards for chemical contaminants found in the drinking water sources of millions of North Carolinians.

The proposal, announced Monday, comes just shy of the one-year mark from when EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said he would eliminate and reevaluate enforceable standards for four per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, including the compound branded GenX. The agency also wants to push the deadline in which water utilities must comply with enforceable standards for PFOA and PFOS, chemicals that are no longer manufactured, by two years from 2029 to 2031.

In what it describes as a “comprehensive PFAS strategy,” the agency explains in a five-page release that drinking water systems would be given the option to opt in for the two-year extension, giving them more time to sample source water for contaminants, test new controls, and train their workforce to manage those controls.

The agency states that the proposed rule to rescind current federal standards for HFPO-DA, commonly referred to as GenX, PFNA, PFHxS and PFBS, would follow the letter of the law in establishing regulations for drinking water standards. The Trump administration argues that the Biden administration failed to follow the proper statutory requirements under the Safe Water Drinking Act when it established the drinking water standards for those four chemical compounds.

Under the proposal, the EPA would provide nearly $1 billion in new funding to states to address PFAS in drinking water and another $1 billion through the Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities program.

“The Biden administration cut corners and failed to follow the law,” Zeldin said in the release. “We are fixing that error with standards water systems can actually implement and that will hold up to scrutiny, while addressing PFOA and PFOS, two the best-studied PFAS with well-documented health impacts.”

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated in the release that PFAS contamination is “a serious public health challenge that demands rigorous science, clear standards, and practical solutions. Across HHS, we are advancing gold-standard research to better understand PFAS exposure, toxicity, and long-term health impacts on Americans.”

Critics of the proposed rules immediately hit back, calling the announcement a “PR stunt” to try and shade the more than 100 million people across the country whose drinking water sources have been contaminated by PFAS.

“Zeldin and Kennedy are trying to sell potions out of the back of a covered wagon,” Dr. Anna Reade, Natural Resources Defense Council Director of PFAS Advocacy said in a Monday release. “The millions of Americans demanding safe drinking water are not going to fall for their hocus pocus. By repealing and delaying PFAS standards, EPA is abandoning communities in desperate need of drinking water protections, especially those who live near polluting industries.”

News of the proposed rules particularly smacked the Cape Fear region where residents, environmental organizations and public water providers have banded together to fight for regulations that would put the onus on dischargers to keep PFAS out of drinking water sources.

Almost nine years have passed since the Wilmington StarNews broke the news that Chemours, a DuPont spinoff, had for decades been directly discharging PFAS, including GenX, from its Fayetteville Works facility into the Cape Fear River. GenX is specific to Chemours’ Bladen County plant more than 70 miles upstream from Wilmington.

Today, more than 1,000 residents living near the Cape Fear River Basin are participating in a study where researchers measure the levels of GenX and other PFAS in people’s blood.

PFAS are a group of chemicals used for their ability to repel water, stains and grease to produce a host of consumer goods like food containers, waterproof-gear and makeup.

These chemicals are ubiquitous because they do not naturally break down in the environment.

The EPA now categorizes nearly 15,000 PFAS, an overwhelming majority of which have yet to be studied for their potential effects on human health.

Some of the known human health effects of PFAS include weakened immunity, low birth weight in newborns, thyroid disease, and certain types of cancers.

“Our community was ground zero for the discovery of GenX in public tap water, impacting over half a million water users across ten counties in southeastern North Carolina,” Clean Cape Fear Co-Founder Emily Donovan stated in a Monday release. “The United Nations Human Rights Council investigated our contamination crisis and publicly named chemical companies like DuPont and Chemours, along with state and federal regulators, for failing to protect us from business-related human rights abuses. We believe today’s announcement perpetuates those abuses. It does not fix our growing PFAS contamination crisis. It stops monitoring it. You don’t cure a fever by breaking the thermometer.”

Related: Public hearings set on proposed wastewater discharge rules

Earlier this month, the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission wrapped a series of six public hearings hosted throughout the state on proposed monitoring and minimization rules for discharges of PFOS, PFOA and GenX, and 1,4-dioxane into the state’s surface waters. The EPA classifies 1,4-dioxane, which is primarily used as a solvent in industrial manufacturing, as a likely human-carcinogen.

An overwhelming majority of people who spoke at those hearings argued that the proposed rules would do little to protect drinking water sources because the rules do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for PFAS dischargers found to be in violation of those rules.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is accepting written comments on the proposed rules through June 15. Most of the thousands of written comments already submitted to DEQ concur with those made at the public hearings, according to department officials.

Public water utilities that serve residents in the Cape Fear region have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to treat PFAS from their raw water sources.

The Biden-era PFAS drinking water standards established in 2024 are in litigation in a lawsuit brought by chemical companies and water utility associations. A decision on that case, which is in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, is not expected before sometime next year.

“By abandoning and delaying enforceable limits on dangerous industrial chemicals like GenX and other PFAS, the agency is putting polluters’ profits over people and sending a clear message that corporate interests matter more than human lives,” Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney and Water Program Leader Kelly Moser stated in a release. “This reversal is a slap in the face to every community that has fought for clean drinking water. EPA’s decision isn’t grounded in science or law – it’s a political choice that endangers families throughout America.”

The EPA will accept written comments on the proposed rules for 60 days after they are published in the Federal Register. The rules will be published at www.regulations.gov under Docket ID: EPA-HQ-OW-2025-1742 and Docket ID EPA-HQ-OW-2025-9654.

The agency has also scheduled a virtual public hearing for July 7. Those who wish to speak must register online.

Questions related to the public hearing may be directed to PFASNPDWR@epa.gov.

North Carolina’s heat season runs from May 1 to Sept. 30 each year, and the state has launched an effort to raise awareness about the dangers that high temperatures pose to people’s health.

North Carolina Heat Safety Week, which began Monday and ends Friday, highlights resources to keep residents and visitors safe from extreme heat, Gov. Josh Stein’s office announced Monday.

“Being resilient to extreme heat means understanding how it can affect you and your community,” Stein in the release. “All North Carolinians can take actions to protect themselves and their families, employers can protect their workers, and local governments can protect their residents. Our state agencies and local governments are working hard to help keep people cool and safe.” 

Officials said in the release that heat-related illness and death are largely preventable.

“Recognizing the symptoms of heat illness is key to preventing serious complications, including death. Some signs and symptoms include heavy sweating, paleness, muscle cramps, racing or weak pulse, dizziness, headache, fainting, and nausea or vomiting. Awareness of extreme heat events can help people take the necessary steps to keep themselves safe,” they added.

While heat-related illnesses can affect anyone regardless of age or physical condition, those who live or work outside, are pregnant, children, older, athletes, low income or with underlying health conditions are at a disproportionate risk of experiencing adverse health effects. 

“As our summer days and nights stay warmer for longer, it’s critical that all North Carolinians learn about the symptoms of heat illness and the steps to take to cool down,” North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Reid Wilson said. “DEQ’s State Resilience Office is working closely with local governments to help them identify strategies to help manage extreme heat.”

The state highlighted State Resilience Office programs to help communities plan for extreme heat, including the Heat Action Plan Toolkit, the Planning for Extreme Heat Cohort and NC Resilience Exchange website, which provides a complete collection of resources to help local and state leaders easily find information and data to support resilience planning. 

The health department offers the NC Heat Health Alert System, a free email service to alert when dangerous heat is in the forecast. The emails alert recipients of when the daily maximum heat index is expected to reach dangerous levels.

“As we see the number of heat-related emergency department visits continue to increase, it is important that you and your loved ones stay weather-aware as the temperatures rise,” said N.C. Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai. “We encourage everyone to sign up for the heat health alerts, know the symptoms of heat-related illness and protect your health this summer.”  

Additionally, Operation Fan Heat Relief is underway now through Oct. 31. Contact the local aging agency to see if they qualify for a free fan for the hot summer months.

State and weather officials are hosting a virtual meeting on Monday to discuss ways in which local governments can prepare for North Carolina’s heat season.

During the meeting, which is open to the public but targeted to local government staff including emergency managers, public health personnel, planners and administrators, officials will provide a forecast for the 2026 heat season, review signs of heat illness and preventative actions, and provide tools and resources available to local governments to address heat impacts in their communities.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s State Resilience Office is hosting the event 1-3 p.m. in partnership with the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, North Carolina State Climate Office and the National Weather Service.

Officials will highlight DEQ’s Planning for Extreme Heat Cohort, a free program that aids local governments in developing heat action plans and connecting with climate and policy experts from North Carolina and across the nation, and the North Carolina State Climate Office will present its Southeast Heat Monitor, a new tool that forecasts statewide heat stress threats.

“We all know that it gets extremely hot in North Carolina during the summer, resulting in serious health problems for people of all ages,” DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson stated in a release. “We encourage local governments and the public to participate in our Heat Season Kickoff Meeting May 11 to understand the health risks and identify ways to protect communities from extreme heat.”  

July 2025 was the second warmest July for North Carolina in 130 years. There were more than 5,700 heat-related visits last year to emergency departments in North Carolina, according to DEQ.

Last year was also globally the third-warmest year on record, following 2023 and 2024.

“We want you have to a safe and healthy summer, but with thousands of heat-related emergency department visits last year, it is critical to be prepared for extreme temperatures to protect yourselves and families,” N.C. Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai stated. “NCDHHS continues to work with state and local partners to inform North Carolinians about health effects from extreme heat and ensure resources are available for people at risk of experiencing heat-related illness.”

During the meeting, DHHS will share its resources to manage heat-related health impacts, including the NCDHHS Heat Health Alert System, which notifies subscribers of dangerous heat indexes throughout the summer months and provides materials to support prevention.

The department also publishes weekly reports detailing heat health impacts for each region of North Carolina, and trains health care workers and others across the state to recognize and respond to heat illnesses.

Extreme heat has broad impacts across the state, damaging roads, electrical infrastructure and North Carolina’s agricultural industry. The state’s heat season began May 1.

Local governments can open local cooling centers, share educational information, integrate heat action into long-term planning for infrastructure, and plant trees to help protect residents from extreme heat.

Those who would like to attend the meeting may register online.

A Craven County-based sand and limestone mining company seeks to modify its state permit to more than double its acreage, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources has set a public hearing on the proposal for May 27.

The applicant, R.J.’s Bushhogging Inc. with a registered address of 1185 Winn Circle, in Vanceboro, and registered agent, Robin McDaniel, is looking to add 58.8 acres to its permitted area, with 50.08 acres to be mined. The area is in a flood hazard area, already a point of frustration for its neighbors, who have filed with the county planning department a petition opposing the expansion.

“The quarry currently operates close to our homes and has already caused a range of problems for residents, roads, children, animals, and Wildlife,” according to the neighborhood petition, which cites dust that affects public health and property and “lasting effects such as noise, traffic, fragmented wildlife habitat, water pollution and water that fills excavated areas. Further expansion would bring excavation activity even closer, increasing the disruption to our daily lives.”

The operation known as Willis Neck Mine is near Swift Creek, a tributary of the Neuse River. The applicant says the change to its permit will not involve mine dewatering nor will it require changes to its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System outfall permit. NPDES is a program under the Clean Water Act and regulates point-source discharges of pollutants to waters of the United States with enforcement at the state level.

R.J’s Bushhogging’s 2026 modification application for mining permit 25-75 also includes “smaller areas,” tracts of 8.78 acres, 2.79 acres and 1.89 acres, on the west side of Winn Circle, intended for shallow sand mining.

“Therefore, these areas will not be dewatered,” according to McDaniel’s application cover letter.  

The hearing will be held at 6 p.m. in the Craven County Community College Auditorium at 800 College Court in New Bern. Those who wish to speak during the hearing can sign up to do so starting at 5:30 p.m. 

Public comments are to be limited to the following seven denial criteria listed under the Mining Act of 1971:

1. That any rule or regulation would be violated by the proposed operation.
2. That the operation will have unduly adverse effects on potable groundwater supplies, wildlife, or fresh water, estuarine, or marine fisheries.
3. That the operation will violate regulated standards of air quality, surface water quality, or groundwater quality.
4. That the operation will constitute a direct and substantial physical hazard to public health and safety or to a neighboring dwelling house, school, church, hospital, commercial or industrial building, public road or other public property, excluding matters relating to use of a public road.
5. That the operation will have a significantly adverse effect on the purposes of a publicly owned park, forest or recreation area.
6. That previous experience with similar operations indicates a substantial possibility that the operation will result in substantial deposits of sediment in stream beds or lakes, landslides, or acid water pollution.
7. That the applicant hasn’t violated any rule or regulation that resulted in a permit revocation of a permit, forfeiture of part or all of a bond or other security, conviction of a misdemeanor under the Mining Act, or any other court order, final assessment of a civil penalty or failure to pay the required application processing fee.

The public can submit comments in writing to Assistant State Mining Engineer Kelly Jonas, Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources, Department of Environmental Quality, 1612 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1612.

Comments may also be sent via email to ncminingprogram@deq.nc.gov with the subject line “Willis Neck Mine.”   

For more information on the permit, visit the DEQ website.. 

Brunswick County is bringing together 50 local businesses and organizations that specialize in fields related to health and wellness, emergency planning and resiliency, disaster response and recovery and more for the 2026 ReadyBrunswick Preparedness Expo.

The family-friendly opportunity is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday on the Lisa M. Thompson Walking Trail at the Brunswick County Government Center. Parking is in front of the David R. Sandifer Administration Building at 30 Government Center Drive in Bolivia.

There will be free Sunset Slush Classic Italian Ice, popcorn, a vast display of rescue vehicles, a free raffle contest, handouts, interactive demonstrations, health screenings, and other activities. Food can be purchased from the various food trucks that will be on-site.

Officials said this they have combined the Brunswick County Health and Wellness Fair usually held in the fall with the ReadyBrunswick Preparedness Expo.

 “A large part of being prepared for emergencies is making sure you are as healthy and well as you can possibly be,” Brunswick County Emergency Management Director David McIntire said in a statement. “Resilient communities depend on community members working together to stay healthy, prepared, and informed.”

Find more information at BrunswickCountyNC.gov/emergency, call 910-253-1923 or email Volunteer and Nonprofit Coordinator Mikayla Borrero at mikayla.borrero@brunswickcountync.gov.

Learn more about the ReadyBrunswick Emergency Notification System and sign up at ReadyBrunswickCountyNC.gov.

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. 

North Carolina’s Coastal Resources Commission is moving through the steps to update rules for building along high-hazard coastlines that are particularly vulnerable to erosion and flooding.

When the commission met April 16 in Ocean Isle Beach’s town hall, members voted unanimously to advance the rulemaking process to draft language amendments for ocean erodible areas and inlet hazard areas. Proposed changes include using the most recent data for erosion rates and maps for the two zones, which are classified as areas of environmental concern.

If approved, this will be the first time new inlet hazard boundaries have been updated since they were initiated in the late 1970s. The commission has been discussing revisions for decades, but the complicated process and public blowback have pushed talks of updates year to year.

Both inlet hazard and ocean erodible areas fall under the ocean hazard areas category of areas of environmental concern, which are the foundation for the Coastal Area Management Act permitting program. CAMA was enacted in 1974, along with the commission to adopt rules for legislation that protects the state’s coastal resources. The Division of Coastal Management, under the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, acts as staff to the commission.

Inlet hazard areas, or IHAs, encompass land along the narrow body of water that allows for tidal exchange between the ocean and inland waters. These swaths of shoreline are susceptible to inlet migration, rapid and severe erosion, and flooding. Land within the boundaries is subject to the commission’s development rules.

Ken Richardson, the division’s shoreline management specialist, told Coastal Review that in addition to the proposed updates to inlet hazard area boundaries, one of the primary changes under consideration is that erosion rate setbacks within inlet hazard areas will be based on inlet-specific erosion rates detailed in a 2025 report rather than the adjacent ocean erodible area, or oceanfront, rates, which is currently the case.

Because of limited data and resources, erosion rate setback factors within inlet hazard areas have been based on the rates of adjacent ocean erodible areas, essentially treating the inlet shoreline as an extension of the oceanfront.

“Given the rapid changes that can occur at inlets, this method has often resulted in setback factors that underestimate the true erosion dynamics of these areas,” according to the division. Erosion rates are used to determine how far back new construction must be from the shoreline.

Richardson said that, “Additionally, the rules would effectively ‘hold the line’ of existing development by preventing seaward expansion of new development in inlet areas that have experienced natural accretion.”

He referenced the “Inlet Hazard Area Boundaries, 2025 Update: Science Panel Recommendations to the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission,” presented in August 2025 to the commission that explains “any accretion at most inlets is temporary and likely to reverse over time; maintaining this line helps reduce future exposure to erosion hazards.”

The commission’s Science Panel on Coastal Hazards was directed in 2016 to update IHA boundaries. Rules were in the process of being updated in 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic paused draft rules from moving forward.

The “Science Panel recommended updating IHAs on a five-year cycle alongside oceanfront erosion rates, by the time work resumed after the pandemic, the next oceanfront study (2025) was already approaching.  As a result, some stakeholders asked the CRC to proceed with a coordinated update,” leading to the directive in 2023 to provide another five-year review, Richardson told Coastal Review.

Richardson explained during the meeting last week that the science panel analyzed for the 2025 update the state’s developed inlets, which are Bogue, New River, New Topsail, Rich, Mason, Masonboro, Carolina Beach, Lockwood Folly, Shallotte and Tubbs.

Panel Chair Dr. Laura Moore, professor of coastal geomorphology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, presented the findings in the inlet hazard area boundaries report during the August 2025 meeting.

Last February, the Coastal Resources Advisory Council and a subcommittee reviewed the report and suggested deviating from the panel’s recommendation to measure setbacks from the hybrid-vegetation line because of concerns that existing structures would be nonconforming, and therefore harder to replace if something happened to the structure.

They decided to base the language on existing rules and continue to measure setbacks within inlet hazard areas from the actual vegetation line or pre-project line but not extend farther oceanward than the footprint of an existing structure, or, in the case with vacant lots, the landward-most adjacent neighboring structure, according to the division.

Richardson told the commission that another recommendation included amending the language for ocean erodible areas language citing the 2019 report to the “North Carolina 2025 Oceanfront Setback Factors & Long-Term Average Annual Erosion Rate Update Study: Methods Report report.”

Richardson noted that there are no boundary maps for ocean erodible areas because boundaries are measured from the vegetation line, which are dynamic and could change overnight, so the landward boundary is determined in the field.

Staff also proposes eliminating the distinction of residential or nonresidential for the type of structure, because “It doesn’t matter to erosion what the structure is being used for,” Richardson said.

Now, the proposed rule changes will go through the fiscal analysis. This step in the rulemaking process determines the financial impact of the proposed amendments. After the analysis is presented and voted on, the commission will decide to move on to the public comment period, then to final approval before sending it to the Rules Review Commission.

Septic tank update

Cameron Luck, a policy analyst for the division, briefed the commission on the work to develop rules for septic system siting, repair and replacement within ocean hazard areas.

He began by sharing what took place during a meeting March 30 in Buxton coordinated by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, with representatives from the North Carolina Home Builders Association, North Carolina Septic Tank Association, Outer Bank Association of Realtors, National Park Service, and from county health departments.

Attendees were brought up to speed on some of the issues surrounding failed septic tanks on the oceanfront, heard from Cape Hatteras National Seashore representatives about their policies and ongoing struggles and efforts to address both the threatened oceanfront structures and the failed septic tank systems and systems out on the beach

Department of Health and Human Services provided a quick synopsis of their process, focusing on the role within and alongside local health departments, with a discussion on how the department permits and cites septic tanks and how and failure enforcement.

Luck said that he and other division staff presented the most recently proposed rule language for discussion.

“We spent a good amount of time talking through the proposed language and some areas that could be improved,” Luck said.

Main points in the discussion focused on defining what type of repair would qualify for a permit.

“In other words,” Luck explained, would property owners be required to secure a permit if a filter or a section of pipe needs to be replaced, or does the rule need to be more focused on extreme failures.

Discussion also focused on whether the proposed rule changes should be applied coastwide or be more targeted to specific situations or locations.

“Perhaps, key takeaway from that meeting was a clear consensus among those attendees that some form of action is needed to limit the repair of failed septic systems on the ocean beach and to prevent them from remaining on the beach once they failed,” he said, adding that staff is working on those rule language updates.

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.

Microplastics and pharmaceuticals have made the Environmental Protection Agency’s newly published draft list of substances in public drinking water that warrant scientific scrutiny.

This marks a first for the EPA, which, along with U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced last week that microplastics and pharmaceuticals are two of four contaminant groups and dozens of chemicals included on the draft Sixth Contaminant Candidate List.

The April 2 announcement kick-started a 60-day public comment period.

The Trump administration hailed the additions to the list, also referred to as CCL 6, as “a landmark set of actions to safeguard the nation’s drinking water.”

“For too long, Americans have vocalized concerns about plastics and pharmaceuticals in their drinking water. That ends today,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stated in a release. “By placing microplastics and pharmaceuticals on the Contaminant Candidate List for the first time ever, EPA is sending a clear message: we will follow the science, we will pursue answers, and we will hold ourselves to the highest standards to protect the health of every American family.”

The announcement comes as the Trump administration is actively pursuing rolling back drinking water standards for several per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, established under the previous administration.

PFAS, along with disinfection byproducts, once again made it onto a CCL, which singles out contaminants that are known or anticipated to be in public drinking water systems, but are not regulated under the Safe Water Drinking Act and may be considered for future regulatory action.

Also making it back on the list is 1,4-dioxane, an industrial solvent that, along with PFAS, is known to be in the drinking water sources for tens of thousands of North Carolinians, perhaps most notably in the Cape Fear Region.

Last year, the EPA announced that it would retain current National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for PFOA and PFOS but rescind regulations and reconsider regulatory determinations for other PFAS, including GenX.

GenX is specific to Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility that is situated near the banks of the Cape Fear River and more than 70 miles upstream of Wilmington. The Cape Fear River is the raw drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians.

The federal agency also said it was extending deadlines for public water treatment plants to come into compliance with the federally established limits for those PFAS.

Since the late 1990s, the EPA has been required by law to publish every five years a list of contaminants that are either unregulated or not proposed for regulation.

CCLs are considered the initial step in a process to better understand, through scientific research, potential human health risks of contaminants in drinking water.

And, while clean drinking water advocates say this is a good first step, they urge the public to call for regulations to limit the levels of or altogether halt the discharge of contaminants into public drinking water sources.

“I think it’s important to recognize what chemicals are in our drinking water and to study the risks associated with that,” Hannah Nelson, a staff attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Chapel Hill office said. “But simply adding chemicals to this list isn’t going to protect our communities. They’re on the list because we know they’re in drinking water, so now we need to take the next step to control the source of that pollution at the source and get it out of our drinking water. I North Carolina, because we know these pollutants are already there, I think we really should be focusing on how do we keep them out in the first place, because that’s how we truly protect our communities.”

Residents in the Cape Fear region, the local governments that represent them, the public water utilities that serve them, and environmental organizations are embroiled in an ongoing fight pushing for state regulations to put the onus on dischargers of PFAS and 1,4-dioxane to reduce the amounts of chemicals they release into drinking water sources.

On Tuesday, the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission will host its first in a series of public hearings on proposed PFAS and 1,4-dioxane monitoring and minimization rules.

Three hearings will focus on proposed rules for discharges of PFOS, PFOA and GenX into North Carolina’s surface waters and three on proposed rules for monitoring and minimizing 1,4-dioxane in wastewater discharges from certain facilities into surface waters.

The proposed rules packages do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for discharge violations, which has become a sticking point for those who argue that the rules would do little in actually minimizing the amount of those contaminants in drinking water sources.

“We know our environmental rulemaking body is currently trying to pass rules on PFAS and 1,4-dioxane that don’t control chemicals at the source,” Nelson said. “Having drinking water standards would be a helpful too, but our real focus should be, how can we keep these out in the first place and how can we encourage our state and our federal leaders to protect the people from the pollution before it even reaches the point of coming out of our sink and pouring into our cups.”

Beyond Plastics, a Bennington College, Vermont-based organization dedicated to ending single-use plastic pollution, called for similar regulation for microplastics.

“The U.S. Environmental Agency has taken an important first step to regulate microplastics in drinking water,” Beyond Plastics President and former EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck stated in a release. “I applaud this decision by the EPA and urge the agency to move rapidly to not only regulate microplastics in drinking water but to also prevent microplastics from entering our water supplies.”

Cape Fear River Watch’s Water Quality Programs Manager Rob Clark agreed, saying that microplastics are ubiquitous – they’re in our environment and in our bodies.

“It’s a situation where it seems like we already have a lot of information on this,” he said. “What we need is ubiquitous monitoring across the country and we need regulation. The quicker that we get to setting a maximum contaminant level for microplastics, the quicker it’s not in our drinking water.”

In its April 2 release, the EPA noted that while human health benchmarks for pharmaceuticals are not regulations and not enforceable, “they are a vital resource, empowering local decision-makers to evaluate risks and protect their communities when pharmaceutical contamination is detected at concerning levels.”

The public comment period on draft CCL 6 will close June 5.

The EPA is expected to sign a final list by Nov. 17.

“I think public comment periods on action like this are really important because it’s a good time for folks to express concerns about the chemicals that are known to be present in their drinking water,” Nelson said. “Adding chemicals to the list is truly just an acknowledgement that they’re in the water. I don’t think we should read this list as a commitment to going above and beyond and advocating for folks. What we need to see is strong action to keep those chemicals out, whether it be from the federal administration or our state agencies.”

It’s been nearly a month since a video first aired of Wilmington’s mayor invoking residents to voice their opposition to one town’s plans to pull millions of gallons of water daily from the Cape Fear River.

“Today this vital resource is under threat from growing water-hungry communities upstream,” Mayor Bill Saffo says in the clip as he stands along the city’s downtown Riverwalk.

Fuquay-Varina, a town about 30 miles south of Raleigh, wants to move more than 6 million gallons of water each day from the Cape Fear River to the Neuse River, he explains in the video made in collaboration with the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority.

“That’s 6 million gallons gone, each day, forever. It is important that you make your voice heard now for your family and for future generations. Add your voice to those of your neighbors and friends who already are telling the state to say no to Fuquay-Varina’s permanent taking of our water,” Saffo concludes.

Only a couple of more weeks are left until the public comment period on Fuquay-Varina’s request for an interbasin transfer, or IBT, certificate closes.

Maya Holcomb, a Division of Water Resources representative, told members of the state Environmental Management Commission’s Water Allocation Committee last week that she anticipated receiving comments all the way through to the April 1 deadline.

In her presentation to the committee Thursday, Holcomb provided an update on the numbers of correspondence she’d received in the days since she initially crafted her report, when the email count was at 283.

Related: Opponents say river water transfer puts Cape Fear in peril

“But I just keep getting so many emails, which — we’re hearing from the public, that’s great — but I have received an additional 42 emails since this PowerPoint was created last week,” Holcomb said.

Holcomb said she had also received 41 resolutions from cities, towns, counties, homebuilders, substations and public utilities.

She did not say how many of those resolutions oppose the IBT, but instead highlighted what she described as the “newest” issues of concern: loss of water for agricultural purposes, nutrient concentration in the Neuse River Basin, such as those that cause algal blooms, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, hypoxia, drought vulnerability and chemical export of industrial pollutants from the Cape Fear River.

Those concerns mirror some of arguments made by dozens of people who spoke out against the transfer during a series of state-hosted public hearings in December.

Fuquay-Varina projects that the water supply, from which it currently buys from Raleigh 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 transfer, Fuquay-Varina 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 in that town, the treated wastewater would then be discharged into the Neuse River Basin.

This would permanently subtract 6.17 million gallons each day from the river flow that currently serves about 900,000 residents of counties, cities, towns and communities from Fayetteville to Wilmington.

“Put in perspective, 6.17 (million gallons per day) of raw water from the river is enough to provide treated drinking water to more than 27,000 homes,” according to Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s website.

In the weeks and months leading up to CFPUA’s campaign against Fuquay-Varina’s plan, several local governments and utilities adopted resolutions and sent letters of opposition to the state.

New Hanover County, Wilmington and Brunswick County and more than a dozen Brunswick County municipalities have officially gone on record opposing Fuquay-Varina’s request.

Holcomb explained last week that, after April 1, state environmental officials will respond to comments on the draft environmental impact statement and then formulate a hearing officers’ report, which will be finalized sometime between July and September.

After that, the Environmental Management Commission will determine whether the EIS is technically adequate. Following that determination, the Department of Environmental Quality will issue its record of decision.

Another round of public hearings will be held before the EMC makes its final determination.

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

Comments may be submitted to Maya Holcomb, Division of Water Resources, 512 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh, NC, 27604, or by email to maya.holcomb@deq.nc.gov.

The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission has scheduled a series of public hearings in select cities beginning next month on proposed PFAS and 1,4-dioxane monitoring and minimization rules.

In all, six hearings have been set, three of which will focus on proposed rules for discharges of three per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances through wastewater into North Carolina’s surface waters and three on proposed rules for monitoring and minimizing 1,4-dioxane in wastewater discharges from certain facilities into surface waters.

A public comment period for each set of proposed rules will kick off on March 16 and continue until June 15.

Under the proposed PFAS rules, all major and minor industrial direct dischargers, and significant industrial users that discharge to publicly owned treatment works, would be required to monitor and implement “minimization activities required to eliminate or significantly reduce” discharges of PFOS, PFOA, and GenX within a period of anywhere between three and five years.

Discharge limits for those specific PFAS have yet to be determined.

PFAS exposure has been linked to a number of adverse health impacts to people, including thyroid disease, increased cholesterol, liver damage, and different types of cancers.

More than 3 million North Carolinians are estimated to drink tap water containing PFAS levels above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency health-based standard scheduled to go into effect in the coming years, according to the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality.

Public hearings on the proposed rules for the three PFAS are scheduled as follows:

• April 7 at 6 p.m. in Ferguson Auditorium, AB-Tech Community College, 19 Tech Drive, Asheville.
• April 20 at 6 p.m. in the Archdale Building, ground floor hearing room, 512 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh. Public parking will be available after 5 p.m. at parking deck 64 across North Salisbury Street from the Archdale Building.
• April 23 at 6 p.m. in Wilmington City Hall at Skyline Center, first floor conference center, 929 North Front St., Wilmington. Parking is available in the south lot using the Brunswick Street entrance. Attendees requiring American with Disabilities Act access should park in the visitor lot.

Written comments 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.

Comments will be accepted on the proposed rule adoptions and associated regulatory impact analysis. The commission is also accepting comments on specific questions including:

• Whether it would be scientifically defensible and advisable to establish a screening threshold above the lowest reporting concentration for PFOS, PFOA and GenX that could serve as a trigger for ongoing monitoring and minimization requirements.
• Whether the applicability of the PFAS monitoring and minimization rule should be limited to industrial dischargers associated with a standard industry classification (SIC) or North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes known to be linked to PFAS use or discharge.

Hearings on proposed rules for monitoring and minimizing 1,4-dioxane, a federally deemed likely human carcinogen, in wastewater discharges into surface waters from certain facilities have been scheduled for the following dates:

• April 9 at 6 p.m. in the Catawba County St. Stephens Branch Library, 3225 Springs Road, Hickory.
• April 14 at 6 p.m. at Fayetteville Technology Community College, Tony Rand Student Center multipurpose room, 2220 Hull Road, Fayetteville.
• May 12 at 6 p.m. in the Percy H. Sears Applied Technologies Building Auditorium, Guilford Technical Community College, 1201 Bonner Drive, Jamestown.

Written comments on the proposed rules for 1,4-dixoane may be submitted via 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, N.C., 27699-1611.

The EMC will also be accepting specific comments on the proposed 1,4-dixoane minimization rules to include:

• Whether a screening threshold above the lowest reported concentration (currently 1 microgram per liter) for 1,4-dioxane would be appropriate as a trigger for ongoing monitoring and minimization planning.
• whether the applicability of the 1,4-dioxane monitoring and minimization rules should be expanded beyond the currently proposed scope of dischargers with certain standard industry classification or North American Industry Classification System codes to include all industrial dischargers.

Sign-in and speaker registration will begin at 5 p.m. at each of the hearings.

Based on attendance, speaking time may be limited to allow everyone an opportunity to be heard. The commission will accept written comments and copies of prepared remarks at each hearing.

Coastal Resources Commission members last week held off on addressing oceanfront septic tank system rules in order to give environmental and health officials the opportunity to collaborate on the process.

During the commission’s Feb. 26 meeting in Atlantic Beach, staff with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management, which implements the commission’s rules and policies, asked for extra time to work with the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. DHHS regulates permitting, design, installation, operation and maintenance for on-site septic systems.

The failed septic system issue had been forefront for the commission in the early 2020s, until the topic was sidelined in April 2023 when the Rules Review Commission rejected dozens of rules the Coastal Resources Commission submitted as part of the 10-year rule review process, including protections for Jockey’s Ridge, redirecting the CRC’s attention.

After the rules protecting the sand dune system on the Outer Banks were put back in place in 2025, the Coastal Resource Commission resumed the discussions on remedies for oceanfront septic system failures.

Division Coastal Policy Analyst Cameron Luck explained last Thursday that the commission directed the staff at its November 2025 meeting to find out how many septic system failures along the waterfront were caused by tidal inundation, how many coastal communities rely on septic systems, and the overlap of the commission’s rules with the DHHS’s permitting process.

Luck said that Initially the plan for the February meeting was for the proposed amendments to move forward. But, after the division, DHHS and the North Carolina Coastal Federation, met Feb. 18 to review the issue, the consensus was to pause the rulemaking process.

The plan as of last Thursday was to schedule a meeting in mid-March with the health department and other agencies and organizations. “We want everybody at the table,” to better understand how stakeholders feel about the issue and willingness to address septic tank failures through a collaborative effort, Luck said.

Under the current rules, septic tanks are grouped with houses, which precludes oceanfront septic systems from requiring a permit for repair. And, an oceanfront septic system must be relocated or dismantled within eight years of when a home becomes threatened.

Division staff proposed clarifying that new structures must meet the oceanfront setback, and if a home or septic system is relocated, all remaining debris, including the original septic system, must be removed as well.

Staff also proposed specifying that septic system repair and/or replacement is not evaluated under general statute. Instead, it requires a Coastal Area Management Act permit to replace any septic tank, pump tank, or ground absorption system component.

North Carolina Coastal Federation Executive Director Braxton Davis, who was previously director of the Division of Coastal Management, has been involved in the process for some time. The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review.

Davis explained to the commission that it already regulates new oceanfront septic tanks by requiring that those systems meet the oceanfront setback. However, the division currently doesn’t have rules regarding repairing oceanfront septic systems.

DHHS, Dare and septic systems

Two officials with the state health department explained to the commission the prevalence of on-site wastewater systems in the state and the role the division plays in managing them.

Deputy Environmental Health Section Chief Jon Fowlkes said that about 50% of the state relies on septic systems and that has remained consistent over the last 20 to 30 years.

“Every county in our state uses septic systems, some counties more, some counties less,” he said, with some ranging from 14% to 93%, “so it really varies on where you’re at, and we’ve had approximately 1 million septic systems installed since 1990.”

The state’s wastewater rules apply to residential and some commercial on-site septic systems.

On-Site Water Protection Branch Head Wilson Mize with DHHS told the commission that neither he nor Fowlkes worked on the coast before, and “it’s been a learning curve” for them while working with Dare, Currituck and Carteret counties.

He used Dare as an example for how the county is handling its oceanfront septic problems, particularly the scenario of when a tank that was once covered in sand is exposed during a weather event.

After every storm, environmental health staff coordinate with local building inspectors and walk the impacted beach areas, looking for damaged dwellings and determine which systems have been compromised, Mize said.

In many cases the health department’s hands are tied when it comes to not issuing permits. “Our rules don’t give the county much authority to deny that permit if it meets our rules,” Fowlkes said.

Dare County Manager Bobby Outten said the county has a similar situation, stating that they’re also required to issue a permit for septic tanks, even if they’re in the surf zone.

“If the owner can get access to his building, we have to give them the permits. And so now they’ve got a house sitting in the water, their septic tank’s on the wet sand beach, and their drain field is back in the dry sand beach and we have to permit it,” he continued.

“They do it. Two weeks later, we have a nor’easter. It knocks the top off, it dumps the septic in the ocean again, and we start the process again. The water subsides. They put a new top on it. It meets all the requirements. We permit it,” he explained. “And the cycle continues until they lose enough lot that they can’t have a drain field, or they’ve lost enough lot, or lose the tank, and they don’t have anywhere to put the tank, and we don’t have a remedy for that, and we don’t have a remedy for it once it’s all said and done.”

Outten said there are options to break the cycle, including the establishment of setbacks by the commission, or rules that the health department can enforce.

“So we’re stuck in this situation because none of the rules work together to solve what I think we all see as a problem,” he said. “If our goal is to get those tanks off of the beaches, then the rules don’t currently work to do that.”

Commission Chair Renee Cahoon recognized that there’s no easy solution, “but we know that we can’t continue to have all the septic tanks on the beach. It’s not environmentally healthy. It’s not even good business sense for the people in North Carolina, because it does impact our tourism industry and all the property owners that are invested here.”

Reprinted from N.C. Health News

North Carolina’s struggle with PFAS contamination underscores the unintended consequences that can follow widespread chemical use — even as Congress is considering overhauling the nation’s foremost chemical safety law.

That law, the Toxic Substances Control Act, governs how industrial chemicals are reviewed and regulated in the United States. Passed in 1976 and overhauled by a Republican Congress in 2016, the chemical safety law sets standards for the data companies must provide, the timeline federal regulators have to review new chemicals and whether substances can enter commerce.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has defended proposed changes to TSCA as a way to make chemical reviews more predictable and efficient while maintaining safety standards. In announcing the proposal, Zeldin said the agency aims to provide “a clear, predictable, commonsense approach that’s grounded in the law and the science.” He added that reforms are intended to protect health and the environment while allowing American manufacturing to thrive.

Critics say industry interests are driving the push for changes.

“It’s clear that the chemical industry is engaged in a full court press to try to make some amendments to TSCA,” said Stan Meiburg, former acting deputy administrator of the EPA and retired head of The Sabin Center for Environment and Sustainability at Wake Forest University, in an interview with NC Health News.

In North Carolina, contamination from PFAS and other industrial chemicals evaluated under TSCA brought enforcement of the act into sharp public focus.

Often called “forever chemicals,” PFAS persist in the environment and have been linked to such human health issues as elevated cholesterol, immune suppression, developmental effects and certain cancers. Once contamination is discovered, cleanup can take years and cost utilities — and taxpayers — millions.

Much of the current debate in Washington centers on required environmental review of the law’s fee authority, mandated under the 2016 amendments. The law allows EPA to collect fees from chemical manufacturers to help fund safety reviews, and it requires the agency to periodically reassess whether those fees are sufficient. That authority will expire at the end of fiscal year 2026 unless Congress renews it, which raises broader questions about how federal chemical oversight will be funded. 

The disagreement has played out publicly in recent congressional hearings, where lawmakers debated whether the chemical evaluation process should be simplified to accelerate the review process.

Speed vs. safety

That tension surfaced during two January hearings, a Jan. 8 session before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology and a Jan. 22 hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment, where lawmakers debated whether to move chemical reviews along more quickly or strengthen oversight under TSCA.

Supporters of overhauling the law said the process needs greater efficiency and clearer timelines, while critics argue that speeding reviews without strengthening scientific capacity could weaken protections.

“EPA is required to complete new chemical reviews within 90 days,” Charlotte Bertrand, a senior director at the American Chemistry Council, said during the Jan. 8 House hearing. “Yet more than 90 percent of active reviews exceed that statutory deadline. Over 60 percent remain pending for more than a year — and some for several years.”

Without changes, she added, delays in chemical approvals could put American manufacturers at a global disadvantage, particularly when compared with China.

Meiburg, who testified at the Jan. 8 hearing, warned against prioritizing speed over scientific rigor.

“Quick decisions do not serve the public if they are not based on the best science, are inconsistent with the law, are unduly influenced by interested parties or not transparent,” Meiburg told lawmakers.

His warning comes as the agency’s scientific capacity has faced reductions. Last year, the Trump administration announced plans to reduce the organization’s funding by 65 percent, a proposal that has resulted in substantial cuts to the Office of Research and Development — the agency’s primary science arm and the division responsible for conducting chemical risk evaluations under TSCA.

At the Jan. 22 House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing, Tracey Woodruff, professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and director of its Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, argued that the proposed reforms would weaken safeguards built into the 2016 amendments.

“The proposed changes would remove public health guardrails and undermine EPA’s ability to protect people from harmful chemicals,” Woodruff said.

Environmental advocates echoed those concerns, arguing that shortening timelines or narrowing data requirements could increase the risk of overlooking potential health and environmental harms — especially if EPA lacks sufficient scientific staffing and resources.

A looming deadline

Beyond the mechanics of fee renewal, former EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the broader issue is whether the agency has the resources to carry out the law as written. While the statute itself remains strong, Congress has not provided funding to match the expanded responsibilities created under the 2016 overhaul, he said.

“When you reduce government the way it has been done over the last year or so, you are actually reducing the ability for TSCA to work the way Congress intended it,” Regan told NC Health News during an interview.

Under TSCA, companies submitting new chemicals pay review fees, while manufacturers of existing chemicals selected for formal risk evaluations share the cost of those more extensive, multi-year assessments. Those fees, which can range from tens of thousands to millions of dollars depending on the type of review, help fund EPA’s scientific staff and risk evaluation work.

That authority is set to expire at the end of fiscal year 2026 unless Congress renews it, giving lawmakers leverage not only to adjust fee levels but also to revisit broader elements of the law.

For North Carolina communities, the stakes are not abstract. PFAS contamination in the Cape Fear River has required costly treatment upgrades and years of regulatory and legal action. Supporters of strong oversight argue that thorough, well-resourced reviews are far less expensive than responding after widespread contamination occurs.

Meiburg said the lesson from decades of chemical regulation is straightforward.

“Preventing pollution is always cheaper than repairing damage later,” he said.

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

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.

WILMINGTON — Deepening the Wilmington Harbor would disperse PFAS now mingling in the riverbed’s sediment into marshes and onto public beaches, accelerate erosion, exacerbate flooding, destroy habitat, and is not economically justified, area residents said during a state-hosted public hearing.

Many who spoke at the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management’s hearing in downtown Wilmington Monday night argued that the federal draft environmental statement released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers earlier this fall fails to fully examine potential impacts associated with the proposed project.

The draft study examines different alternatives for the North Carolina State Ports Authority’s aim to accommodate larger container ships at the Wilmington port.

The preferred alternative selected in the study calls for deepening the harbor from 42 to 47 feet, widening the channel in multiple areas, and extending the ocean entrance to the river. These changes would accommodate vessels that can carry 14,000 20-by-8-foot shipping containers, ports officials say.

But several of the nearly 20 people who spoke argued that the proposed project would not benefit the local economy, and its environmental harms would drastically overwhelm any associated economic benefits. About 70 people attended the hearing.

“This project is a poor economic decision given the massive cost compared to the miniscule benefits,” said Jessica Hardee, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “The cost of deepening the harbor and the channel is projected to be over $1 billion. However, the only noted benefit of this project are cost savings to international shipping companies who use the port, not North Carolina or local communities. This project provides little benefit to the Wilmington area and North Carolinians while also threatening significant damage to the coastal region.”

One striking absence from the study is how churning up and moving per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in the sediment of the lower Cape Fear River might affect the environment, animals that rely on that environment, and human health, some speakers said.

“Even though we all know that there’s PFAS in the sediment of the river, the Corps says we can’t consider that because it’s not a regulated chemical,” said Wilmington resident and geologist Roger Shew.

But PFAS, or similar chemical compounds of which there are more than 14,000 used to make a host of consumer goods from food containers to stain-resistant clothing and carpet, will be regulated by the time the channel would be deepened in the early to mid-2030s, he said.

“And since 15 million of the 35 million cubic yards of dredge material will be used as beneficial placement in marshes on our area beaches, we should know the content of that sediment and potential impacts with sediment placement,” Shew said. “A core function of an (environmental impact statement) is consideration of potential harm. Therefore, they should and must include PFAS in the study.”

A study published late last month found concentrations of 56 PFAS in blood samples obtained from 119 Wilmington residents between 2010 and 2016.

Two chemical compounds – TFA and PFMOAA – were the dominant PFAS in the samples, “despite their likely short half-lives in the human body,” according to the study.

TFA, or trifluoroacetic acid, and PFMOAA, or perfluoro-2-methoxyacetic acid, are ultrashort-chain PFAS, which are the smallest type of PFAS and hardest to remove from drinking water sources.

The blood samples examined in the study were obtained before the public was made aware in 2017 that an upstream industrial facility had been discharging PFAS directly into the Cape Fear River, the drinking water sources for tens of thousands, since the 1980s.

“While current TFA and PFMOAA levels have likely decreased substantially from those in the historical blood serum samples evaluated here as a result of mandated discharge controls at the upstream fluorochemical manufacturer, this study, along with other recent studies, highlights the importance ultrashort-chain PFAS can play in determining the overall human PFAS burden,” the study states.

Wilmington resident Kaiti Sheehan said the fact that PFAS is not considered in the draft environmental impact statement, or DEIS, “is a slap in the face to residents who are paying for a $42 million granulated active-carbon filtration system and still facing the health consequences that have come from 40 years of contamination from our upstream bad actor.”

“I do genuinely hope that you will look and you will see how much the community has come out tonight in recognition that this is bad for Wilmington and this is bad for North Carolina,” she said.

Others raised concerns about how deepening the harbor to allow for larger ships to travel the 28 miles upriver to the port would increase erosion on the string of bird islands that pepper the lower Cape Fear River and the riverbanks themselves.

The Cape Fear River supports almost 30% of the state’s nesting American oystercatchers.

Audubon North Carolina’s Lindsay Addison, a coastal biologist, said she and her staff are on the Cape Fear River two to three days a week between March and August and at least once during each of the other months of the year.

“We have seen progressively the impacts of the larger and larger classes of ships coming up the river,” she said. “We saw larger, more severe wakes. The DEIS does not take this into account. The Corps, in its beneficial use plan, talks about maybe putting sediment on 2 miles of the shoreline.”

Birds nest on high-tide lines, Addison said. Waves created by a large ship’s wake push water “like a tsunami” over nests and sweep nests away.

“There is no model in the DEIS that accounts for this,” Addison said. “There is no data collection in the DEIS that accounts for this. In fact, there’s no new data collection in the DEIS. They’re relying on data that was already collected. They told us in the stakeholder meeting, flat out, that they’re not going to collected new data so impacts to the migratory birds in the DEIS are not taken into account.”

Officials with the Division of Coastal Management, which is under the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, announced Monday night that the public comment period on the draft study has been extended from Dec. 5 to Dec. 20.

Written comments may be mailed to Federal Consistency Coordinator, 400 Commerce Ave., Morehead City, NC  28557, or emailed to Federalconsistencycomments@deq.nc.gov with “Federal Consistency: USACE Wilmington Harbor 403 Navigation Project” in the subject line.

More information on the proposed project is on the Corps’ website.

Plastic may be cheap to make and convenient to use, but it comes with a staggering economic cost to the United States — possibly more than $1 trillion a year — according to a new report.

The study, released Thursday, estimates that the economic cost of the life cycle of plastic – from how it’s made, to its conversion into products, to its use and disposal – ranges anywhere from $436 billion to $1.1 trillion annually.

That figure is likely a significant underestimate, according to Duke University researchers who authored the report.

“We, from the beginning, wanted to focus on the harms and costs of the entire plastic life cycle, not just focus on plastic pollution,” said Dr. Nancy Lauer, a co-author of the report and staff scientist and lecturing fellow with the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic. “That was because there really is this entire life of plastic product that has now-well-documented harms at every single stage that we are paying for. It was important for us to make those harms and those costs more transparent to consumers so that they understand this is not just a problem when plastic escapes into the environment and becomes litter or marine debris.”

The team of researchers was able to explore this concept after the university in 2023 awarded it a small grant. That grant led the researchers to host a workshop in early 2024 that brought together experts from across different fields with experience in analyzing the social costs of plastic from its production to its disposal.

Those experts were given a list of studies examining economic costs associated with plastic’s life cycle compiled and initially reviewed by a team of graduate students. The experts then advised researchers on what categories of studies were missing from that list and whether there was additional research that could be examined.

In the end, researchers reviewed 13 existing studies focusing on plastic’s harms and costs on the environment, human health, and the economy.

The report breaks down the economic impacts of plastics by several categories, from greenhouse gas emissions associated with plastic production to human health effects.

The largest cost, by far, is human exposure to toxic chemicals in plastics.

Researchers estimate that increased disease and mortality from plastics use is between $410 billion and $930 billion each year.

“These high costs are driven largely by the value of IQ loss and reduced productivity associated with exposure to plastic activities,” the report states.

Exposure to chemicals such as phthalates, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, bisphenol A, or BPA, and those found in flame retardants are linked to a host of adverse health outcomes, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, reproductive disorders and neurological damage.

Lauer explained that only within the last couple of years studies on the economic impacts of human health-associated harms from plastics use have “really taken off.”

“So that was certainly a category that we, in those initial searches and before the workshop, did not have as great of a handle on, but that research has just really continued to take off in these last two years or so,” she said.

And while studies of the economic effect on human health have come a long way, Lauer said there’s still a long way to go.

“The studies that we found document the harms and costs from exposure to just a tiny fraction of the chemicals that are in plastic. There’s thousands of chemicals in plastic, several of which have known health effects, and several of which we don’t know enough about to know if they have health effects,” she said.

There is also lack of research on the cumulative effects on human health from chemical mixtures in plastics.

“If we take in a plastic particle, we’re not just taking in one or two chemicals, we’re taking in that mixture of chemicals,” Lauer said. “How those chemicals interact together to spur health impacts, we don’t have a good sense of that at this time.”

The report highlights other research gaps, including economic costs associated with plastic recycling and incineration, the effect of plastic on property values, and the cost associated with loss of terrestrial environment.

“When plastics get into the environment, often our first thought is when it ends up as marine debris and the harms that it causes in the ocean, entangling animals and creating these great garbage patches that need to be cleaned up,” Laure said. “Plastics also impact the terrestrial environment. They get into streams and lakes, along our roadsides, and studies have documented that plastics also cause harm to terrestrial animals like invertebrates and freshwater fish. But, there’s not estimates in the literature for that loss of terrestrial ecosystem services in the same way that the literature has begun to document the cost of the loss of marine ecosystem services.”

According to the report, the estimated cost of the loss of marine ecosystem services ranges from $1.4 billion to $112 billion a year.

Other categories and estimated annual costs detailed in the report include the following:

• Greenhouse gas emissions produced from fossil fuel extraction and manufacturing: $6.4 billion to $15.9 billion.
• Increased disease and mortality from oil and gas extraction: $2.9 billion to $31.9 billion.
• Landfill disposal: $2.9 billion.
• Plastic litter cleanup: $9.8 billion to $13.3 billion.
• Loss of tourism: $2 billion.
• Damage to fisheries and aquaculture industry: $88 million.
• Damage to marine shipping: $909 million.

Lauer said that a motivation to make these costs more transparent to the consumer is to highlight that, though products we buy that are made of plastic tend to be relatively cheap, “that’s just the price we’re paying right there on the spot.”

“There’s so many other costs that we may not necessarily realize we’re paying when we use that plastic,” she said.

And while plastics are important for certain industries, including the medical industry, “we’re still using a lot of plastic in places that we don’t necessarily need to be,” Lauer said. “The patchwork of state and local laws on the books are important to reduce plastics on that local and state level, and they’re important to have proof of concept and build momentum towards something that is more comprehensive. But I think what that more comprehensive strategy needs to look like is really focusing on reducing plastics at the source, and that can be through phasing out needless plastics.”

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.

The only shelter in Dare County for unhoused persons announced Monday its board of directors for the coming year.

John Head will serve as chairman of the 2025-26 season for OBX Room in The Inn, or RITI. Head is director of sales for Resort Realty.

The mission of the nonprofit, faith-based organization is to provide food, shelter, and assistance during the winter months to unhoused and displaced adults living in Dare County. The shelter is to run from Nov. 1 to April 30, 2026.

Chair-elect for the board is Chris Kelley Cimko, president of Cimko Strategies, LLC. Serving as vice chair and treasurer is Scout Shillings, who is in communications and education for the Outer Banks Association of Realtors. Randy Jones with eXp Realty is in the role of secretary.

“Our Board is a partnership of caring neighbors who come from many walks of life here on the Outer Banks,” Head said in a release. “They are accomplished individuals who bring with them experience, perspective and a keen understanding of the important role RITI plays in our community. Together, they create a strong and committed Board.”

During the 2024-25 season, the inn provided 1,643 room nights and 4,935 meals to guests with the support of 20 churches and 143 volunteers.

“We couldn’t shelter up to 20 people each night without the support and kindness of our local churches. Each week they generously provide meals for our residents,” Shari Fiveash, President of RITI said in a statement. “In fact, we recently met with many of the Church Coordinators and were deeply impressed by their strong commitment. We are so thankful for the churches that participate in the RITI program. The fact that RITI has been in existence since 2009, and started in OBX churches, is a strong example of the caring and commitment from our churches and the broader local community.”

North Carolinians from cities, towns and communities throughout the Cape Fear River Basin urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to uphold its objection to a municipal wastewater treatment plant’s proposed permit that excludes an effluent discharge limit for 1,4-dioxane into their drinking water sources.

One after another, speakers at a public hearing the EPA hosted last Wednesday night asked the agency to force the state to reissue a permit that will limit discharges of the likely human carcinogen into surface waters that flow into tributaries of the Haw and Deep rivers, which converge to form the Cape Fear River.

Residents from Wilmington northwest to Fayetteville, Sanford, Pittsboro, Siler City, and Asheboro joined representatives of environmental organizations and downstream public water utilities at the hearing at Randolph Community College in Asheboro, the very city that fought to get 1,4-dioxane limits removed from its permit.

“Frankly I’m embarrassed that Asheboro is polluting the drinking water of as many as 900,000 people who live downstream from us,” longtime Asheboro resident Susie Scott said. “The solution, to me, seems simple. Our city should hold the companies producing this pollution to account and insist that they clean up their waste before we accept it into our treatment plant. People living downstream from us deserve safe drinking water.”

In August 2023, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’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 a water quality standard for the clear, odorless chemical solvent used in manufacturing processes.

In September 2024, the Chief Administrative Law Judge for North Carolina at the time, Donald van der Vaart, ruled in the city’s favor and revoked permit limits of 1,4-dioxane.

In his ruling, van der Vaart said that 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-dixoane. He also noted anticipated high costs associated with monitoring and treatment of the chemical compound.

DEQ’s appeal of that ruling is pending in Wake County Superior Court.

Costs to treat 1,4-dioxane will fall on the backs of downstream water utilities customers if the pollutant is not controlled at the source, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Executive Director Kenneth Waldroup said.

“The presence of 1,4-dioxane in our source water is just the latest example of how gaps in regulation can lead downstream communities exposed to risk,” he said. “1,4-dioxane is a synthetic, highly mobile compound that resists natural degradation and conventional water treatment. Once it enters our watershed, it is persistent and travels far downstream, all the way to our drinking water intakes. Removing 1,4-dioxane from our drinking water requires advanced and very costly treatment technologies. We’re talking millions of dollars in systems and additional millions in operations costs over a period of time.”

Waldroup said DEQ “took appropriate action” when it included 1,4-dioxane limits in Asheboro’s NPDES permit, but that the state Office of Administrative Hearings “inappropriately and inaccurately invalidated that move.”

“EPA is obligated to assume permitting authority if the state fails to comply with federal permits, and EPA must require the state of North Carolina to address this pollutant and protect 900,000 downstream users,” he said.

Public water utilities, including CFPUA, and businesses downstream of Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant were notified by DEQ last January that the plant had discharged substantially high concentrations of 1,4-dioxane into Hasketts Creek, which empties into the Deep River.

Misty Manning, Fayetteville Public Works Commission’s chief operations officer for water resources, recalled to EPA officials last week of the Jan. 24 sampling results reported by the state and Asheboro.

“Asheboro’s own sampling result from that day was 3,520 parts per billion. This is more than 10 times higher than EPA’s calculation of what Asheboro’s discharge should be to protect public health at 22 parts per billion. Without enforceable limits, the city of Asheboro’s pretreatment program has yet to be successful in limiting 1,4-dioxane discharges to levels that meet water quality goals for a pollutant with a reasonable potential to cause or contribute to an excursion above state water quality standards,” Manning said.

She was one of several speakers at the hearing to point out that other municipalities in the state have successfully reduced 1,4-dioxane discharges through industrial pretreatment processes without bearing economic hardship.

“And Asheboro has the responsibility to do likewise, using its permitted authority over their local industrial users,” Manning said. “Downstream communities should not bear the financial burden of treating and removing pollutants introduced by unchecked upstream discharges.”

Last June, the Southern Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch and Haw River Assembly against Asheboro and the city’s industrial customer StarPet Inc., to stop their discharges of 1,4-dioxane into the Cape Fear River basin.

“As part of its antiregulatory fight, Asheboro has raised the absurd argument that it should not be the one that has to pay to control the cancer-causing pollution that it dumps upstream of drinking water supplies,” SELC attorney Hannah Nelson said. “I want to be clear. Asheboro could stop this pollution today by requiring its industries to treat for 1,4-dioxane, but it has chosen not to. In making that choice, Asheboro forces us, the families, the drinking water utilities, the local businesses, the schools, all of those who live downstream of the city, choose us to have to pay for their pollution.”

Stephen Bell, an attorney with Cranfill Sumer law firm’s Wilmington office and outside counsel for Asheboro, said that the city he represents believes steps DEQ took in implementing the August 2023 permit “set dangerous precedent with far-reaching implications.”

“Asheboro is not asking for no water regulation. They’re asking for regulation in accordance with the state law. As it stands today, based upon the court’s ruling, there is no water quality standard for 1,4-dioxane. The courts, our environmental rulemaking agency, they’re currently addressing this issue of limits for 1,4-dioxane and the EPA should respect that state-level process,” he said.

Once everyone at the hearing who signed up to speak addressed EPA officials, a member of the audience asked when the agency expects to make a final determination on the permit. The EPA may reaffirm its objection to the permit, require that the state modify the permit, or withdraw its objection of the permit.

Paul Schwartz, associate regional counsel in the Water Law Office at EPA’s Atlanta region office, said there is no statutory or regulatory timeline in which the agency must decide.

“In terms of specifying a date, certain that it would be done by, I don’t think we can do that,” he said. “And it doesn’t make it any easier that we’re operating during a period of government shutdown. But I think we want to give it immediate attention and focus on it so it doesn’t drag on too long.”

If the EPA decides to reaffirm its objection or require the permit to be modified, DEQ will have 30 days to submit a revised draft permit to the agency. If DEQ does not do that, the EPA will become the permitting authority.

The EPA is accepting public comments through Oct. 31 via email to R4NPDESComments@epa.gov or by mail to US EPA, NPDES Permitting Section, Water Division, 61 Forsyth Street, SW, Atlanta, GA 30303-8960.

Chemours’ air permit application to expand production at its Fayetteville Works plant excludes emissions data that should be disclosed to the public, environmental lawyers say.

The company “improperly withheld vital emission data from the public” in its Aug. 14 application to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air Quality, according to a letter Southern Environmental Law Center attorneys sent the department last month.

“We urge the Department to require Chemours to re-submit its application with disclosed emissions data,” the Sept. 19 letter states. “North Carolina law clearly states that emission data cannot be kept secret.”

Jess Loizeaux, Chemours’ communications leader, refuted that claim, writing in an email responding to a request for comment, “our permit application fully disclosed the projected emissions associated with the expansion.”

“Certain details included in the application submitted to DAQ – such as production capacity, operating hours, and emissions factors – were redacted from the public version because they are considered confidential business information and, if made public, could harm our competitive position,” Loizeaux said. “Protecting confidential business information is standard practice and does not affect transparency regarding environmental impacts.”

Attorneys for Chemours and its predecessor company DuPont made a similar argument earlier this year when they filed a court motion to keep under seal thousands of pages of documents they say include “non-public facts” that largely pertain to chemical production.

Lawyers representing public utilities and local governments downstream of Chemours’ Bladen County plant submitted 25,000 pages of documents 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.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, 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 in the region.

The court had not rendered a decision on Chemours’ request as of this story’s publication.

In 2020, Chemours submitted an application to renew its Title V permit, which applies to major source of air emissions, for its Fayetteville Works plant to the state Division of Air Quality.

Two years later, the company applied for a separate permit to expand its production of vinyl ethers and IXM.

Chemours revised and resubmitted that permit application to expand only its production of vinyl ethers last August. Vinyl ethers are a class of compounds used to create a variety of products used in a range of technologies from semiconductor chips to aviation components.

Vinyl ethers are used to create a wide variety of products, including polymers for adhesives, coatings, and plastics

The expansion would pertain to the plant’s two existing vinyl ethers production units, Loizeaux said.

“As outlined in the revised permit application, additional abatement technology will be installed alongside each expansion and is projected to decrease the site’s overall fluorinated emissions by approximately 15%, despite an increase in production,” she said. “A timeline for the expansions has not yet been set.”

Southern Environmental Law Center attorneys argue in their Sept. 19 letter to DEQ that Chemours is violating provisions within the state law that outlines protection and disclosure rules for confidential information.

The application, “blacks out emission rates from stack testing, uncontrolled emission factors, hours of operation, maximum hours of operation, historic production, and post-modification production capacity. The information is necessary to verify and fully understand the emissions and authorized emissions at the facility and cannot be withheld from the public,” according to the letter.

The letter goes on to state that Chemours previously disclosed similar information in previous submissions to DEQ.

“Chemours’ about-face from its past submissions further confirms that this information cannot be treated as confidential,” the letter states.

Last April, the SELC, on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch, asked DEQ to deny Chemours’ request to expand production at its Bladen County plant, arguing that the company’s air permit application was riddled with flaws.

As part of 2019 consent order with DEQ and Cape Fear River Watch, Chemours installed a thermal oxidizer to capture and destroy PFAS from emitting into the air. The order also requires the company to test tens of thousands of private drinking water wells for PFAS contamination throughout the region.

In a 20-page letter to DEQ, SELC attorneys argue Chemours questioned the efficacy of thermal destruction technology on PFAS.

“Investigating Chemours’ thermal oxidizer specifically, [the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] determined that, due to a lack of data, ‘removal processes for products of incomplete combustion or of destruction of potential compounds not studied … are still unclear.’ In other words, it is possible that the company’s thermal oxidizer does not fully destroy many PFAS. Some may break down into other harmful chemicals, and others may not be destroyed at all,” the letter states.

DEQ Interim Deputy Communications Director Shawn Taylor said in an email earlier this month that while air quality officials deem the latest version of Chemours’ application administratively complete, “the Division may require additional information from the applicant to conduct its technical review.”

“The Division plans to schedule a full public engagement process, including a public comment period and public hearings, to be announced at a later date,” he said.

State health and water quality officials urge the public to avoid contact with green or blue water on the Chowan River between Arrowhead Beach in Chowan County and the Occano community in Bertie County.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Division of Water Resources notified the public Thursday about the algal blooms that have lingered in the area since Oct. 6.

The bloom has been observed in the Chowan River at its confluence with Salmon Creek near Occano, near Whites Beach, and at the Arrowhead Beach boat launch.

Cyanobacterial blooms usually appear bright green, but when a bloom starts to decay, the color can change to a milky blue. Decaying algae may produce a strong, foul odor that can impact a large area. Algal blooms tend to move due to wind and wave action.

The division determined the blooms are dominated by species of Dolichospermum, or as Anabaena, and Microcystis, which belong to the algal group cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae.

“Dolichospermum and Microcystis can produce microcystin, an algal toxin that may cause adverse health effects in humans and pets,” division states.

Testing shows that the three sites exceed public health advisory levels. Results are on the division’s Algal Bloom Dashboard.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health recommends avoiding contact with large accumulations of algae and to prevent children and pets from swimming or ingesting water in an algal bloom.

The state health department suggests the following steps:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue, discolored, or scummy.
• Do not handle or touch large mats of algae.
• Avoid handling, cooking, or eating dead fish that may be present.
• If you come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly.
• Use clean water to rinse off pets that may have come into contact with an algal bloom.
• If your child appears ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, seek medical care immediately.
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger or collapse after being in a pond, lake or river, seek veterinary care immediately.

To report an algal bloom, contact the nearest DEQ regional office or submit a report online. To view reported algal bloom events, visit the state Fish Kill & Algal Bloom Dashboard.

Officials also remind the public to take precautions as other microorganisms or pollution may be present in waterbodies that can lead to recreational water illness, see https://epi.dph.ncdhhs.gov/cd/water/prevent.html.

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 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.

Brunswick County is seeking residents’ feedback in identifying critical health issues and helping guide programs and resources related to health care.

The county has partnered with Dosher Memorial Hospital and Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center to conduct the 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment, one that is held every three years to identify and prioritize health-related needs, establish an action plan to address those needs, and improve the overall health of those who live in the county.

Residents may take the 2025 Community Health Opinion Survey online or by picking up a paper copy at Brunswick County Health Services in Bolivia, all six Brunswick Senior Resource Center locations, and all five Brunswick County Library branches, through Oct. 3.

Information from the assessment will be used to generate a report that will be reviewed with community partners to create a strategic plan for addressing the health priorities identified in the survey.

The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete. It is anonymous, confidential and offered in English and Spanish.

The 2022 assessment results are available on the county’s Community Health Needs Assessment webpage.

For additional information or to obtain paper copies of the survey, contact Brunswick County Health Educator Rachel Crowder at 910.253.2312 or via email at rachel.crowder@brunswickcountync.gov.

Brunswick County has rescinded its lawsuit against the contractor it hired to expand and upgrade the county’s Northwest Water Treatment Plant with a system capable of removing forever chemicals from drinking water.

The county announced Thursday that it had withdrawn its lawsuit on Aug. 25 against Oscar Renda Construction and surety Zurich American Insurance Co. and Federal Insurance Co., noting in a release “the County reserves the right to refile a lawsuit in the future.”

The release did not include an explanation behind the county’s decision, one made a month after the county terminated its contract with the Oscar Renda and filed the suit citing breach of contract and repeated construction delays.

“The surety will be on-site over the coming weeks to identify the remaining project tasks as part of the new schedule development,” according to the release. “The surety has also hired a management group to provide additional oversight of the project.”

An update to the project schedule is expected to be provided to the county “in the next few weeks, which will be shared with the community as soon as possible.”

The original $167.3 million cost of the project is not expected to change, and there are no plans to increase water rates because of the project delays, according to the county.

The plant is being installed with a low-pressure reverse osmosis, or RO, system capable of removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and 1,4-dioxane, all of which are chemicals that are being discharged by upstream industrial polluters into the Cape Fear River, a major drinking water source in the region.

Work also includes expanding the amount of water the plant can treat by an additional 12 million gallons per day. When the project is finished, the plant will have the capacity to treat more than 36 million gallons of water per day using RO.

County officials note that the county reserves the right to deduct liquidated damages because of the contractor’s delays.

“The delays do not mean that all work has stopped at the project site, but rather that key project milestones have not been met and that the overall project completion date has continued to move into the future,” the release states. “Brunswick County will continue to take all actions necessary to protect the best interests of our residents who have waited far too long for a solution to removing PFAS from our drinking water.”

Update 4:30 p.m. Tuesday:

Gov. Josh Stein declared a State of Emergency Tuesday ahead of the anticipated impacts from Hurricane Erin, which was about 650 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras and moving at 10 mph at around 2 p.m. Tuesday.

“Hurricane Erin will bring threats of coastal flooding, beach erosion, and dangerous surf conditions,” Stein said in a statement. “North Carolinians along the coast should get prepared now, ensure their emergency kit is ready, and listen to local emergency guidelines and alerts in the event they need to evacuate.” 

Original post 6 p.m. Monday:

Eastern North Carolina should expect to see impacts from Hurricane Erin, including coastal flooding, starting Tuesday.

The center of the storm was predicted to remain off the coast by a couple hundred miles, but “We still expect impacts across eastern North Carolina, specifically coastal areas,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Erik Heden said during a webinar briefing at lunchtime Monday.

Effects will likely include dangerous surf and rip currents, storm surge, damaging beach erosion, major coastal flooding and overwash.

The storm was about 820 miles south-southeast of Buxton, or 810 miles south-southeast of Morehead City, according to the National Weather Service’s 5 p.m. Monday update. The Category 4 storm was moving northwest at 10 mph.

A storm surge watch and tropical storm watch were issued for eastern Carteret County, Hatteras Island, the northern Outer Banks and Ocracoke Island.

From Duck to Cape Lookout, water levels could reach up to 4 feet above ground, and 1 to 3 feet north of Duck and south of Cape Lookout.

“Elevated water levels will likely be accompanied by large and destructive waves,” forecasters said, adding peak storm surge forecast is generally provided within 48 hours of storm surge occurring in the area.

Heden, who is with the National Weather Service’s Morehead City/Newport office, said Monday that meteorologists began watching the storm Friday, and the storm is expected to increase in size in the coming days.

Updates throughout the weekend showed that as of midday Saturday, the storm was a Category 5, which has winds at 157 mph or faster on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. The major storm weakened to a Category 4, then to a Category 3, with winds from 111 to 129 mph, by Sunday evening.

The storm restrengthened overnight Sunday to a Category 4, with 140 mph winds, Heden said. Sustained wind speeds for Category 4 storms range from 130 to 156 miles per hour.

Forecasters said Monday that tropical storm force wind gusts were possible for the coast, with the highest probability for the Outer Banks, but stronger gusts were possible in any passing outer rainbands associated with Erin.

“The earliest reasonable time of arrival of tropical storm force winds for the immediate coastline is sometime Wednesday morning,” forecasters said. “However, the most likely time this area could see tropical storm force winds will be during the evening on Wednesday.”

The main concern with the winds will be the potential for soundside flooding on a north to northeast wind for Down East Carteret County, Ocracoke and Hatteras Island on Thursday.

Coastal flooding could begin as soon as Tuesday, more than 24 hours before any tropical storm force winds arrive, peaking Wednesday into Thursday and slowly easing up later in the week, according to the National Weather Service.

Forecasters also advise that extensive beach erosion could occur because of strong, long periods of wave energy with waves as high as 15 to more than 20 feet in the surf zone. These waves will also make the surf extremely dangerous Wednesday into Thursday, as well as the life-threatening rip currents expected the majority of this week.

Hyde, Dare counties

Hyde and Dare counties have issued states of emergency and were evacuating Ocracoke and parts of Hatteras Island ahead of the storm’s arrival Monday.

States of emergency went into effect for Dare County at 6 p.m. Sunday, and for Hyde County’s Ocracoke Island at 8 p.m. Sunday.

Dare County officials announced Sunday afternoon a mandatory evacuation had been issued for Hatteras Island Zone A, which includes all of Hatteras Island, including the unincorporated villages of Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Buxton, Frisco, and Hatteras.

Visitors were to evacuate by 10 a.m. Monday and residents must begin evacuating beginning at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

The mandatory evacuation order for Ocracoke visitors began at 8 p.m. Sunday and for residents starting at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

“It is extremely likely that Hyde County EMS services will not be available in Ocracoke due to Highway 12 being inaccessible. Please take this warning seriously, especially if you have medical issues or are likely to need special care,” Hyde officials said in a release, adding plans to continue monitoring the forecast and issue advisories as appropriate.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s ferry division announced Monday that only residents, homeowners or vendors with an Ocracoke re-entry sticker on their vehicles will be allowed on ferries inbound to Ocracoke, in coordination with the mandatory evacuation order.

“While we don’t expect Hurricane Erin to make landfall on the Outer Banks, there will likely be large waves, ocean overwash and major coastal flooding that impact Highway 12,” said Ferry Division Director Jed Dixon. “We hope everyone will heed the evacuation orders for their own safety.”

No visitors will be allowed access to Ocracoke Island until the evacuation order is lifted.

Priority boarding will be suspended for all vessels leaving Ocracoke, and tolls have been waived for ferries heading from Ocracoke to Cedar Island or Swan Quarter.

The Ocracoke-Hatteras, Ocracoke-Cedar Island and Ocracoke-Swan Quarter routes will run the published schedules until the evacuation is complete.

Service on the Ocracoke Express passenger ferry, which runs between the village of Ocracoke and Hatteras Island, is suspended until further notice.

For real-time travel information, please check NCDOT’s DriveNC.gov and the agency’s social media accounts. People can also receive text or email notifications on ferry schedules and changes through the Ferry Information Notification System, or FINS.  

National Park Service

To be consistent with Dare and Hyde counties, Cape Hatteras National Seashore will be closing beach accesses and facilities, the National Park Service said.

“The Coastal Flood Watch indicates that extreme beach erosion and coastal damage is likely along the oceanside, resulting in a significant threat to life and property. Large, dangerous waves will likely inundate and destroy protective dune structures,” according to the press release. “Severe flooding will likely extend inland where there is vulnerable or no protective dune structure, flooding homes and businesses with some structural damage possible. Roads will likely be impassable under several feet of water and vehicles will likely be submerged.”

Museum of the Sea at Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the Discovery Center on Ocracoke Island will close by 5 p.m. Monday. 

Cape Point, Frisco, and Ocracoke campgrounds were to close by 3 p.m. Monday and Oregon Inlet Campground will close at noon Tuesday. Bodie Island Lighthouse will close Wednesday and Thursday.

Off-road vehicle ramps were to close by 9 p.m. Monday. To view the status of beach access ramps, visit http://go.nps.gov/beachaccess.

Due to the presence of threatened oceanfront structures, the Seashore will close beach access in Rodanthe from the terminus of Old Highway 12 to the end of the Ocean Drive and in front of the village of Buxton southward to Ramp 43.   

Visitors should stay off the beaches completely and discontinue use of all beach trails and boardwalks beginning Tuesday morning.

Hurricane Erin is forecast to be a potential threat to Cape Lookout National
Seashore, with North and South Core Banks expected to experience the most significant impacts, Lookout officials said, adding that coastal flooding will likely be a long duration issue with impacts lasting late into the week.

Cape Lookout National Seashore officials plan to close facilities starting at noon Tuesday, including the Light Station Visitor Center and the Keepers Quarters Museum, through at least Friday.    

Island Express Ferry Service will cease operations out of Beaufort and Harkers Island beginning Wednesday through Friday.   

Great Island and Long Point Cabin Camps reservations have been canceled for Tuesday through Friday. The closure could extend beyond Friday, depending on the impact on the seashore. 

“I hope Erin will remain off the coast and head out sea, but hope is not a good way forward.  I really hate to impact people’s plans, and we aim to reopen as soon as possible afterwards,” acting Superintendent Katherine Cushinberry said Monday in a statement.

The National Park Service staff will be monitoring ongoing developments with Hurricane Erin and will post updates as needed on the park website at go.nps.gov/stormwatch.

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.

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.

All coastal counties are forecast to reach high heat levels this week.

Beaufort, Bertie, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hertford, Hyde, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Pender Perquimans, Tyrrell and Washington counties are expected to experience on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday a maximum heat index of 96 degrees or hotter.

The heat index, also called the apparent temperature, is what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature, per the National Weather Service.

The North Carolina Health and Human Services Climate and Health Program issued the heat-health alerts on Monday, warning that high heat can be dangerous for people who are more exposed to or more sensitive to extreme heat, such as those who are pregnant, living with disabilities or underlying health conditions, are without access to air conditioning, who work or exercise outdoors, or are older adults.

To prevent heat-related illness, the health department recommends drinking plenty of fluids, avoiding caffeinated, sugary or alcoholic drinks, staying in air conditioning as much as possible, stay informed and watch for symptoms, which include heavy sweating, muscle cramps, dizziness, nausea, and headache, the department continued.

The alerts are issued when the forecast is projected to reach or exceed the heat index threshold for the regions, as established by Duke Heat Policy Innovation Hub using historical heat index data and state records to determine when emergency room visits increased for heat-related illnesses.

Visit the state Department of Public Health, Epidemiology: Occupational and Environmental website to sign up for the heat alerts and more information on heat-related illnesses.

Several coastal counties are expected to experience unhealthy heat levels over the weekend.

Chowan, Perquimans and Washington counties are expected to have a maximum heat index of 96 degrees or higher on Saturday.

Craven, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico and Pender counties should plan for the same on both Saturday and Sunday.

The National Weather Service explained that the heat index, also called the apparent temperature, is what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature.

The North Carolina Health and Human Services Climate and Health Program sends out the heat-health alerts when the forecast is projected to reach or exceed the heat index threshold for the region.

Duke Heat Policy Innovation Hub established the region-specific thresholds by using historical heat index data and state records to determine when emergency room visits increased for heat-related illnesses.

“Heat of this magnitude can be dangerous to your health, particularly for people who are more exposed to extreme heat or more sensitive to extreme heat,” which includes those who are pregnant, living with disabilities or underlying health conditions, are without access to air conditioning, who work or exercise outdoors or are older adults, the department stated in a release.

To prevent heat-related illness, the health department recommends drinking plenty of fluids, avoiding caffeinated, sugary or alcoholic drinks, staying in air conditioning as much as possible, watch for symptoms and stay informed, the department continued.

Visit the health department’s website to sign up for the heat alerts, or for more information on heat-related illnesses and tools to prevent it.

As North Carolina readies for another extremely hot summer, Gov. Josh Stein’s office warns that federal cuts could affect the state’s heat-related programs.

The National Weather Service projects a 40 to 50% chance that the state will experience above-normal temperatures for June, July and August, based on its seasonal temperature outlook issued earlier this month.

“North Carolina is preparing for another summer of record heat. While you are outside this summer, please take the necessary steps to prevent heat exhaustion and illness,” Gov. Josh Stein said Tuesday in a release announcing May 25-31 as North Carolina Heat Awareness Week.

Stein’s office said Tuesday that federal budget and staffing cuts at agencies like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency threaten programs that support heat safety.

“Our environmental health and epidemiology teams conduct critical work every day to inform North Carolinians of potential health effects of extreme heat, as well as ensure resources are available for those who experience heat-related illness,” Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai said in a release. “Cuts to these services would be detrimental to the health and well-being of the more than 11 million people who call North Carolina home.”

In an email responding to questions, a DHHS representative said Tuesday that the federal cuts “have put environmental health services that support clean drinking water, childhood lead poisoning prevention, food safety, and monitoring of environmental health and climate data at risk at the state and local levels.”

One of the programs at risk is the state’s Climate and Health Program, which “is part of a national public health effort to anticipate and prepare for human health effects related to global and local climate change.”

North Carolina’s Climate and Health program supports a handful of tools, including the state heat health alert system, which sends notifications and alerts when the weather is forecasted to reach unhealthy levels.

“Last year, more than 1,200 alerts were sent to inform local communities, share our Communications Toolkit, and keep people in North Carolina safe,” a representative told Coastal Review.

The state’s surveillance system that tracks emergency department visits for heat-related illnesses is also in jeopardy. Weekly statewide reports are published online “to provide timely and actionable public health information for decision-makers at the state and local levels,” according to the department.

During the summer of 2024, there were 4,688 heat-related illness emergency department visits, nearly a 20% increase from 2023, Stein’s office said.

Also at risk is a new farmworker health training program, in collaboration with the Health and Human Services’ Office of Rural Health, which will help providers identify and treat heat-related illnesses and other farmworker health hazards.

The CDC, under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has funded the state’s Climate and Health Program since 2010, and received in late 2024 funding through 2026, according to the state health agency. The national climate and health program “supports state, tribal, local, and territorial public health agencies as they prepare for climate change’s health impacts.”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans March 27 to restructure the entire agency, and the CDC wasn’t immune.

According to dozens of reports in late March and early April, the Atlanta-based CDC lost around 2,400 employees as part of the restructuring. These cuts wiped out the center’s Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice within the National Center for Environmental Health, which manages programs on climate and health, asthma, and lead poisoning prevention.

“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said at the time.

In February, the state Health and Human Services was notified of cuts to National Institutes for Health that impact the Office of Rural Health.

Reports came out in late March that the entire state Health and Human Services would eliminate dozens of positions and lose tens of millions in funding, mostly associated with disease and behavioral health.

“The federal grant funding impacts a number of areas of work including immunization efforts, funding for the new NC Immunization Registry, infectious disease monitoring and response, behavioral health, substance use disorder services, and more. Some of the impacted funding supports work that is completed by local health departments, universities, hospitals and local departments of social services,” a state DHHS representative told Coastal Review on Wednesday.

Kennedy has gone before House and Senate committees in the last few weeks to defend the agency’s draft budget, and was grilled about the previous and expected cuts and gutting of health programs.

Heat health, ‘Climate warming trends’

“Several communities across North Carolina experienced their hottest days ever recorded in 2024, and 2025 is likely to continue this trend,” according to the governor’s office, and extreme heat is responsible for the highest number of deaths each year among weather-related hazards.

Heat-related illnesses can affect anyone regardless of age or physical condition. Outdoor workers, infants and children, older adults, pregnant people, athletes, low-income individuals and people with underlying health conditions are at a disproportionate risk of experiencing adverse health effects.

Recognizing the symptoms of heat illness — include heavy sweating, paleness, muscle cramps, racing or weak pulse, dizziness, headache, fainting, and nausea or vomiting — can help prevent serious complications, including death. Some signs and symptoms.

Stein’s office said that declaring this week as North Carolina Heat Awareness Week is to “bring awareness to ongoing climate warming trends.”

The United States is expected to warm faster than other parts of the world, the EPA explained on its website.

“Across the contiguous United States, average temperatures have already risen about 60% more than the global average since 1970. This is expected to continue as global temperatures rise due to climate change,” the agency continued. “As average temperatures rise due to climate change, the risk of extreme temperatures, heat waves, and record-breaking temperatures increases.”

The World Meteorological Organization in a report released Wednesday forecast that there’s an 80% chance that at least one of the next five years will exceed 2024 as the warmest on record.

“The WMO Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update (2025–2029) projects that global temperatures are expected to continue at or near record levels in the next five years, increasing climate risks and impacts on societies, economies and sustainable development,” according to the organization.

If the water color looks a little off, don’t get in it.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources is reminding the public to steer clear of discolored water as we usher in summer and the warmer temperatures the season will undoubtedly bring.

Discolored would could be an indication of the presence of an algal bloom, certain types of which can create toxins harmful to humans, pets and aquatic organisms.

Such harmful algal blooms are indistinguishable from nonharmful blooms by mere sight. Blooms should be reported to your nearest DEQ regional office or online.

The state Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health encourages people to avoid contact with large algae accumulations. Children and pets should be prevented from swimming in or ingesting water in an algal bloom.

If you do come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly.

If your child becomes ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, get medical care immediately.

Pets that may have come into contact with a bloom should be rinsed off with clean water. Pets that appear to stumble, stagger, or collapse after being in a pond, lake or river should receive immediate veterinary care.

Additional information on the potential health effects from algal blooms is available on the state health department’s website.

Agal blooms can have the appearance of spilled paint on a water’s surface, where colors may be bright green, red, brown or blue. They can also look like mats, or dense, macroscopic growths floating on the water surface, and can appear as discoloration throughout the water column.

Although algae naturally occur in all waterbodies, certain environmental conditions, including increased nutrients, elevated temperatures, increased sunlight and low or no water flow, can prompt rapid algal cell growth that causes algal blooms.

Wind and wave action can move blooms and decaying algae may create a strong, foul odor.

Algal bloom events that have been reported may be viewed at the Division of Water Resources’ Fish Kill & Algal Bloom Dashboard. Additional information about algal blooms is available on the division website.

The public is also reminded to take precautions to avoid recreational water illness caused by other microorganisms or pollution in waterbodies.

Update 11 a.m. May 30: State recreational water quality officials lifted Friday a precautionary swimming advisory in Oak Island because floodwaters have receded, and pumping has ceased.

Original post May 28:

Beachgoers should avoid ocean surf near an area where Oak Island town officials pumped floodwater, according to a state advisory issued Wednesday.

The town pumped floodwater caused by recent rains into the ocean near Crowell Street.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality recreational water quality officials warn that floodwater can contain pollutants, such as waste from wildlife and pets, oil and gasoline from parking lots and waste from septic systems or sewers.

“This notice does not imply that disease-causing organisms are present in the water; it is meant to caution beachgoers of an increased risk of contamination that can cause adverse health effects,” according to a DEQ release.

Town officials pumped the floodwater into the ocean to minimize flooding damage and ensure roads are accessible for emergency vehicles.

Signs were to be placed at the discharge site along the ocean shoreline to notify the public of the possible health risk. Those signs are to be removed 24 hours after the pumping ceases. DEQ will notify the public once the signs have been removed.

Update May 21: The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality has lifted a swim advisory for a soundside area in New Hanover County. The department announced Tuesday that water testing at the beach across from Whiskey Creek along the Intracoastal Waterway near marker No. 135 in Wilmington shows bacteria levels have dropped below state and Environmental Protection Agency standards for swimming and water play.

Original post:

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality has issued swimming advisories at soundside areas in two coastal counties after waters at those sites were found to exceed federal recreational water quality standards.

The department announced Friday morning that test results of water samples collected in Beaufort County at the Pantego Creek public access, located at the intersection of East Main and Tooley streets in Belhaven, indicate a running monthly average of 37 enterococci per 100 milliliters of water.

That average exceeds the state’s and Environmental Protection Agency’s standards of a running monthly average of 35 enterococci per 100 milliliters based on five samples taken within 30 days, according to a DEQ release.

In New Hanover County, an advisory has been issued for the beach across from Whiskey Creek along the Intracoastal Waterway near marker No. 135 in Wilmington after test results taken May 14-15 indicate bacteria exceed state and federal levels of 104 enterococci per 100 milliliters for Tier 2 nondaily use sites.

Swimmers should avoid waters within 200 feet of a posted advisory sign.

Enterococci is found in the intestines of warm-blooded animals and, while it is not known to cause illness, studies show it may indicate the presence of other disease-causing organisms. People who swim or play in waters with elevated bacteria levels risk a greater chance of developing gastrointestinal illness or skin infections.

Testing at both sites will continue and the public will be notified when the bacteria levels dip to levels below the standards.

State recreational water quality officials sample more than 200 sites, mostly on a weekly basis throughout the coast between April-October. Testing continues through late fall into winter, but less frequently because fewer people are in the water.

A map of testing sites and additional information is available on the N.C. Recreational Water Quality Program’s website.

Part of a series about the effects federal budget and staff cuts and the cancellations of programs and services are having in coastal North Carolina.

This story has been updated to include comments from EMC Chair JD Solomon

Federal and state efforts to limit the public’s exposure to “forever chemicals” through drinking water sources seemed to be gaining traction just a year ago.

In a historic move in April 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency set limits on six per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, including PFOA, PFOS and HFPO-DA, most commonly referred to as GenX.

About three months after the federal drinking water rules were adopted, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources introduced proposed groundwater and surface water standards on eight PFAS.

Related: Zeldin says PFAS limits may get tougher, downplays layoffs

But, as of this week, the Trump administration says it intends to rescind and reexamine rules on four PFAS, including GenX, and extend the deadline for public water utilities to comply with rules on PFOA and PFOS by two years.

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 man-made chemical compounds are often referred to as “forever chemicals” because they 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.

The EPA’s announcement Wednesday of its plans to scale back PFAS limits comes on the heels of a recent decision by members of the state-appointed commission responsible for adopting rules that protect, preserve and enhance air and water resources to again defer moving forward monitoring and minimization discharge plans for PFAS and 1,4-dioxane into the state’s surface waters.

Critics of those proposed plans argue the rules, as written, lack any real subsistence in reducing the releases of chemical compounds into the state’s waterways.

And in a new year with a new administration at the helm of the federal government, the impetus for regulation may turn up the pressure on state governments to limit discharges of “forever chemicals” into drinking water sources.

State Division of Water Resources officials were heading in that direction in July 2024 when they presented water quality standards for eight PFAS to committees of the N.C. Environmental Management Commission.

The standards would be used to limit permitted releases of PFAS into groundwater and surface waters, set health thresholds for providing alternative water supplies to residents on private wells whose drinking water exceeds contamination limits, and establish goals for cleaning contamination.

The commission’s groundwater and waste management committee agreed to recommend groundwater health standards for only three PFAS, including PFOA, PFOS and GenX. That proposal went to public comment later in the year.

The commission’s water quality committee deferred a motion to send the surface water rule package on all eight PFAS to the full commission and, since its July 2024 meeting, has also pared down its focus on PFAS to PFOA, PFOS and GenX.

Based on that committee’s vote earlier this month, the commission isn’t expected to see a proposed draft rule on PFAS or 1,4-dioxane earlier than its July meeting.

In an emailing responding to questions from Coastal Review on Thursday morning, EMC Chair JD Solomon said the commission anticipates receiving the hearing officer’s report on the proposed groundwater rules at that same meeting.

Draft rule ‘doesn’t have sufficient teeth’

The current proposed rules for surface water bear little semblance to those the Division of Water Resources presented last July.

The set of rule drafts presented to the water quality committee in March were largely written from input provided by the North Carolina Water Quality Association, a statewide organization that represents public water, sewer, and stormwater utilities.

The water quality standards included in the initial draft rules the division created last year have since been deleted. Without those standards, the state lacks ability to enforce limits on dischargers of PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, critics say.

One of those critics of the current proposed draft rules is Environmental Management Commissioner Robin Smith.

“I think that consistently there has been a concern that, in the absence of a water quality standard, even a minimization plan isn’t enforceable,” Smith told Coastal Review in a telephone interview earlier this week.

Following last week’s commission meeting, Smith raised several concerns in an email that she sent to fellow commissioners.

“My concern is that (the current draft rule) doesn’t have sufficient teeth,” she said. “If you read through the full draft, there’s just nothing there other than the minimization contents, like a table of contents for what the minimization plan would have to be. There are no standards for determining whether what a system submits in their plan is adequate or not.”

In his email, Solomon explained that the regulatory impact analysis, or RIA, which is an evaluation of the potential costs and benefits associated with a proposed regulation, did not sufficiently identify cost-benefits associated with the proposed rules.

Last September, the water quality committee voted to move forward with a proposed monitoring and minimization plan and “continue discussions with federal agencies to make sure the benefits portion of the numeric standard were realistic,” Solomon said.

“The monitoring and minimization approach is seen as a proactive measure by EPA because it addresses potential contamination before it gets into our human and natural systems communities,” he wrote. “Allowing potential contamination into our public water bodies and public sewer systems is also much more costly to clean up.”

But the proposed monitoring and minimization plan would fail to enforce consequences for industries if they increase their pollution, said Southern Environmental Law Center Attorney Hannah Nelson.

“DEQ worked really hard to put together a comprehensive set of water quality standards that would have required polluters to reduce their pollution at the source and they spent a lot of time putting those rules together,” she said. “We don’t see that same thing happening with this set of rules. Instead, the analysis supporting this rule making completely ignored impact to downstream drinking water utilities. They don’t address that because, if they did, we would see that this rule is all about protecting industry and it’s not about protecting the people of North Carolina.”

In an April 17 letter to state environmental officials, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s executive director admonished the revised draft rule for 1,4-dioxane.

“After months of research, our consultants determined, as a matter of law, that there is no legal basis by which to create mandatory, legally enforceable 1,4-dioxane minimization requirements without supporting water quality standards for surface waters,” wrote the utility’s Kenneth Waldroup in the letter addressed to Solomon and Division of Water Resources Director Richard Rogers.

“Given that the EMC determined many years ago that 1,4-dixoane adversely impacts the protected use of groundwater, we respectfully point out that the EMC neglects its statutory duty to protect surface waters from the same pollutant. Pollution mitigation plans that have no required or enforceable reduction targets will not garner any tangible results but instead be no more than an action in name only providing empty promises to the people of North Carolina,” the letter states.

There are six known 1,4-dioxane polluters upstream of the drinking water supply for Sanford, Fayetteville, Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties, and municipalities that buy drinking water from Sanford.

Waldroup has said that the utility will have to invest millions of dollars to remove 1,4-dioxane, a likely carcinogen, from its raw drinking water source: the Cape Fear River.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority has already spent millions in upgrades and ongoing treatment of PFAS discharged into the Cape Fear River from, among other upstream polluters, Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant.

GenX is specific to the Bladen County facility, which is roughly 74 miles upstream of Wilmington.

Since news broke nearly eight years ago that Chemours had knowingly discharged PFAS directly into the river, air and groundwater for decades, the company has spent millions to reduce its PFAS emissions to comply with a 2019 consent order between the company, DEQ and Cape Fear River Watch.

The Cape Fear utility and other public water utilities in the region are calling for regulations that would ultimately shift the cost of reducing PFAS and 1,4-dioxane discharges to the industries that produce those chemical compounds.

“We seek meaningful regulation that acknowledges and rewards the reductions made to date, prevents backsliding, and requires uncooperative industrial dischargers to mirror the work of dutiful municipal partners,” Waldroup wrote.

The Clean Water Act includes “anti-backsliding” provisions advocates say prohibits repealing or weakening the drinking water standard.

“Unfairly” blamed

Water quality committee members pointed the finger at Division of Water Resources staff as the reason for the latest delay in getting proposed rules out for public comment.

Smith, who is not a member of the water quality committee, took issue with that assertion, saying in her email that committee members were “unfairly blaming” division staff.

“DWR was not responsible for the fact that the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) did not approve the Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIAs) for these two sets of rules before the May EMC meeting,” she wrote.

Instead, “significant changes” to the rule drafts and the draft regulatory analyses that were presented to the committee in March “led directly to OSBM questions that delayed approval of the RIAs and remain unresolved.”

Changes to the draft rules were made at the direction of a group of commissioners, including the chair and vice chair of the water quality committee, chair of the groundwater and waste management committee, and Solomon. Solomon did not respond to an email request for comment.

During the water quality committee’s May 7 meeting, Rogers said staff had “been engaged in taking direction from a subcommittee of this committee” over the last month.

“We have taken that direction and applied it directly to the draft rules that y’all have before you today,” Rogers said.

Exactly which commissioners had been meeting with staff had not been made clear until the May 7 meeting, Smith told Coastal Review.

“It’s not necessarily inappropriate to have a subcommittee or a working group, a small group of EMC members who work on something between committee meetings, but one of my concerns about this process has been there’s never been any transparency about the fact that was going on and who was involved,” she said. “I do think we need to reach some common understanding of how we’re working on these rules, but that also clearly affects the public, and I’m also not sure we’re on a path toward making great progress in July, depending on how willing some of these water quality committee members are to making changes to satisfy OSBM.”

Solomon said that DEQ staff “asked for a more collaborative approach” with the commission for the monitoring and minimization draft rule.

“Coordination and communication with DEQ divisions is charged to the chair and vice-chair of the relevant EMC committee, and in this case the WQC chair and vice chair interacted with DWR to move this draft item onto the committee agenda for debate and discussion,” he said. “No action has been taken on the draft monitoring and minimization rule, or the RIA, by the WQC or the EMC. Based on OSBM’s response to the draft RIA, the benefits aspect of the draft rule is the primary issue. My direction as EMC chair is to bring the updated draft documents before the committee in July.”

Those interested in attending the 10th annual NC BREATHE Conference “dedicated to strengthening community health and environmental resilience across North Carolina” in Charlotte this fall can take advantage of early bird registration.

Cost to attend the in-person event scheduled for Oct. 8-9 at the Harris Conference Center in Charlotte is $350 until July 31, when the rate will increase to $450. Student rate is $100 and for impacted community members. Registration, which can be completed on the organization’s website, includes breakfast, lunch, and light snacks for both days of the conference.

Organized by CleanAIRE NC, AIRE stands for Action and Innovation to Restore the Environment, the Charlotte-based advocacy group “is working to protect North Carolina’s air quality and ensure that people have clean air to live healthier, happier lives.”

Keynote speakers include Dr. Sacoby Wilson, Dr. Shaneeta M. Johnson and Charles Lee.

Wilson is a professor with the Department of Global, Environmental, and Occupational Health and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the University of Maryland, College Park School of Public Health where directs The Health, Environmental, and Economic Justice, called THE EJ Lab. 

Johnson is an associate professor of surgery, director of the Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery Program, and Residency Associate Program director at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.

Lee has been a name in environmental justice for five decades. He spent two of those decades with the Environmental Protection Agency, most recently serving as deputy associate assistant administrator for Environmental Justice. According to a LinkedIn post, Lee’s last day with the federal agency was March 31.

The theme for this year’s two-day event “explores the intersection of planetary and human health and community resilience. Planetary health highlights how human activities significantly impact our environment, which in turn affects our health and well-being,” organizers said. “Building community resilience — the capacity to adapt and recover from environmental disruptions like natural disasters or climate change — is crucial for withstanding threats to planetary health and tackling global challenges like climate change.”

ClearAIRE NC has hosted the annual NC BREATHE Conference since 2015 in various cities around the state.

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.

Residents 60 and older and adults living with disabilities can sign up for help with heat relief starting Thursday.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Aging, area agencies on aging, and local service providers will begin distributing fans through the Operation Fan Heat Relief program from May 1 to Oct. 31.

Sign up for assistance with local service providers, contact your area’s agency on aging or call NCDHHS Division of Aging at 919-855-3400.

The relief program has been in place since 1986. In 2024, $86,000 in donations allowed for 3,670 fans and 35 air conditioners to be distributed in 94 counties.

“Keeping cool is important because older individuals with chronic medical conditions are less likely to sense and respond to changes in temperature, and they may be taking medications that worsen the impact of extreme heat. Operation Fan Heat Relief helps vulnerable adults at risk for heat-related illnesses stay safe during the summer,” according to the release.

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.

BRUNSWICK COUNTY — A raccoon that attacked a person in the Longwood area has tested positive for rabies, county health officials announced Monday after being notified about the incident.

The individual is receiving necessary rabies vaccinations following the incident. The raccoon died during the altercation and Animal Protective Services sent it to the North Carolina Public Health Lab for rabies testing.

The Brunswick County Health Services, Animal Protective Services and Sheriff’s Office investigated the incident.

“In the United States, human fatalities from rabies occur in people who fail to seek medical assistance, usually because they were unaware of their exposure. In almost all cases, fatality from rabies in infected humans can be prevented by prompt medical attention and vaccination,” according to the county.

Any warm-blooded animal can transmit rabies. Officials recommend cleaning any bites or scratches with soap and running water for 15 minutes, and seek emergency care. The doctor will determine if a series of rabies vaccinations will be needed.

Depending on the species and circumstances, the animal must must be evaluated or tested for rabies.

Incidents should be reported immediately to the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office Animal Protective Services Division at 910-253-1738.

Provide the location of the incident, a description of the animal, and as many other details as possible. If the animal is someone’s pet, get the owner’s name, phone number, and address and provide this information to the Animal Protective Services officer.

Do not try to catch any wild animal that bites or scratches you. Call Animal Protective Services immediately and they will try to capture the animal.

Officials recommend taking the following preventative steps:

• Vaccinate pets against rabies and keep the vaccinations current. State law requires that all owned dogs, cats, and ferrets must be vaccinated against rabies by 4 months of age.
• Vaccinate either once a year or once per three years.
• Supervise pets outdoors and keep all pets on a leash when not in a fenced yard.
• Do not feed pets outdoors. Pet food attracts wildlife.
• Do not feed wildlife, feral cats or feral dogs.
• Secure garbage cans with wildlife-proof lids.
• Leave young wildlife alone.

To learn more about rabies prevention and treatment, visit the county website.

Community health educator, community activist and environmental advocate Dr. Donald E. Ensley of Greenville died Friday, March 28, 2025.

Born and reared in rural Belhaven, Ensley was one of East Carolina University’s first African American faculty in the health sciences, and the first president of the North Carolina Coastal Federation, founded in 1982 by Todd Miller.

In a commentary honoring Ensley published earlier this month in Coastal Review, Miller wrote that Ensley was in hospice care, “preparing to leave behind a legacy that will forever shape the places and people he touched.”

Ensley earned his bachelor’s in geography and health education from North Carolina Central University, a master’s and doctorate from Michigan State University, and a master of public health from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Ensley joined ECU’s faculty in 1977 as an associate professor in the School of Allied Health and Social Professions’ Department of Community Health, eventually becoming chair of the department.

During his time at ECU, Ensley acted as assistant vice chancellor for community engagement, and director of the department’s graduate studies program in the School of Allied Health Sciences, according to the university. He retired in 2011.

In addition to the Coastal Federation, Ensley held leadership roles on the North Carolina Humanities Council, North Carolina Heart Disease and Stroke Task Force, and North Carolina Heart Association.

The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review.

Third in a series

A chemical manufacturer that discharged pollutants directly into the Cape Fear River for decades has asked a judge to keep thousands of documents out of the public eye.

Attorneys for Chemours and its predecessor company DuPont requested the court keep under seal mostly internal communications between company employees about “non-public facts” that largely pertain to chemical production, according to the motion filed Feb. 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

“The court has recognized that this exact type of information is competitively sensitive because, in the hands of a competitor, it could be used to disadvantage Defendants,” Chemours’ attorneys argue.

Their appeal to the court aims to shield from the public between 5,000 and 10,000 pages of documents the plaintiffs’ lawyers submitted in their case against the companies, according to an attorney representing public utilities and local governments downstream of Chemours’ Bladen County plant.

“We do not believe there is a good basis for the vast majority, if not all, of those documents to be under seal,” said attorney Bill Cary of Brooks Pierce Law Firm.

The firm represents Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, Brunswick County, Lower Cape Fear Water & Sewer Authority, and Wrightsville Beach, which sued the companies in October 2017.

The lawsuit aims 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 drinking water source 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 man-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 developmental issues and increased risk of some cancers.

Included in the 25,000 pages Brooks Pierce has submitted to the court is a history of dealings Chemours’ West Virginia-based Washington Works Facility has had with PFAS, Cary said.

“Many of the documents that they have identified as wanting to be sealed are already on the public record, which means that there is no reason to seal them,” he said. “They’re already public knowledge. They are either part of the (Environmental Protection Agency) public record or they have been exhibits in other files.”

The Washington Works’ plant historically used synthetic compounds perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, commonly referred to as C8, and GenX, in its manufacturing processes. The plant produces resin used to make the semiconductors that power cellular phones, computers and other electronic systems.

For decades, the plant’s owners knowingly discharged C8 into the Ohio River, the drinking water supply for an estimated 5 million people. High levels of the chemical were found in public drinking water supplies and private drinking water wells downstream of the facility, prompting government intervention and a slew of lawsuits.

Earlier this year, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, a statewide nonprofit, filed a federal lawsuit seeking a temporary court order for Chemours’ Washington Works facility to reduce its discharges of GenX into the Ohio River. The lawsuit alleges the company is exceeding its permitted discharge limits.

As part of a 2019 consent order with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and Cape Fear River Watch, Chemours has spent millions taking steps to reduce its emissions of PFAS into the Cape Fear, the ground and the air. The consent agreement also charges the company with testing 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.

The brunt of costs associated with removing PFAS from raw water sources has fallen on downstream drinking water suppliers, including Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, or CFPUA. The utility has spent millions in upgrades to filtrate PFAS out of the drinking water it provides to customers in the Wilmington area. The average customer bill includes a $7.50 charge associated with the utility’s filtration system.

A CFPUA spokesperson referred questions to Cary.

An upgrade and expansion of Brunswick County’s Northwest Water Treatment Plant totaling more than $120 million is expected to go online late this spring. The project includes the installation of an advanced low-pressure reverse-osmosis treatment system to remove compounds including PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, the latter of which is a likely carcinogen that is also being discharged into the Cape Fear River by upstream polluters.

“The health of the Cape Fear River is of importance to everybody in the watershed and they should be informed about it,” Cary said.

Emily Donovon, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear, said in a telephone interview earlier this week Chemours and DuPont had spent decades “hiding” its discharges of PFAS into the Cape Fear River at the expense of residents living downstream of the Fayetteville Works plant.

“We’re not just talking about monetary expenses,” she said. “We’re not talking about utility costs. We’re talking about the fact that people are dying. People have died. People died not knowing if what that company did and that facility did caused their illness to accelerate or cause them to get sick in the first place. We deserve to know everything that this company did. Out of basic human decency, we deserve to be able to see those files and we deserve to be able to know exactly what was going on. History needs to know this.”

Clean Cape Fear on Thursday afternoon posted an online petition for members of the community to sign in support of unsealing the documents.

Cary described information in the documents the companies want to remain sealed as “embarrassing” internal documents that include communications among Chemours employees.

“Or I would be embarrassed if I was Chemours,” he said.

An attorney with Miami-based Shook, Hardy and Bacon, LLP, the law firm representing The Chemours Co. FC, E. I. Du Pont De Nemours and Co., and The Chemours Co., did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

In their request to keep documents sealed, the attorneys argue Brooks Pierce violated electronic filing rules, writing, in part, that the plaintiff’s “indiscriminate inclusion of large swathes of immaterial documents” place “an undue burden on Defendants in responding and preparing this motion.”

Chemours’ attorneys go on to write that it would be impractical to redact the “enormous volume” of documents Brooks Pierce included in its Jan. 17 motion for summary judgment, or a request of the court to rule for one party against another party without a full trial.

Brooks Pierce has until April 14 to respond to the motion.

“We will respond to the motion that day,” Cary said.

In 2023, CFPUA filed a separate lawsuit in Delaware’s Court of Chancery to stop DuPont, Chemours and their related spinoff companies from financial restructuring, a move that would allow the companies to avoid liability for damages resulting from PFAS contamination. The case has been stayed pending the outcome of the 2017 lawsuit.

First in a series on legacy and emerging water supply pollutants.

RALEIGH — Addressing PFAS and other emerging compounds is a “top priority” for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Secretary Reid Wilson told the more than 300 attending the N.C. Water Resources Research Institute’s annual conference.

“We are spending a lot of time and energy” working on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, because it’s important, Wilson continued Thursday, adding the department wants to work with all stakeholders in addressing PFAS through a comprehensive approach in a systematic, organized way.

WRRI is a multi-campus program of the University of North Carolina System that provides resources, and supports junior faculty, and undergraduate and graduate students.

The 2025 conference was held March 19-20 in the McKimmon Center and featured talks about the latest research on stream restoration, water supply planning, stormwater management, water quality, groundwater dynamics, community engagement and other water-related issues.

Wilson began his remarks by thanking the room full of researchers, educators, students, nonprofit representatives, academics and others for their contribution to science.

“I’ve been in North Carolina for 22 years,” Wilson said, explaining that he and his family moved from Maryland. “My work in these last 22 years has taken me to all corners of the state, and as I travel around, it just reminds me of the importance of making sure that everybody who lives here has clean air, clean water, healthy land from which their food comes and that they can roam around on, if it’s a park or a trail.”

NCDEQ has made “great strides over the years to collaborate with the research community to better understand the state of science a range of issues,” he said, and to ensure residents are better informed and better protected.

“We can’t make good decisions without sound, solid and unbiased scientific data. If we don’t rely on science, we will make bad decisions, and people’s health will be harmed. We don’t want that. It’s that simple,” Wilson said. “We have to base our decisions on science.”

When it comes to the emerging compounds in North Carolina’s water, programs like the PFAS Testing Network Applied Research Fellowship bring together DEQ and leading scientific experts “as we work to improve our understanding of these forever chemicals and generate the data needed to protect our communities.”

There have been several rounds of cohorts each semester working with nationally recognized experts from Duke University, the UNC system and its schools.

“We’re also partnering with Duke University Medical Center to conduct cutting edge research on how PFAS breaks down in our bodies. So we are working relentlessly to learn about these chemicals, protect our environment and safeguard our public health,” Wilson said.

NCDEQ launched its PFAS action strategy in 2022 to clean up contamination, protect drinking water and to take action to limit discharges of PFAS, into air and waterways.

“Part of that is we are sampling water systems to determine the extent of PFAS contamination, and that includes not only larger water systems, but smaller ones, like schools and daycares as well. And we have just deployed a robust set of ambient monitors that sample PFAS in the air, groundwater, lakes, rivers, streams, land, everything we can do,” he said, adding they’re really trying to “determine the extent of contamination of these chemicals.”

Wilson explained that, earlier this month at the department’s direction, Chemours, the company linked to discharging PFAS into the Cape Fear River, agreed to “significantly expand testing” of private wells in a larger area around their Fayetteville Works facility. 

“In terms of infrastructure,” Wilson said the department has “significant funds available” for towns, cities, counties, and water and sewer authorities for construction and planning projects that address PFAS contamination, and other water infrastructure needs.

“This funding makes it possible to assess options, design a solution to address PFAS contamination, implement treatment and develop with necessary alternative sources of drinking water,” Wilson said.

And last month, the department announced $265 million in drinking water and wastewater infrastructure grants that included $13 million for PFAS-related projects.

“Over the recent years, we have allocated $345 million to PFAS-related water infrastructure projects,” Wilson said. These investments are important, and will help improve lives and safeguard public health.

In Gov. Stein’s budget proposal released Wednesday for the next two fiscal years, Wilson said that it “includes an additional $1.5 million and three more employees to work on PFAS issues, to expand our capacity to address this problem, which affects lots of people in North Carolina.”

Wilson said that in addition to protecting people from PFAS and other water quality issues, “another huge priority for us is helping western North Carolina clean up, recover, rebuild from Helene.”

Millions in state and federal assistance have been provided since the September 2024 storm decimated the North Carolina mountains to restore and rebuild the region. “I think we all know that this recovery will continue to take years,” Wilson said.

“I know probably everyone in this room is trying to figure out what happens next in terms of recovery and rebuilding. We really must raise our sights beyond the immediate recovery to rebuild more resiliently, because we know these storms will keep coming with increasing frequency severity,” he said.

“Obviously, planning and public engagement will be key to this process in the mountain communities as they recover and rebuild, but that’s equally true for all over the state,” Wilson said. “We have to engage the public. We have to plan for the future, and again, plan for more severe storms.”

In an interview with Coastal Review, Wilson encouraged all stakeholders to weigh in and share their thoughts with decisionmakers, whether that’s an agency like NCDEQ, or the legislature or Congress, as environmental regulations undergo changes.

“We want to hear what people think to make sure that we’re making the best possible decisions to help people be healthy,” Wilson said.

Next in the series: Ultra-short chain PFAS

The state is actively recruiting “experienced professionals interested in a career in public service,” especially those displaced due to Hurricane Helene or recent federal cuts.

Gov. Josh Stein’s office announced Friday a new website for those interested in working for the state.

The website encourages people “to consider coming to work with the state of North Carolina” and provides resources for servicemembers, their spouses, and veterans to apply for positions in the state government.

Interested public servants can apply on www.nc.gov/joinNC where applicants will be connected with an employment recruiter from Office of State Human Resources to help match their skills to a job in state government.

“If you have recently been displaced from your career of service, North Carolina encourages you to apply,” Office of State Human Resources Director Staci Meyer said. “My team at OSHR will help you find a job that matches your needs.”

Stein said in the release that North Carolina “is a great place” to live, play and work.

“Public servants help make our state everything that it is, and there are many talented people looking for work right now. The State of North Carolina is proud to welcome smart and dedicated public-spirited people to join our team,” he said.

In addition to the website, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality officials and staff took advantage last week of having an audience invested in the state’s water resources to recruit for the understaffed agency.

Secretary Reid Wilson told the more than 300 academics, students, researchers, state and local government representatives and others at the N.C. Water Resources Research Institute’s annual conference Thursday morning that the agency has jobs available, “good ones, everything from engineers to chemistry technicians to program environmental program specialists.” He added that there are also internships for students.

WRRI held the conference March 19-20 in the McKimmon Center in Raleigh. The University of North Carolina System’s multi-campus program funds and disseminates water research, educational programs and training opportunities.

The first day of the conference, NCDEQ’s Division of Air Quality Director Mike Abraczinskas said during a roundtable with a half-dozen other staff that his division has 203 positions statewide and about 25 are vacant. He added that there’s “great opportunities” currently and forthcoming in the division.

“As of March 2025, DEQ has 258 total vacancies. Engineering and environmental specialist positions remain among the highest vacancies at DEQ, at 16% and 14%, respectively. DEQ’s vacancy rate is currently 12%, a decrease from 18% in January 2023,” an agency representative told Coastal Review Tuesday.

NCDEQ Chief Deputy Secretary John Nicholson addressed concerns with the pay scale Wednesday during the roundtable.

He explained Wednesday during the roundtable that the agency’s top priority right now is investing in the staff and their wages.

“We have taken a hard look at the health of the department. Everybody works extremely hard on difficult issues. If we don’t have skilled people in our positions within the department, we can’t do our job, and we argue that we have good people and they should be paid a fair wage,” he said. “And so that’s a was our big push to the government for his budget that he just released today was the number one ask of us.”

Post has been updated to include a comment from DEQ on vacancies.

A federal grant awarded last year to improve drinking water quality in hundreds of rural Brunswick County homes made U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin’s round of funding cuts earlier this month.

But Zeldin’s plan to terminate the nearly $20 million grant awarded in December to The Working Lands Trust Inc. and its community-based nonprofit partner, Democracy Green, has been halted — at least temporarily.

The grant to assist Brunswick County’s unincorporated communities of Supply, Ash and Longwood is mired in an ongoing lawsuit brought by 22 Democratic attorneys general, including North Carolina’s Jeff Jackson, against President Donald Trump’s administration.

The states and the District of Columbia requested a preliminary junction to block the administration from damming the flow of taxpayer dollars to programs previously allocated by Congress.

A federal judge granted the 22 states’ request March 6, two days after the EPA announced Zeldin, assisted by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, canceled 21 grants totaling more than $116 million. The preliminary injunction issued by John J. “Jack” McConnell Jr., chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, applies only to those 22 states.

The administration is seeking an emergency stay pending an appeal to the 1^st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. On March 17 the states filed in opposition. At the time this report was published, a hearing date had not been set.

Zeldin casts the grants he terminated as “wasteful federal spending” in a March 4 release announcing the agency’s third round of cuts that “marks more than $287 million taxpayer dollars saved” since he was sworn in Jan. 19.

“At EPA, we are working in partnership with DOGE to fulfill President Trump’s promise to rein in wasteful federal spending,” Zeldin said in the release. “We will not stop until we ensure every taxpayer penny spent is to advance clean air, land, and water and Power our Great American Comeback for all Americans.”

The grant awarded to The Working Lands Trust in mid-December is for the Clean Water is Safe Water Community Initiative in North Carolina and focuses on improving water quality, restoring ecosystems and removing contaminants from local watersheds.

The program entails removing and replacing lead pipes that route drinking water to the taps of some 500 homes in rural areas of the county and restoring wetlands in the Lockwood Folly River watershed.

The Working Lands Trust did not respond to requests for comment.

Democracy Green cofounder La’Meshia Whittington, speaking on behalf of her organization, told Coastal Review in a recent telephone interview that the grant is not tied to clean energy or diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs Trump has targeted.

“Our grant is so much about community,” she said. “It is so explicitly about spending and renovating and remediating and restoring actual community that you can’t make this a political issue and you can’t make it a government ‘oh, this is just wasteful spending.’ It quite actually is water contamination and replacing lead pipes, lead drinking water pies and cleanup of a wetland.”

A little more than 100 organizations received funding through the Community Change Grant Award funded by the Inflation Reduction Act.

The program tapped for Brunswick County was one of three the EPA singled out as exemplifying bringing change to a community, thrusting the project and its funding recipients into the public spotlight.

At the time of the award announcement, elected officials including Republican Frank Iler, who represents District 17 – Brunswick County, lauded the program.

“These areas of Brunswick County that are unincorporated in the Gullah-Geechee corridor of the county can benefit greatly from EPA grants such as this,” Iler said in a Dec. 12 release. “This assistance with infrastructure and water systems will be well utilized in these parts of our county.”

Iler’s office did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

“We had actually planned on not announcing our award to the press,” Whittington said. “We wanted to get the work done and we wanted to prove we could do the work because we knew there would be naysayers.”

Democracy Green has been the focus of two stories in The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative-leaning publication, “Dedicated to uncovering the stories that the powers that be hope will never see the light of day … Whether it’s exposing cronyism, finding out just who is shaping our domestic and foreign policy and why, or highlighting the threats to American security and peace in a dangerous world, the Free Beacon is committed to serving the public interest by reporting news and information that is not being fully covered by other news organizations.”

The stories put the nonprofit on the defensive with it offering on its website a point-by-point counter to claims ranging from the estimated cost of replacing lead pipes in homes to Democracy Green has no experience with water quality-related projects.

Democracy Green is considering a defamation suit against the publication, Whittington said.

In a letter to Zeldin dated March 6 with the subject line, “Setting the Record Straight – False Attacks on Critical Clean Water Efforts,” Democracy Green Executive Director Sanja Whittington further defended the organization against claims made in the story.

“It is especially troubling that these falsehoods target a predominantly red district – one that turned out in great numbers to vote for President Donald J. Trump – where residents are simply seeking access to safe, lead-free drinking water. This is not a partisan issue. It is a public health necessity, and efforts to undermine it with misinformation do a grave disservice to the people who stand to benefit most.”

These are communities La’Meisha Whittington, Sanja’s daughter, describes as “deeply a melting pot” of the older homeowning class living on land passed from generation to generation. Drinking water in those areas is provided through a mix of private water wells and public utilities.

“Their water has been extremely impacted from legacy contamination. They’ve had years of lead contamination, decades, generations,” Whittington said.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, have leached from landfills in these areas and into the environment, including drinking water sources, in these areas, she said.

The wetlands area, which has been under the ownership of Democracy Green, is near the communities where lead pipes will be replaced.

“Us being unable to clean it up the way it needs to be, it will continue to push pollutants into the actual groundwater of these homes and their backyards and community centers and churches that are in these unincorporated areas adjacent to the wetlands,” Whittington said.

Under its agreement with the EPA, the organizations are set to receiving grant funding April 1.

“Once April 1 hits, if our funding isn’t made available and our portal is still suspended, if it’s still that way then we will have to go the legal route to challenge,” Whittington said.

Heat researchers at Duke University will spend the next two years developing an interactive, web-based tool to help policymakers plan for extreme heat, especially in rural and coastal communities.

The U.S. Department of Commerce and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced earlier this month that $500,000 was awarded to the university’s Heat Policy Innovation Hub on the campus in Durham.

“Over the last 30 years, heat exposure has killed more people in the United States than any other weather-related phenomenon. The combined economic impacts of labor loss, hospital visits, and reduced agricultural yield — along with the health impacts of exposure — make heat among the most significant consequences of climate change for humanity,” according to the hub.

Funded through the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act signed in 2022, the hub is partnering on the project with the National Integrated Heat Health Information System, or NIHHIS. Under NOAA’s climate office, the system is a collaboration of 25 federal entities working to reduce heat impacts across the country.

“The economies of rural communities often rely on agriculture and other outdoor industries, while coastal communities exposed to high humidity tend to rely on hospitality, tourism and recreation,” hub Director Ashley Ward said in a release. “Extreme heat poses health and economic hazards in both types of communities, but the risks are different and require targeted solutions.”

Ward said in an interview that while there’s been a lot of research on how heat affects human health, there has been much less work on how it affects the economy.

“We have been so focused, and for good reason, on the health impacts of heat,” but heat’s impact on the economy is “going to have much bigger consequences than we’ve appreciated so far,” she said.

The World Economic Forum for the first time released in December its assessment of what climate change will mean for businesses globally. The report, Business on the Edge, predicts a 70% global loss in fixed assets from heat over the next decade.

That’s hundreds of billions of dollars, Ward said.

“They determined that most of that loss will occur in the communication sector and the utilities, and it will happen because of labor wage loss, labor productivity loss, and damage to hard infrastructure,” she said. “Personally, I think that we have not even begun to understand the catastrophic economic impact that heat will bring in the next 10 to 20 years.”

Ward explained the innovation hub is “very early” in the planning process and that researchers are thinking about what the web-based tool will look like.

The tool’s interactive map is expected to focus on localized heat impacts, offer guidance on developing heat policies, assess heat risks in rural and coastal communities, and facilitate private sector collaboration. The research team plans to work with policymakers to ensure the tool meets their needs.

“A good chunk of this work is going to be quantifying and looking at what the economic impacts of heat will be across six sectors, which are agriculture, transportation, health, energy, housing and labor,” she said.

While researchers won’t be able to cover the entire scope of heat-related impacts in this two-year period, the plan is to establish “the foundation for some really innovative work on pushing people to think about heat differently,” she added.

Ward said the researchers plan to take an in-depth look at extreme heat in rural and coastal communities.

A lot of research has been done on how heat impacts urban places, but “we have growing and greater vulnerability in rural areas, with fewer tools in the toolbox to address it,” she said.

In North Carolina, heat-related illness rates in rural areas are many times greater than in urban areas, and most of the solutions, like cooling centers or tree planting campaigns, don’t really translate into rural environments very well.

The same can be applies to coastal areas that are “plagued by some of the same challenges that rural communities are plagued with — real threats to their livelihoods — but also challenges with solutions,” she said. “We’re seeing a combination of increasing temperatures also destroying some of the economic backbone of coastal communities.”

Oyster farms, for example, are highly vulnerable, with some U.S. shellfish growers reporting 100% crop losses in the last couple of years, Ward added.

Ward’s work on extreme heat can be traced back to her days with NOAA, where she focused on the impacts of climate extremes in the coastal plains of the Carolinas.

In 2015, she was sent into coastal communities to talk to residents about issues of which they were particularly concerned.

“I thought that we would be talking about hurricanes. But when we showed up, a lot of the community partners basically said, we know a lot about hurricanes, we don’t know a lot about heat, and heat is really starting to show up in our communities. It was really the communities that started my interest and work in that topic,” Ward said.

When she arrived at Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability in 2019, Ward said she noticed that researchers had done great work in identifying populations that are vulnerable to extreme heat and communities have responded by thinking about ways to mitigate the impacts of rising temperatures.

But, she said, those conversations were not being carried over to policymakers.

The heat hub was launched in 2023, “with the mission of bringing together a real cross-sector collaboration to try and think about ways to address heat and inform better policy, and sometimes that policy is public policy, but sometimes it’s also thinking about industry and the role that they play,” Ward said.

The hub’s researchers have worked with the state to develop a heat alert system and helped with county-level heat action plans. Last June, the hub held the HeatWise Policy Partnership Summit.

The hub is currently working with faith-based leaders in the Carolinas, exploring private sector and community-based solutions for heat and energy affordability. The hub is also working with the United Nations to develop a heat management system and is assessing readiness among UN agencies to deal with heat globally.

A portion of Buxton’s ocean shore will remain closed to the public as officials continue monitoring the section for likely contamination.

The closure entails three-tenths of a mile of shoreline adjacent to the Buxton Formerly Used Defense Site, or FUDS, an area that was as a submarine monitoring station by the U.S. Navy for decades.

In September 2023, soils on the beach adjacent to the site, also known as the Buxton Beach Access, tested positive for petroleum contamination.

The Dare County Department of Health and Human Services, in consultation with Cape Hatteras National Seashore, issued the updated public health advisory Tuesday.

The decision to keep this portion of beach closed “was made after factoring in the amount of contaminated soil and water removed by the Corps (of Engineers) and the prolonged period of time between the last report of apparent petroleum sheens or odors in the area,” according to a release.

About two-tenths of a mile of beach starting at the southernmost jetty in Buxton and continuing south was reopened.

Additional information on the Buxton beach access and conditions may be found online.

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.”

Updated at 2:30 p.m.

A proposed draft rule outlining health standards for PFAS in groundwater, which supports about 50% of drinking water in North Carolina, is heading for public comment.

The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission on Thursday morning unanimously waived a 30-day public notice, a move that expedites the rulemaking process for three per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS: PFOA, PFOS and GenX.

Hearing locations and dates will be published in the state Register. A public comment period will begin once that information is published.

The commission is expected to vote on the draft rule next year. If approved, the rule is anticipated to be effective by mid-2025.

The proposed rule was revised from an earlier version the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality drafted that included five other manmade chemical compounds.

The commission’s groundwater and waste management committee earlier this summer voted to omit those compounds from the proposed rule, focusing on PFOS and PFOA, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified as likely carcinogens, and GenX, a compound specific to Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility on the banks of the Cape Fear River.

In a brief presentation to the commission, Bridget Shelton, DEQ’s groundwater standards coordinator, explained that when there is no established health standard for a manmade compound, regulatory agencies refer to practical quantitation limits, or PQLs.

PQLs are considered the base line in testing laboratories. PQL values can change over time and vary across different laboratories, Shelton said.

“To develop a groundwater standard for a substance we find each of these values, if they are available, and then we select the lowest of the value to be the most protective of human health,” she said.

The proposed rule would be used to establish goals for cleaning contamination in groundwater, limit permitted releases of PFAS to groundwater, and ensure residents whose drinking water exceeds contamination limits receive alternative water supplies.

“With us bringing forward the three compounds, the PFOS and the PFOA, we all know they’re legacy compounds,” Commissioner Joseph Reardon said. “There’s no dispute about where EPA is in the context of this being potential carcinogens. We know the struggles that the citizens of North Carolina have had with GenX and so we’re comfortable with these three chemicals, taking the levels of which have been identified in the body of the request here. On the other five remaining compounds, had the committee chose to include those, it would have allowed more of the chemical in the water, but by the department regulating at the PQL level for those other five, lessens the amount of these compounds in the water.”

Commission members are continuing to hash out DEQ’s proposal to establish surface water rules for all eight PFAS.

Following heated exchanges Wednesday afternoon, the commission’s water quality committee unanimously voted to instruct DEQ to develop a draft rule and regulatory impact analysis, or RIA, that would establish monitoring requirements for every industrial and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit and require every industrial and significant industrial user to include PFAS source-reduction plans in their municipal pretreatment plans.

Commission Chair JD Solomon, acting as an ex officio member of the committee, suggested Wednesday the committee act on that proposed rule as a way to move forward and get regulations in place to reduce PFAS concentrations in surface water.

“I think we’re at an impasse,” he said. “I don’t blame anybody at this point. I want to get it done for the people of the state and I want to get PFAS reductions in surface water. This way we keep it with the industrial dischargers and we can identify who the bad players are and make them pay and not just spread it out to the whole watershed because we can’t agree on what all that stuff is right now. I want to get this out. I want to get this moving.”

DEQ Assistant Secretary Sushma Masemore explained that DEQ began requiring monitoring of PFAS discharges for NPDES permit holders almost a year ago.

“We’re going to need guidance to require source reduction and associated plans,” she said to the committee. “Is this mainly voluntary? What are we going to be asking? We’re going to need some directions in order to produce a credible (regulatory impact analysis) in order to produce a rule text that you all think meets this process and at the end of the day, when someone asks are we achieving reductions, we want to be able to answer this question.”

The earliest this new proposed draft rule would go before the full commission would be during its November meeting.

It is unclear when and if the water quality committee will approve DEQ’s proposed draft surface water rules for eight PFAS, including the PFOA, PFOS, GenX, PFBS, PFNA, PFHxS, PFBA and PFHxA to go to the commission for a vote.

Committee members at times verbally sparred over information included in DEQ’s proposed draft rule and regulatory impact analysis for surface water rules on those chemical compounds.

Members raised concerns about data that links the transfer of PFAS contamination in surface water to contamination in agricultural crops and animals, such as cattle that drink water containing PFAS.

“My concern is, have we overstated the exposure of PFAS from food?” Reardon said. “I’m concerned that the way this is written and the percentage that we’re associated with PFAS from food is going to unduly implicate the food in North Carolina as being latent with PFAS, or that our national food supply is latent with PFAS, that we expect 20-some percent of our exposure to come from food.”

DEQ’s Masemore explained that the water farmers and backyard gardeners use to grow food and hydrate livestock comes from surface water that could be laden with PFAS.

“The record shows that 86% of the water used in the agricultural practices, whether it’s to grow crops or to raise animals, are extracted from surface water intakes,” she said. “We’re not saying that all of this is there. What we’re saying is by having a regulation that reduces that PFAS in those surface waters, and therefore you’re reducing the concentration in those waters that are ultimately used for these purposes, then what are the potential benefits associated with that.”

The committee voted 5-2 that they will wait to move on the proposed draft rule until they meet with U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials or receive a written response from that agency for clarification.

Committee member Marion Deerhake opposed the motion, noting before votes were cast that comments she had emailed the committee chair on Aug. 6 were not included in a package shared with the committee and DEQ.

“I feel like my comments, my positive comments, are being ignored,” she said. “You said you would take care of it and it’s not in the package that you distributed. I am very concerned about the process that is being handled today. The comments that are coming in on the (regulatory impact analysis) are selective. They are from specific parties that are interested in this rule for their own benefit. I have to object to that.”

Some of her fellow committee members pushed back, saying they have not been unduly influenced.

“I reject that assertion that we are being guided by people from the outside,” Tim Baumgartner said. “You’re making it seem like we don’t have brains to look at this ourselves and make these determinations ourselves. I have an opinion on it. I don’t really care what the outside public says and I believe in our hearts because I think it’s the right thing to do for this motion to carry forward and for the department and EMC to have a discussion with FDA and (North Carolina Department of Agriculture) before this moves forward.”

Michael Ellison, the committee vice chair, concurred.

“I’ve received more phone calls and emails from outside individuals, somewhere around 200, that urged rapid and immediate action of PFAS based on these documents,” he said. “My questions are my questions and they’re technical. It does not serve the people of North Carolina to go forward to public notice or perpetuate this process when we know we have a severely flawed (impact analysis) that is, in many cases, predicated on fallacies, scientific fallacies.”

Both commissioners followed up on their comments Thursday.

Baumgartner said the commission has not “let cancel culture stand in our way.”

“When issues are pushed too hard, too fast, there’s always a back story and a reason,” he said. Some advice to pass on, if you push too hard, too fast, someone’s going to question a motive and ask why. Instead of trashing those attempting to understand, take a moment and work through the issues. You might get to the same end-point faster.”

Extensive erosion from recent and constant northeast winds that have exposed septic fields have prompted state recreational water quality officials to issue a precautionary swim advisory for ocean waters near Corbina Drive in Rodanthe and near Cottage Avenue and Tower Circle in Buxton.

Officials with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Recreational Water Quality Program said Friday they would place signs near the public accesses once conditions at the location are safe and would lift the advisory when bacteriological test results come back within state and federal standards and the expose risk is no longer a concern.

“The risk of exposure is temporary and should resolve once the septic tank is emptied and the system is no longer being utilized. The state is working with the National Park Service and Dare County officials to determine when the risk of exposure is no longer a concern,” officials said.

Wastewater discharges increase the risk that contamination is present in the ocean and nearby tidal pools. Adverse health effects such as diarrhea, abdominal cramps and skin infections could occur if people swim in these areas, and the public is advised to avoid bodily contact with these waters.

Reprinted from North Carolina Health News

Last month, Tropical Storm Debby brought soaking rains to North Carolina that overwhelmed some wastewater treatment infrastructure in the eastern part of the state.

For instance, Brunswick County posted public notices on Aug. 8 and Aug. 10 estimating that a total of about 1.5 million gallons of treated and partially treated wastewater overflowed a stormwater pond and drained into a tributary of the Lockwood Folly River. A county news release noted both spills were related to the inundation created by Debby.

Aging water and wastewater infrastructure is an issue in North Carolina. According to the 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, the state’s wastewater infrastructure needs about $5.3 billion in upgrades.

Recently, state leaders have rolled out funding initiatives to address that glaring need.

In July, Gov. Roy Cooper’s office announced $253 million that will, in part, support “drinking water and wastewater infrastructure funding and stormwater construction grants,” according to a release. The funds would support “70 projects in 30 counties statewide, including 51 construction projects.”

“Strong water and wastewater systems are vital for safe drinking water and economic development,” Cooper said. “Thanks to federal funding from the Biden-Harris administration and state appropriations, we’ve made historic investments to rebuild and replace aging systems, especially in rural communities, which will make our state stronger.”

That’s on top of close to $2 billion that the legislature appropriated in the state budget in 2023 for at least 241 water and sewer projects paid for by federal dollars that flowed to the state for coronavirus relief. 

Missing, however, from the billions dedicated to shoring up the state’s water infrastructure is funding to help owners of properties that have septic tanks. 

Septic vs. municipal wastewater systems

Septic systems provide wastewater treatment to homes in areas without municipal treatment facilities, such as rural and unincorporated communities. Roughly half of all North Carolina households rely on septic or decentralized wastewater systems, according to information provided by North Carolina State University’s Crop and Soil Sciences program.

Septic tank owners bear sole responsibility for their systems’ upkeep. What’s more, if a system is not properly maintained, it could seep sewage into ground and surface water and pose a threat to public health.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s annual SepticSmart week falls this month, an effort to bring attention to the needs of septic systems and the importance of maintaining them. 

The agency notes that one-in-five households in the U.S. is on a septic system. In North Carolina, that number is more like one-in-two households, and the vast majority of the households in coastal areas (close to 80%). 

And those systems are not always in optimal conditions, North Carolina State Extension Specialist Erik Severson said in an article on the extension’s website.

““Across the state, we have enormously different soils, some of which are challenging to drain,” he said. 

Rachel Noble, a researcher at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, said residents who are connected to municipal wastewater treatment systems enjoy a peace of mind not afforded to septic system owners.

“(Municipal) sewage systems have a level of preventive maintenance, making sure that when you live in a city or town (and) you flush the toilet, you don’t see it again,” Noble said.

“You know (the sewage) is going somewhere, and it’s being treated and discharged in a responsible manner that adheres to the EPA recommendations,” she added. “With septic systems (…) you flush the toilet, you hope you don’t see it again, but there’s no structure for that kind of preventive maintenance.”

Septic systems at a glance

While there are several types, a septic system consists of four basic components: the source (home), the septic tank, the drainfield or leach field, and the soil beneath the drainfield. 

The type of system used is based on the lot’s soil and site conditions. The conventional system, which consists of a tank and drainfield that often contains between two and six gravel trenches, is the most commonly used in the state, according to information provided by N.C. State Extension. 

North Carolina is roughly halfway through the Atlantic hurricane season, which the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration has predicted to be an above-average one for named storms. If Tropical Storm Debby is any indication, more frequent and intense storms generated by climate change have the potential to stress storm drains and wastewater systems, experts say.

Communities are looking for better ways to ensure the health of septic systems. 

When asked why septic systems were not addressed in the latest round of water and wastewater infrastructure funding, a North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality spokesperson said that failing septic systems are a “high priority.” 

The department has a pilot program for “decentralized” wastewater treatment systems that could provide funding for “qualified applicants,” including septic tank owners whose systems are in need of repair.

Recipients could receive as much as $500,000 under the program to do the work. The deadline for local governments to apply during the 2024 funding cycle is 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 30. 

A preventative model

The town of Nags Head, where nearly 80% of properties use septic systems to process waste, has a program to help its residents maintain healthy decentralized wastewater systems.

In 2000, Nags Head launched the Todd D. Krafft Septic Health Initiative Program. Under the program, the town will provide free septic tank inspections and financial assistance to residents whose systems are in need of maintenance, repair or replacement.

“We’re definitely the only ones here on the Outer Banks that offers (a program) like this, as far as I know,” said Conner Twiddy, environmental planner for Nags Head. 

Twiddy said a range of issues can present problems for septic tanks, including “root intrusion in the drain fields” and issues arising from tanks operating at near capacity for extended periods.

Additionally, Twiddy said that sometimes he finds odd items during inspections. 

“(I’ve) found a variety of different things in tanks that shouldn’t be in tanks, like ping-pong balls, kid’s toys (and) different things that could cause damage to the drainfield.”

Towns work to help residents

According to information on its website, Nags Head provides nonemergency septic system inspections at no cost to homeowners with conventional septic systems for residences generating fewer than 3,000 gallons of outflow per day.

Free services from town staff include locating the system, discussing concerns about installation and maintenance, inspections to detect problems early and a follow-up report outlining the system’s location and whether it needs pumping or repair. The town also offers low-interest loans for those who need to make repairs.

More information about the program, including contact information, is on Nags Head’s website.

Twiddy said that monitoring septic systems is beneficial for the individual owner and the broader community, as it can help reduce costs down the road.

“You’re making sure your drain field is taking the water properly,” he said. If needed, property owners can “have the tank pumped or get the filter clean so you’re not dealing with that backup.”

In addition to Nags Head, Wake and Buncombe counties also provide financial assistance to septic owners, according to the Environmental Finance System Network, a national nonprofit organization that works to find creative funding solutions to environmental issues.

“If you’re being more proactive (…) if there’s a problem, you can go ahead and address it,” Twiddy said.

This article first appeared on North Carolina Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

State recreational water quality officials on Wednesday posted advisories warning swimmers to stay out of waters at two public access sites.

Routine water testing revealed that bacteria levels at accesses on sounds in Carteret County and New Hanover County exceed state and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recreational water quality standards.

Five water samples collected within a 30-day period at the public access to Bogue Sound at 16th Street in Morehead City tested for a monthly average of 38 enterococci per 100 milliliters of water, which surpass state and federal standards of 35 enterococci per 100 milliliters of water, according to a N.C. Department of Environmental Quality release.

Samples collected within a 30-day period at the public access to Banks Channel off Waynick Boulevard in Wrightsville Beach indicate a running monthly average of 39 enterococci per 100 milliliters of water.

Advisories are for waters within 200 feet of where the state posts a sign.

Enterococci are bacteria found in the intestines of warm-blooded animals. High levels of this bacteria in water may increase the risk of people developing gastrointestinal illness or skin infections.

State testing will continue at these sites. Officials will remove the signs and notify the public once the bacteria levels dip below the standards.

The state tests more than 200 sites throughout the coastal region on a near-weekly basis between April and October.

More information on the N.C. Recreational Water Quality Program may be found at the program’s website and on the program’s Twitter feed.

For more information on the N.C. Recreational Water Quality Program or to a view a map of testing sites, visit the program’s website, and follow the program’s Twitter feed.

The precautionary swimming advisory for parts of the North Carolina coast issued Aug. 7, when Tropical Storm Debby moved north from Florida, was lifted midday Wednesday for most oceanside sites.

The two oceanside sites where the advisory remains are Caswell Beach Public Beach access in Brunswick County, and at Sea Oats Drive in Rodanthe along Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

The advisory is still in place for all soundside areas from the Wright Memorial Bridge in Kitty Hawk south to the South Carolina state line, as of Wednesday afternoon.

Water samples tested at the two oceanside sites and the soundside sites show bacterial levels that meet the state’s and Environmental Protection Agency’s safe swimming standards, according to a release from the North Carolina Recreational Water Quality Program.

Floodwaters and storm water runoff produced by excessive storm-generated rainfall can be contaminated with pollutants, including waste from septic systems, sewer line breaks, pet waste, wildlife and petroleum products and other chemicals, all of which at high levels can cause people to become sick, officials said.

“Recreational water quality officials continue to test these waters and will notify the public when water samples collected meet the state’s and EPA’s safe swimming standards,” the release states.

The Recreational Water Quality Program samples more than 200 coastal water sites on almost a weekly basis between April and October.

A map of those test sites and more information about the program may be found at the program’s website and the program’s Twitter feed.

Brunswick County Health Services announced Monday that it’s participating in a Northeastern University program to allow private well users in the area to get their samples analyzed for bacteria and metals at no charge during August.

Brunswick County Health Services said that, while the event is in Brunswick County, you do not need to live there to participate.

Test kits are to be distributed Aug. 12-16 at Brunswick County Health Services, Building A at the Brunswick County Government Center, 25 Court House Drive NE, in Bolivia.

Samples must be collected and returned between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. Aug. 20 at Brunswick County Health Services.

There are a limited number of kits, so they will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, officials said. Detailed sampling instructions will be provided, and water quality results will be emailed and mailed to residents.

Northeastern University will test the samples and provide confidential results.

Residents will also receive a $10 gift card for their participation.

For more information, contact Kyla Drewry at drewry.k@northeastern.edu or 203-725-4012.

Gov. Roy Cooper on Wednesday advised that “we must be on high alert” because the slow-moving Tropical Storm Debby can bring dangerous conditions to a number of areas in the state.

Conditions including, according to forecasters, “tornadoes, heavy rains, flash floods and possible storm surge that can quickly inundate low lying areas,” Cooper said.

State Emergency Response Team members joined Cooper for the news conference held in person and streamed online about the slow-moving storm that was offshore of Charleston, South Carolina, at the time.

National Weather Service forecasters said Wednesday morning that they expect Tropical Storm Debby to move slowly just offshore of the South Carolina coast Wednesday, make landfall in South Carolina late Wednesday night and lift to the north through central North Carolina Thursday night and Friday morning.”

Cooper said that in North Carolina, “we’re all too familiar with rain and flooding that comes from slow-moving storms, so preparation now means saving lives later. We expect this storm to continue its slow, gradual approach, bringing multiple days of heavy rainfall and the potential for widespread and even severe flash flooding.”

Residents across the state “need to be prepared for a deluge. More rain than most of us see in a month, or even several months,” Cooper continued, adding that the southeastern region could see as much as 15 inches, and the central could see up to 10 inches. “In some areas, the rain combined with already saturated soil and winds can lead to downed trees and power lines.”

He urged residents to ready supplies in the event of power loss.  

North Carolinians should take this storm seriously and make sure you’re ready, especially if you live in low-lying areas, which means taking care of your pets, securing your home and belongings, having a way to stay informed, and making a plan now if told to evacuate.

Cooper reminded listeners never to drive through flooded roads or around barricades.

“It only takes 6 inches of fast-moving flood water to knock over an adult and just 12 inches to carry away most cars. Now is not the time to see if your car floats, because it doesn’t,” Cooper said. “It’s not safe to drive or walk through flood waters, our Department of Transportation and our first responders will tell you that we’ve lost too many lives after these storms because of people trying to drive through or walk through water.”

Emergency Management Director Will Ray said that with the forecasted rainfall amounts for up to 15 inches across eastern North Carolina and up to 10 inches in Central North Carolina, “we are anticipating major impacts from flooding across portions of the state. Rainfall in these amounts can flood homes and businesses, erode and damage roadways, and may create situations in which local officials may need to order evacuations to ensure public safety.”

Ray noted that areas that normally do not flood may be covered in water, “and I urge you to follow the guidance of your local public safety agencies.”

Ahead of the storm, Cooper said he has activated more than 350 soldiers and airmen from the North Carolina National Guard and deployed swift water rescue teams. He declared a state of emergency Monday to help move supplies, and the state received a federal disaster declaration from President Biden Tuesday evening that will help direct federal assistance.

Ray said these 350 soldiers were provided with high-clearance vehicles and other equipment to move supplies and personnel across the state, and are prepared to assist the counties that experience flooding.

The State Emergency Response Team has distributed to nine eastern counties water pumps, tarps, meals, water generators and sandbags and other supplies, Ray said, and continue to work with partners to stage resources that support the healthcare infrastructure across the state.

“Finally, please call 911, only for emergencies. We wish to keep emergency lines open for those with life threatening situations. As we begin to see impacts here in North Carolina, please remain alert earned and check on those in your community who may need assistance together taking care of our families, our neighbors and our communities. We are stronger during a disaster,” Ray said.

State recreational water quality officials also advised on Wednesday that the public to avoid swimming in coastal waters affected by Tropical Storm Debby from Wright Memorial Bridge in Kitty Hawk south to the South Carolina State line.  

“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,” Erin Bryan-Millush, manager of the N.C. Recreational Water Quality Program, said in a statement. “The sources of bacteria can vary and include failing septic systems, sewer line breaks and overflowing manholes.”

Wednesday conditions

North Carolina Emergency Management officials said on social media Wednesday morning that Tropical Storm Debby was “meandering” offshore of Charleston, with the center of Debby expected to reach the South Carolina coast by Wednesday night or early Thursday.

Officials said that they were increasingly confident that, after landfall, Debby will move quickly north-northeast through South Carolina and North Carolina on Thursday and Friday.

“The main impact from Debby is still expected to be the threat for heavy rainfall and life-threatening flash flooding,” officials said.

National Weather Service forecasters in the Newport-Morehead City office said in an 11 a.m. Wednesday update that Tropical Storm Debby would continue dumping significant rainfall on eastern North Carolina through the end of the week.

They said the main threat for eastern North Carolina would be periods of heavy rain with additional rainfall amounts of 4 to 8 inches, and locally higher amounts possible. The highest rainfall totals are expected for areas south of Highway 70.

“This will bring the threat of localized flash flooding especially in low-lying, urban, and poor drainage areas. The threat of river flooding will also increase late week into next week,” said forecasters.

Tropical-storm-force winds could begin impacting portions of eastern North Carolina by Thursday afternoon with strong winds continuing through early Friday morning, potentially bringing scattered tree damage and power outages. A few tornadoes could produce locally significant damage through Thursday night, forecasters said.

Post has been updated.

Reprinted from North Carolina Health News

Last week, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a suit brought by Chemours. The chemical company, which manufactures GenX (HFPO-DA), a class of a per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, at its Fayetteville Works facility, challenged the health advisory established by the agency in 2022 for GenX in groundwater.

Chemours claimed the EPA set the advisory level too low — at 10 parts per trillion — and relied on faulty research to establish it. However, the three-judge panel ruled that the advisory was not a federal regulation and, therefore, rejected Chemours’ argument the EPA acted unlawfully when issuing a health advisory about the exposure risks of GenX in drinking water.

“Through the years, our community has learned that when companies like Chemours are not actively hiding the science, they are usually attacking it,” said Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear. “This is a win for public health and every resident harmed by GenX exposures. The courts got it right this time.”

In April 2024, the EPA established maximum contaminant levels for six PFAS in drinking water, out of the thousands of PFAS manufactured in the U.S. 

The court’s ruling means a consent order, established in 2019 between Chemours, Cape Fear River Watch, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, will remain intact — at least for now. Chemours vows to mount more court challenges.  

Under the consent order, Chemours is required to carry out specific tasks, such as drinking water well testing, for people who live near the site, including in New Hanover, Brunswick, Pender and Columbus counties.

That includes extending testing to one-quarter mile beyond the closest well with PFAS levels above 10 parts per trillion and annually retesting any wells sampled. Additionally, Chemours is responsible for providing clean drinking water options, such as whole-house filtration systems, to those with wells contaminated with GenX compounds above 10 ppt.

For area homeowners like Wilmington resident and business owner Steve Schnitzler, whose well’s GenX level exceeded the health advisory standard when it was tested in August 2023, the court’s ruling means Chemours must keep providing safe drinking water to his home.

“I have four reverse osmosis systems in my house right now that Chemours paid for and will maintain for the next 20 years so that we can have clean drinking water,” he said.

‘Forever chemicals’

There are roughly 15,000 unique per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) in the environment, according to experts. Because of their persistence in the environment, PFAS are commonly referred to as “forever chemicals.” They are present in multiple products, including cosmetics and apparel, microwave popcorn wrappers, dental floss, firefighting turnout gear and some firefighting foams.

The chemicals are associated with such adverse health effects as increased cholesterol levels, kidney and testicular cancer, dangerously high blood pressure in pregnant women and decreased vaccine response in children.

The two most extensively produced and studied families of compounds, PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonic acid), have been phased out in the U.S. Still, because they don’t break down quickly, they can keep accumulating in the environment and in the human body. GenX or HFPO-DA (hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid) was created as a replacement for PFOA.

PFAS Glossary

PFOA – Perfluorooctanoic acid, also known as C8, is produced and used as an industrial surfactant, which helps things not to stick to one another in chemical processes. It also is a raw material for other forms of PFAS. PFOA was widely manufactured but has largely been phased out of production. 

PFOS – Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid was a key ingredient in Scotchgard before being banned by the European Union and Canada. Several U.S. states have banned the chemical, derivatives of which were also used in cosmetics. The EPA announced in 2021 that it would regulate the presence of PFOS in drinking water.

GenX – is a derivative salt of hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA) and was manufactured by Chemours. It’s the substance initially found contaminating the Cape Fear River in 2017. GenX has been used widely in food wrappings, paints, cleaning products, nonstick coatings and some firefighting foams.  

A win for now?

Chemours plans to continue to press its case against the EPA’s position on forever chemicals and will next look to present arguments in a Washington, D.C., appeals court, according to Reuters. 

Looming in the background of the legal battle between Chemours and the EPA is the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. The court ruled that federal agencies such as the EPA would no longer have the authority to use their expertise to interpret ambiguous laws. Instead, judges will assume responsibility for doing so.

The ruling affects the so-called Chevron Doctrine, which emerged from a 1984 Supreme Court case between Chevron Corp. and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The court ruled to defer to the experts at regulatory agencies when federal regulations were ambiguous, so long as the regulators provided a reasonable interpretation.

Could the Supreme Court’s ruling handicap regulators and tip the scales and favor corporations such as Chemours in future cases?

“The repeal of Chevron deference can cut both ways,” said Tom Fox, senior legislative counsel for the Oakland, California-based Center of Environmental Health. 

“After all, Chevron v. [Natural Resources Defense Counsel] in 1984 was a case brought by NRDC challenging the Reagan administration’s deregulatory actions under the Clean Air Act.” Fox said. “It could be argued that Loper Bright may make it easier to challenge deregulatory actions. It also could be argued that the court’s decision did not affect deference to agency scientific judgments. However, we have seen numerous examples of the Roberts court (and lower court judges) ignoring and/or cherry-picking facts, science and history.”

When asked what environmental groups and their supporters can do to prepare for a possible shifting legal landscape, Fox said to do their homework and stay vigilant.

“I would advise public interest organizations to be strategic in bringing cases in appropriate judicial districts,” he said. “In addition, the Loper Bright decision highlights the importance of science and community involvement in agency rulemakings.”

As a business owner, Schnitzler posed a question for those who place business interests above public health.

“This general ‘business can do no wrong, and we have to keep allowing [corporations] to do horrible things because otherwise we’ll stifle innovation and will stifle growth,’ at what cost?” he asked.

This article first appeared on North Carolina Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The U.S. Court of Appeals this week dismissed a chemical company’s claim that the health advisory the Environmental Protection Agency issued in June 2022 for certain man-made chemicals found in drinking water was “unlawful and should be vacated.”

The 3rd Circuit three-judge panel in Philadelphia heard the argument Jan. 31 and filed its opinion Tuesday.

Chemours Co., which has a facility near Fayetteville, cited a section of the Safe Drinking Water Act that allows petitions for review of “any … final action of the Administrator under this chapter,” according to the ruling.

“Contending that the advisory was unlawful, the Chemours Company petitioned for review of EPA’s action. We will dismiss the petition for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because the health advisory is not a final agency action,” the judges found.

The EPA estimates that there are thousands of different per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, chemicals used in a range of products like home goods and in manufacturing. PFAS have been detected in surface water, groundwater, rainwater and drinking water. Exposure to some of these widely used, long-lasting synthetic chemicals may be toxic to humans.

“This decision supports the very important Safe Drinking Water Act health advisory program,” EPA press secretary Remmington Belford told Coastal Review Wednesday about the ruling.

The Center for Environmental Health, Cape Fear River Watch, Clean Cape Fear, Democracy Green, North Carolina Black Alliance, Toxic Free North Carolina, Natural Resources Defense Council and five residents intervened a month after Chemours filed the petition for review in July 2022. Officials with the groups released an announcement Tuesday applauding the court’s decision.

“Through the years, our community has learned that when companies like Chemours are not actively hiding the science, they are usually attacking it. This is a win for public health and every resident harmed by GenX exposures. The courts got it right this time,” Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear said Tuesday in a release.

“We were hopeful and cautiously optimistic; however, we’ve also seen a shift in court rulings recently that have not been friendly to environmental protections and public health. Yesterday’s verdict was refreshing,” she said in an interview Wednesday.

“We believe this ruling is significant for private well owners in the region dealing with Chemours-specific PFAS contamination,” Donovan continued, adding that DEQ adopted the EPA’s GenX health advisory when it came out in 2022 and the ruling Tuesday means DEQ can keep moving forward and require Chemours to provide remedies to private well owners who have levels of GenX exceeding 10 parts per trillion. Historically it was 140 ppt.

“DEQ has made addressing PFAS a priority and will continue to rely on science-based, peer-reviewed health standards to protect human health in North Carolina while implementing the Maximum Contaminant Levels set by EPA and pursuing state-level surface water and groundwater standards for PFAS compounds, including GenX,” NCDEQ Deputy Communications Director Josh Kastrinsky said Wednesday.

“The Court strongly and unanimously rejected Chemours’s attempt to kill EPA’s scientific guidance on how communities can protect themselves from toxic GenX contamination in tap water,” said Sarah Tallman, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Everyone has a right to turn on their kitchen tap and have safe water, so we will continue to fight the chemical industry and others who try to block efforts to protect our health from toxic hazards.”

Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent said in the release that Chemours fought this health advisory level “for the same motivation behind all their actions: money. While the court did not acknowledge their smokescreen, we are grateful they rejected Chemours’ nefarious claim.”

Chemours said the ruling was merely a procedural loss.

“While we are disappointed with the Third Circuit’s dismissal of our appeal on procedural grounds, the decision means the U.S. EPA’s health advisory on HFPO-Dimer Acid (HFPO-DA) is not enforceable,” Chemours Representative Cassie Olszewski told Coastal Review Wednesday.

“Chemours has challenged — along with groups of drinking water providers and manufacturers — the EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Limits (MCL) for drinking water which utilize, in part, the same scientifically unsound analysis. We look forward to having the D.C. Circuit consider the merits of our arguments in connection with our pending challenge to the EPA’s MCL regulation,” Olszewski said.

Leading up to the judges’ decision

After news reports in June 2017 that several types of PFAS had been detected in the Cape Fear River, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality identified Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility as the source.

Cape Fear River watch sued both the Department of Environmental Quality and Chemours, resulting in a consent order that has allowed the company to continue operating since February 2019. Since then, both the EPA and DEQ say they have been taking steps to address PFAS.

“Drinking water health advisory levels are non-regulatory health-based values that are provided for informational purposes,” according to the EPA. “On June 15, 2022, the EPA published final drinking water health advisories (HAs) for perfluorobutane sulfonic acid and its potassium salt (PFBS) and hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA) and its ammonium salt (‘GenX chemicals’).”

The final health advisory values were based on the final EPA toxicity assessments published in 2021, the agency said.

Chemours uses HFPO-DA as a “patented polymerization aid in the manufacture of fluoropolymers,” the trade name for which is GenX, according to the company.

Chemours filed the petition for review in July 2022, saying the health advisory was arbitrary and capricious and that it was otherwise inconsistent with the law, because EPA incorporated grossly incorrect and overstated exposure assumptions―in essence, EPA used the wrong chemical when making its exposure assumptions, thereby resulting in a significantly less tolerant health advisory for HFPO Dimer Acid than is warranted by the data,” according to the petition.

The 3^rd Circuit found that Congress enacted the Safe Water Drinking Act to protect drinking water quality, and authorizes the EPA administrator to address contaminants in waters by taking various actions, such as putting a regulation in place or issue health advisories.

Once EPA officials have the final toxicity assessment, exposure factors and relative source contribution, the federal agency can then publish a health advisory “to inform decisionmakers of what it deems is a safe level of the contaminant in drinking water.”

In this instance, the EPA developed a health advisory. Advisories are not regulations, but “provide information’ about a safe level of a contaminant so that government officials and managers of public water systems can ‘determine whether actions are needed to address the presence of [the] contaminant in drinking water,’” the court found.

In August 2022, the nonprofit organizations and five residents intervened in the case.

The Center for Environmental Health represented Cape Fear River Basin community groups and individuals who have relied on the advisory to fight for health protective drinking water, Senior Legislative Counsel Tom Fox said in a release.

“The Third Circuit correctly found that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction because the GenX health advisory is not a final agency action. The court rejected Chemours’ attempts to convert the advisory into a reviewable action with examples of indirect consequences of the health advisory,” Fox said.

Donovan told Coastal Review Wednesday that Clean Cape Fear intervened because ‘We wanted the courts to see that the American people — especially those of us living in North Carolina, are hungry for strong enforceable protections the Biden/Harris EPA is implementing regarding PFAS. Chemours publicly claims GenX is safe but the best available science disagrees. We’re tired of Chemours attacking the EPA when it actually begins to do its job and serve the people.”

What’s next?

Chemours filed in June a similar petition for review in the Washington, D.C., circuit after the EPA issued in April the final National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for six PFAS, including perfluorobutane sulfonic acid and its potassium salt, or PFBS, and GenX chemicals, specifically, HFPO-DA.

“EPA expects that over many years the final rule will prevent PFAS exposure in drinking water for approximately 100 million people, prevent thousands of deaths, and reduce tens of thousands of serious PFAS-attributable illnesses,” the agency said in April. The drinking water regulation established legally enforceable levels for several PFAS.

Donovan noted Wednesday that Clean Cape Fear had learned Tuesday that the group was granted the ability to intervene in defense of EPA’s PFAS drinking water standards.

“Chemours, the American Chemistry Council and other groups sued the EPA earlier this year when the first-ever federal drinking water standards for PFAS were finalized. We joined forces with EarthJustice and other contaminated community groups across the nation to intervene in that lawsuit, as well,” she said.

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Updated

Red warning flags whip against the wind Friday in Atlantic Beach, notifying swimmers to not enter the water. Life-threatening rip currents were likely and the surf zone dangerous for all levels of swimmers on all North Carolina beaches north of Cape Fear Friday, according to the National Weather Service’s experimental Beach Forecast webpage, which is color-coded to indicate the forecast rip current risk level. Yellow flags indicating moderate conditions flew on Brunswick County beaches Friday. Conditions had improved to moderate to low risk Monday. Photo: Dylan Ray

Members of the commission charged with adopting rules to protect the state’s air and water resources voted this week to pursue health-based standards for only three PFAS prevalent in North Carolina drinking water sources.

The Environmental Management Commission’s groundwater and waste management committee Wednesday afternoon declined to recommend to the full commission all eight per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances included in proposed rules set forth by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ.

The commission’s water quality committee also voted Wednesday to defer a motion to send the surface water rule package on all eight PFAS to the commission for action in its full meeting on Thursday.

The decisions of both committees this week further delay the rulemaking process for the chemical compounds, two of which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified as likely carcinogens.

The earliest the full commission could take action on each committees’ recommendations is at its next meeting in September. The commission can either accept the groundwater committee’s recommendation or put a public notice of standards for all eight PFAS.

The committees’ votes this week frustrated proponents, residents, DEQ officials and some commissioners.

But others on the commission continue to defend their decisions, with those on the water quality committee arguing that they need more time to review revisions to a fiscal analysis associated with the proposed surface water standards.

Groundwater and waste management committee Chair Joe Reardon said that the members on Wednesday agreed to recommend groundwater health standards for the three PFAS because two – PFOA and PFOS – have been identified by the federal government as likely carcinogens. The third, GenX, which had been discharged into the Cape Fear River directly from Chemours’ Fayetteville Works Facility, was included he said, “because obviously the citizens of this state have struggled with (it).”

The committee agreed not to advance PFBS, PFNA, PFHxS, PFBA and PFHxA.

“The science is evolving in this dynamic and I believe the work of this committee was respectful and very pragmatic,” Reardon said.

Groundwater standards would be used to limit permitted releases of PFAS to groundwater, set the health threshold for providing alternative water supplies to residents whose drinking water exceeds contamination limits, and used to establish goals for cleaning contamination in groundwater.

Commissioner Marion Deerhake was one of two water quality committee members who voted Wednesday to recommend the commission take action on the proposed health-based standards for surface water. Fish consumption also is taken into consideration of surface water standards.

She cautioned fellow committee members during their meeting Wednesday against delaying a vote.

Commissioner and Water Allocation Committee Vice-Chair Robin Smith and Thursday during the full commission meeting that she was disappointed in the groundwater committee’s discussion and decision.

“I sat through the entire (groundwater) committee meeting and didn’t hear any substantive flaw identified in the calculation of those standards,” Smith said. “There was no contradiction of the bottom-line conclusion of the regulatory impact analysis. The adoption of all eight standards would impose no new cost on the state, or the citizens of the state, and, to the contrary, would actually reduce regulatory burden. If we can’t adopt standards in that set of circumstances it is hopeless to consider adopting standards in the much more common circumstance we’re going to be looking at in the surface water standards where there are going to be costs.”

DEQ Assistant Secretary Sushma Masemore asked water quality committee members at their meeting Wednesday to consider three points: whether or not the public accepts the science behind the health impacts of the eight compounds; the presence of the eight PFAS in drinking water sources in the state; and how the state wants to protect public health.

“We’re not saying thousands of PFAS out there, but these eight specific chemicals for which multiple federal agencies, credible academia, scientists and experts around the country and the world have put together in their consensus documentations and peer reviewed reports,” Masemore said. “We’ve shown in the many presentations, data, monitoring information, not only from us, but also third party, the permittees, that shows the presence of these PFAS at different levels. And we have articulated here, the best way to acknowledge the cost and the impact to the regulated community, because in the absence of that, the ratepayers, the everyday North Carolinian is going to have to pay for that to clean up that drinking water. They may have to pay for that through their health outcomes over a lifetime.”

The department estimates the tap water of some 3.4 million residents comes from systems that contain at least one compound exceeding new federal contamination limits on several PFAS.

More than 300 municipal and small water systems in North Carolina sampled in 2022 had PFAS detections above newly established federal maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs. Utilities that have drinking water contaminated with PFAS exceeding the MCLs have five years to integrate technology to bring them into compliance.

The costs associated with upgrading systems are by and large getting passed down to customers.

DEQ officials have been discussing proposed health standards with the commission since last November.

In April, the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce asked DEQ to postpone its pursuit of surface and groundwater standards for PFAS, arguing that further research is needed to understand the economic impacts of the proposed regulations.

Commission members continue to be accused of stalling the rulemaking process in order to protect industry.

During a virtual press conference hosted Tuesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, speakers, including residents, business owners and elected officials in the lower Cape Fear region, reiterated those claims.

“The EMC’s mandate is to protect, preserve and enhance the state’s air and water resources and it’s time for them to fulfill this responsibility,” Wilmington City Councilwoman Salette Andrews said Tuesday. “I predict they will once again fail to act in the best interest of North Carolinians. The EMC should work for the people, not the Chamber of Commerce. The chamber has its own lobbyists and doesn’t need to commission in order to do their bidding.”

Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent specifically called out newer commission members appointed last year by the Republican-controlled legislature, saying those members “have made it clear that they care more about the cost to heavy industry and the Chamber of Commerce’s values, which are also heavy industry.”

“They’re waiting for the Clean Water Act to be basically opened up by potentially a new EPA,” she said, referring to the November presidential election.

Cori Bell, a NRDC senior attorney for environmental health, said the commission has had months to ask questions of DEQ.

“There have been multiple opportunities to get more information and I don’t think that it’s a lack of information and DEC has also said publicly that it’s not a lack of information on the financial analysis here,” Bell said. “It’s really, I think, a result of chamber pressure and outside pressure.”

Commission Chair J.D. Solomon assured commission members at the close of their Thursday meeting that they’re going to “work this thing down the middle.”

“This is a long game,” he said. “We made some progress yesterday. We just have to find the balance.”

National Weather Service forecasters are expecting “dangerous heat and humidity” over the July Fourth holiday weekend, and state health officials are urging the public to take precautions as they celebrate Independence.

Highs are forecast to be in the mid-80s on the coast and in the 90s farther inland through at least Tuesday. The heat wave comes as many get set for outdoor activities.

The maximum heat index will likely be in the 100s for many coastal counties this weekend, including Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Craven, Currituck, Gates, Hertford, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Pender, Perquimans, Tyrrell and Washington counties, North Carolina Division of Public Health officials said Wednesday.

The heat index is what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature, according to the National Weather Service.

“Heat of this magnitude can be dangerous to your health, particularly for people who are more exposed to extreme heat or more sensitive to extreme heat,” officials said. This includes people without access to air conditioning, those working or exercising outdoors, older adults, pregnant women, those living with disabilities and underlying health conditions, and those who live alone.

To prevent heat-related illness, drink plenty of fluids, avoid caffeinated, sugary or alcoholic drinks, reduce outdoor activities, stay in air-conditioning as much as possible, and watch for symptoms.

Those over 60 and adults with disabilities are eligible can sign up with their county for a fan purchased with donations through the Operation Fan Heat Relief program.

“Summer heat can be dangerous for seniors living without air conditioning,”
Lakisha Williams, Director of Aging Services for Carteret County, said in a statement Wednesday about the fan program. “When temperatures soar, opening windows and using a fan can significantly improve air circulation and help residents stay cool.”

Related: Fans available to eligible adults through state program

During periods of extreme heat, Carteret County officials advised older adults to:

• Wear lightweight, loose-fitting clothing.
• Avoid strenuous activity outdoors or in hot environments.
• Wear a hat when spending time in the sun.
• Drink plenty of fluids, such as water, fruit, or vegetable juices and iced tea
  to replace the fluids lost by sweating.
• Keep your medicine in a cool, dry place.
• Check up on friends or neighbors who live alone.

For more on preventing heat-related illness or to sign up for heat alerts, visit the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services website.

NAGS HEAD — Not unlike getting a vehicle tune-up before a risky cross-country trip, emergency responders and weather officials are reinforcing the messaging about ocean safety as hundreds of thousands of beach lovers head to the coast for the July Fourth holiday.

“In the Carolinas, rip currents are our biggest killer,” said Erik Heden, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Newport/Morehead City office. Heden was speaking Thursday at the 2024 Eastern Carolinas Beach Hazards and Rip Currents Integrated Warning Team event held at Jennette’s Pier.

In addition to representatives from the National Weather Service, the team included input from local emergency and public safety officials and ocean rescue personnel, as well as government communication representatives to discuss current and future beach safety issues.

Since 2000, there have been 184 victims of rip current drownings in the Carolinas, 49% of whom were out-of-state residents, Heden said. Of them, 86% were male, most of them aged 41 to 50. Female victims were mostly between 31 and 40 years old.

“That’s four times the number of deaths from tornados, floods and wind combined,” Heden said.

The data didn’t include those who were caught in rips but their deaths were attributed to an associated cause such as a heart attack, he added. About 100 fatalities annually in the U.S. are estimated from rip currents, and as much as 80% of all ocean rescues are rip current-related.

But fortunately, there has been a lot of progress made in preventing the loss of life from rips, mostly by educating the public of the hazard, and by providing better tools to avoid the risk.

To stretch the road trip metaphor, staying safe can come down to commonsense measures such as checking road conditions and the weather report. Going to the ocean should be no different.

“Before we even get to the beach,” Heden said, “let’s talk about knowing some things.”

Those “things” include questions such as: Where are lifeguarded beaches? What are conditions that day at the beach location? Do you need a floatation device? What is the rip current risk?

Awareness can not only prevent drowning, it can also mean not having to be saved by lifeguards.

Recently, numerous news outlets reported that more than 150 beachgoers in New Hanover and Carteret counties and more than 80 at Carolina Beach alone were rescued from rip currents, which are channels of water typically formed at breaks in sand bars and that flow away from the beach.

People can sign up for alerts on beach conditions and daily rip current risks at North Carolina beaches from the National Weather Service. Dare County also offers a service that provides alerts from Dare County lifeguards about local beaches. 

Beachgoers also need to know about other hazards that include lightning, another big weather-related killer. Leave the beach immediately if you hear thunder. Lightning strikes can happen when a storm is as far as 10 miles away. Several strikes on the Outer Banks have happened when people were in the parking lot after exiting the beach.

Other risks ocean swimmers need to be aware of is shore break, that is, when a wave breaks forcefully in shallow water, and rogue waves that seemingly come out of nowhere and can throw a person into the surf.

“They can be deceptive and you don’t see them coming,” Hatteras Island Rescue Squad Supervisor Molly Greenwood said at a press briefing. “Never turn your back to the ocean.”

Even something as seemingly harmless as walking on the sand is dangerous when temperatures are high and the sun is strong. Ben Abe with Chicamacomico Banks Volunteer Fire Department water rescue said that one man suffered second-degree burns on the bottom of his feet from going barefoot on the beach and had to be transported to the hospital.

In recent years, the National Weather Service has produced numerous informational videos and pamphlets about beach safety that are available through its website, including the award-winning “Play it Safe” series.

The public information is geared to a fifth-grade education level, so it’s readily accessible for school-aged children, Heden said.

“We do a tremendous amount of public education,” he added.

Two important new infographics are focused on hazards that are related to rip currents, but had often been overlooked in risk assessments.

One provides advice to bystanders who want to help swimmers caught in a rip current or are struggling in the ocean, with a warning to call for help but not to enter the ocean without a floatation device.

According to the weather service, nearly 30% of rip current drownings in the Carolinas since 2011 were bystanders trying to save another person.

The other graphic illustrates the risk that far-offshore tropical storms create by intensifying the strength of currents, with a West Coast and East Coast version. Several videos and graphics are also offered in Spanish.

The weather service beach forecast webpage will soon be transformed into a GIS-based platform, compatible with mobile devices, said Melinda Bailey, NWS National Marine Services program manager, who attended the event remotely.

Web-based users will not have to download any proprietary software to access the platform, which is expected to be implemented by fall 2024, she added.

“It’s a long time coming but it’s very exciting,” Bailey said.

Bailey said the weather service has been working on predictive artificial intelligence models to improve accuracy of information on rip currents and other forecasting.

Heden said that he looks forward to continued progress in beach safety through advancement in communication and predictive modeling tools, including cutting edge technology.

“I’m intrigued by the virtual reality stuff,” he said. “It would be interesting to incorporate that.”

Learn more

• National Weather Service Rip current brochure

Oak Island officials announced Wednesday that its newly installed beach warning notification system will enhance safety for beachgoers and add visibility to its warning flag system already in place.

The town’s public works department installed four signs with beach warning lights that feature a fully automated wireless control system that receives National Weather Service updates and then displays the current beach warning condition via signal light.

The signage was developed by SwimSmart Warning Systems of Marquette, Michigan. The firm has designed and installed similar systems in numerous states on the East Coast, West Coast, and in the Great Lakes region.

Officials said the signs are completely self-contained, using solar options for power and onboard data receivers for information.

David Kelly, the outgoing town manager, began discussions with SwimSmart in mid-2023, according to the announcement. The company designed a system for Oak Island that incorporates a purple light to indicate the risk of “stinging marine life” such as jellyfish or Portuguese men-of-war.

The four signs were installed near the following beach access locations:

• Barbee Boulevard near the Oak Island Pier.
• Oak Island Cabana (Middleton Park Complex).
• Third Place East near South Middleton Avenue.
• The Point at the end of West Beach Drive.

The signs were to be activated by the end of the day Wednesday.

The signs’ effectiveness and durability are to be evaluated during the 2024 summer season. Then officials will determine whether to expand or adapt the program.

While the lighted signs provide beachgoers with conditions at a quick glance, officials still recommend checking the Beach Safety page of the town website for full forecast and safety information. The page also contains important information on rip current safety, what to do in an emergency, and directions on how to use rescue tubes.

To view the Beach Safety page, scan the QR code found on any of the Water Safety Stations or visit OakIslandNC.gov/SAFETY.

Several coastal residents have been appointed to state boards and commissions, and one government official to the North Carolina State Ports Authority, Gov. Roy Cooper’s office announced Monday.

Clean Energy Economic Development Assistant Secretary Jennifer Mundt of Raleigh has been selected as a member at-large to the ports authority board of directors.

Mundt, whose office is part of the North Carolina Department of Commerce, represents the state in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic Regional Transformative Partnership for Offshore Wind Energy Resources and the Federal-State Offshore Wind Implementation Partnership.

Alfred L. Hobgood IV of Atlantic Beach has been appointed to the Marine Fisheries Commission as a person actively engaged in recreational sports fishing in coastal waters in North Carolina. Hobgood is the senior vice president and financial adviser at Hobgood Peatross Investment Group of RBC Wealth Management. He has over 24 years of financial services experience.

Joy B. Futrell of Ahoskie has been appointed a director of a local management entity of mental health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse services for North Carolina Brain Injury Advisory Council. Futrell is the CEO of Trillium Health Resources, and former CEO of Roanoke-Chowan Human Services.

Mary Beth Newns of Currituck has been appointed as a representative of emergency managers for North Carolina Emergency Response Commission. Newns is the emergency management director for Currituck County, where she has worked for 22 years.

Benjamin F. Bobzien of Rocky Point has been appointed to the North Carolina Local Governmental Employees’ Retirement System Board of Trustees as an active or retired member of the Firemen’s and Rescue Squad Workers’ Pension Fund. Bobzien is a fire captain with New Hanover County Fire Rescue and has over 24 years of experience in fire service.

Charles Herty Piner III of Morehead City has been appointed to the Morehead City Navigation and Pilotage Commission as a representative of maritime interests. Piner retired after over 20 years as a quality assurance specialist for the North Carolina State Ferry Division. Piner has an extensive career as a tug master and docking pilot at the Morehead City Port.

Visit the governor’s website for a full list of appointments.

This week seven years ago, residents in the Cape Fear region learned that their drinking water supply was contaminated with GenX, a type of PFAS being released into the river by the Chemours facility, a DuPont spinoff near Fayetteville.

In the time since, the state has taken steps to manage per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also called emerging compounds, which have been linked to health effects in humans and animals.

To highlight these ongoing efforts, Gov. Roy Cooper’s office has proclaimed June 3-7 as PFAS Awareness Week.

“North Carolinians deserve clean water and we must be at the forefront of the fight to contain forever chemicals,” Cooper said Friday. “We are holding polluters accountable, researching solutions, and working hard to protect people’s health.”

PFAS is a group of human-made chemicals that has been used for decades in commercial and consumer products such as food packaging, water- and stain-repellent fabrics, nonstick products and firefighting foams, as well as industrial processes and manufacturing.

These pervasive compounds detected in household and industrial waste, air emissions and wastewater discharges are often called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment and can build up in humans and animals.

North Carolina’s departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services began investigating GenX, when Wilmington StarNews broke the story June 7, 2017, that N.C. State University researchers discovered the chemicals int he Cape Fear River basin. The state’s investigation identified the Chemours Fayetteville Works facility as the producer of GenX.

In 2019, the state, Chemours, and the nonprofit Cape Fear River Watch signed a consent order requiring Chemours to address PFAS sources and contamination at the facility to prevent further impacts to air, soil, groundwater and surface water.

NCDEQ ordered significant additional actions by Chemours to prevent PFAS pollution from entering the Cape Fear River in the Addendum to the Consent Order released in August 2020.

On Nov. 3, 2021, the state determined that Chemours was responsible for contamination of groundwater monitoring wells and water supply wells in New Hanover County and potentially Pender, Columbus, and Brunswick counties, and expanded the consent order to include these downstream communities.

On March 28, 2022, NCDEQ required Chemours expand the sampling and drinking water plan.

NCDEQ released its action strategy June 7, 2022, to address PFAS and on June 7, 2023, updated the plan to fund remediation efforts for eligible residents with PFAS contamination.

The Biden-Harris Administration announced in April the first-ever national limit on PFAS in drinking water.

“Based on all available data, more than 300 water systems in our state have PFAS levels that will exceed the new standards. That includes 42 municipal water systems serving nearly 3 million residents combined, as well as approximately 20% of small public water systems tested,” according to the state.

Cooper’s office notes in the press release that his 2024 budget proposal includes a $100 million fund to help communities clean their water from pollutants such as PFAS.

Related: Totals on PFAS-contaminated utilities ‘coming down daily’

In early May, NCDEQ requested the Environmental Management Commission begin rulemaking on PFAS groundwater and surface water standards, which would limit the amount of PFAS that companies can discharge. This commission adopts rules for “protection, preservation, and enhancement of the water and air resources of the State.”

Reducing discharges of PFAS into North Carolina’s state water supplies is the most cost-effective way to meet the new drinking water standards, according to the state.

“Despite these calls to begin regulating PFAS, the EMC has stalled efforts amid lobbying by the NC Chamber of Commerce, whose members include chemical companies,” the governor’s office said. “Republican legislators seized control of the EMC in 2023 through legislation it passed over the Governor’s veto that continues to be litigated in the courts. The EMC’s move to delay anti-pollution rules intended to protect drinking water from PFAS contamination mirrored lobbying from the NC Chamber on behalf of its members. Recent reporting shows that members of the EMC own stock in companies that belong to the Chamber and lobbied to oppose PFAS regulation.”

The National Weather Service has planned a meeting to discuss the latest approaches for keeping the public safe at the beach this summer.

The 2024 Eastern Carolinas Beach Hazards and Rip Currents Integrated Warning Team meeting being offered in person and online is scheduled for 1-3 p.m. Thursday, June 27, at Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head. A press conference follows at 4 p.m.

Reserve a spot to attend and find the link to join online.

Organizers said there will be a diverse group of emergency managers, broadcast media, social and physical scientists, first responders, and other public safety stakeholders from both inland and coastal areas at the meeting to discuss public safety and to collaborate on future strategies.

Rip currents are powerful, narrow channels of fast-moving water that are prevalent along the East, Gulf, and West coasts of the U.S., as well as along the shores of the Great Lakes, that can be a danger to swimmers, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality officials are cautioning people to stay away from discolored water as summer temperatures set in this holiday weekend.

As of last Tuesday, the department’s Division of Water Quality had received reports of 11 confirmed or suspected algal blooms, two of which contained cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae.

Cyanobacteria are found in freshwater, estuarine and marine waters, and while they are important to aquatic ecosystems, some are able to produce cyanotoxins. These highly potent toxins can pose a host of health risks including abdominal, neurological and skin issues for people, pets and aquatic species.

While algae occur naturally in all waterbodies, environmental conditions such as an increase in nutrients, higher temperatures, increased sunlight and low to no water flow can spur rapid algal cell growth called blooms.

A person cannot tell by looking at a bloom whether or not it is harmful.

Blooms may look like surface scum, or spilled paint across the top of water, in colors from bright green, red, brown or blue; dense, macroscopic growths floating on the water surface; or discoloration throughout the water. They are often moved by wind and waves and, when decaying, may stink.

Blooms may be reported to the nearest Department of Environmental Quality regional office or online.

The water resources division posts reported algal bloom events here.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health suggests people do the following to avoid algal blooms:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue, discolored or scummy. 
• Do not handle or touch large mats of algae. 
• Avoid handling, cooking or eating dead fish that may be present. 
• If you come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly.  
• Use clean water to rinse off pets that may have come into contact with an algal bloom. 
• If your child appears ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, seek medical care immediately. 
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger, or collapse after being in a pond, lake, or river, seek veterinary care immediately. 

Additional information on other potential microorganisms or pollution in waterbodies may be found on the website.

Visit the DWR website to learn more about algal blooms. For more information about the potential health effects from algal blooms, got to the DPH website.

Visitors are urged to avoid the beach adjacent to Ocean Drive in Rodanthe because of exposed wires, pipes and septic systems, Cape Hatteras National Seashore officials said Thursday.

The officials are working with Dare County and the Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative on the exposed hazards, according to the advisory.

Public Affairs Specialist Mike Barber told Coastal Review Thursday that while performing periodic monitoring of the shoreline in Rodanthe, rangers noted the eroded beachfront and a number of concerning hazards adjacent to Ocean Drive in Rodanthe.

The exposed septic systems, unknown wires and pipes, prompted officials to contact the county and electric cooperative, and to issue the advisory announced Thursday morning, Barber explained.

Beachgoers should use caution throughout the beaches in front of the village because hazards, such as building materials and parts of septic systems, may also be present in other areas of the beach in Rodanthe.

JACKSONVILLE – City officials have confirmed that the city drinking water is safe to consume and there are no public health hazards after a hazardous material incident took place earlier this week at its water treatment plant.

The town’s fire and emergency services responded at 11 a.m. Tuesday to a call at the facility located at 177 New Frontier Way, where crews found that a private transport contractor that was delivering water treatment chemicals inadvertently discharged zinc orthophosphate into a storage tank containing sulfuric acid.

“The chemicals were contained and at no time were any chemicals spilled,” the city said.

At the time, immediate areas were evacuated and an adequate isolation area was established for continued oversight. Air quality measurements were conducted through the night until units demobilized, according to the city.

Officials said Wednesday evening in the most recent update that “an environmental remediation company is on the scene to ensure proper cleanup and identify the need for any additional actions.”

Sulfuric acid is used to lower pH levels of incoming water and is removed in the treatment process before consumption and Zinc orthophosphate is used as a corrosion inhibitor to ensure integrity of pipes and valves. These chemicals and their levels are in compliance with Environmental Protection Agency standards, officials said.

More information on the city’s water treatment process and quality, a copy of the consumer confidence report is available on the website.

It’s not hurricanes. It’s not tornadoes. It’s not floods.

Heat is the No. 1 weather-related killer in North Carolina, but also the most preventable, according to the state’s recently released Heat Action Plan Toolkit, designed to help communities adapt as climate change drives more frequent and intense heat events.

“Our days and nights are getting hotter as the planet warms,” State Climatologist Dr. Kathie Dello told Coastal Review recently.

“We’re seeing more instances of record daily maximum temperatures than daily minimum records. But we’re also seeing more relentless heat — days and nights that are consistently above the temperatures that we’re used to, but maybe not Earth-shattering. And we’re seeing the hot days and nights starting earlier,” Dello said, adding that the temperature in Raleigh hit 92 degrees May 2, “Our first day over 90, about a week and a half earlier than normal.”

Children, older adults, athletes, outdoor workers and those who are pregnant, with chronic health conditions or without access to air conditioning are most vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat, but everyone is at risk.

North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency Resilience Policy Analyst Andrea Webster said that deaths and heat-related illnesses from extreme heat are 100% preventable.

“While residents are used to hot temperatures, North Carolina’s coast has a high number of outside visitors in the summer months. If they come from a much cooler area, their bodies are likely less adapted to extreme heat. Messaging about symptoms, cooling and hydration strategies, and resources to stay cool can drastically reduce health impacts and emergency department visits,” Webster said.

This is where the toolkit comes in.

The 72-page document features a template with fill-in-the-blank language for local governments, health departments and other entities to write its own heat action plan, as well as about the causes and symptoms of heat-related illnesses, groups most at risk, and where to look for funding. Supplemental materials for getting the word out to the public such as sample graphics, factsheets, brochures, and scripts to warn of impending high heat are on the toolkit website.

“With the frequency and severity of extreme weather increasing, it’s more important than ever to build local resilience that will help protect people and save lives,” Gov. Roy Cooper said when the plan was announced in late April. “The new toolkit provides valuable resources that will help local governments prepare for and respond to these potentially life-threatening events. The project also underscores how state partnerships are critical to finding climate solutions that benefit all North Carolinians.”

About the toolkit

The Office of Recovery Resiliency led the effort in partnership with Dello’s State Climate Office of North Carolina, the N.C. Division of Public Health, Duke University Heat Policy Innovation Hub and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Carolina’s Climate Adaptation Partnership.

The idea for the toolkit came about as part of the Regions Innovating for Strong Economies & Environment, or RISE, program, according to the website. Participants from across the state said a heat action plan template was a priority resilience project.

Dr. Rebecca Ward, a postdoctoral research scholar, was lead developer of the toolkit and collaborated heavily with Webster. Ward is with North Carolina State University’s Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative and the NOAA Carolina’s CAP.

Ward explained that developing the Heat Action Plan Toolkit took about a year, from initial idea to final product.

“Throughout the whole process, I’ve been continually delighted with how many different groups and individuals have shared their time and expertise to help create content and give feedback. We’ve done our best to make sure that this will be useful and usable — very ‘plug-n-play’ — for its target audiences of local governments, primarily health departments and emergency management,” Ward said.

Webster said that local and county governments, health departments and other leaders can use the toolkit to ensure there is a plan in place for when a heat wave is in the forecast, and to ensure that community partners are developing and pursuing resources that help residents and visitors cool down when it’s hot.

“We know that local government leaders are juggling so much — and the more invisible hazards, like heat, may not be top of mind for folks. We’re also just dealing with summers like we haven’t seen in our past,” Dello said. “What used to be a once in a generation hot summer is now happening more frequently. We designed it so it would be helpful and accessible for everyone.”

Webster said the meat of the toolkit is the template heat action plan.

“This word document is already designed with draft text. We want to encourage jurisdictions and community partners to work together to pick out the suggested heat resilience actions that work best for their community and start implementing the actions in the plan,” Webster said.

A list of resources is included for community leaders to contact for help filling in the template ahead of an extreme heat event, and provides instructions on how to identify census tracts with high concentrations of residents especially vulnerable to extreme heat, such as the elderly, she said.

Leaders can access region-specific heat thresholds to know when to send out heat awareness messaging, which is part of the toolkit. There is sample messaging, graphics, fact sheets, checklists, sample community surveys to understand how residents currently deal with extreme heat. Many of the toolkit’s supplemental materials are also available in Spanish.

“NCORR plans to offer workshops for communities to begin developing their heat action plans. Sign up for our e-newsletter to learn about upcoming offerings,” Webster said.

Ward said that the workshops are to take place over the next few months with target users to work through the toolkit.

“I think these will be great opportunities to advance our state’s resilience to extreme heat, and any feedback collected during these workshops will ultimately improve the Toolkit, making it more useful and usable — and we hope used — by local governments across the state,” Ward added.

Webster said that so far, the public health preparedness coordinators are particularly excited about the toolkit, and Chatham County used a draft of the Heat Action Plan Toolkit to publish the first Heat Action Plan in the state.

“Heat affects our residents’ health, and it’s often overlooked as a health concern. Having easy-to-use resources at their fingertips is helpful,” Webster said.

Heat illnesses in numbers

The state Department of Health and Human Services has been recording reported heat-related illnesses for some time.

Every year during the heat season May 1 to Sept. 30, the department’s climate and health program publishes heat-related illness surveillance reports. The first report of the year is expected to be on the website by Wednesday, May 15.

In past years, the reports provided statewide data on heat-related illness. This year, weekly reports will also include regional summaries and some county-level information, the department said.

Last year, North Carolina had more than 3,900 emergency department visits for heat-related illness between May 1-Sept. 30, with 497 of those in North Carolina’s 20 coastal counties. 

The department’s numbers show that between 2016 and 2023, these counties had around 4,300 total reported heat-related illness emergency department visits.

Department officials noted that the annual number of visits are based on the patient’s county of residence, not where they sought medical attention.

For example, a Wake County resident who seeks help at an emergency department for heat-related illness in Carteret County may not be included in Carteret’s count.

“Heat-related illness can affect anyone. People who are accustomed to this weather should still watch for the signs and symptoms of heat-related illness and take precautions to protect their health,” a health department spokesperson said. “Take the heat seriously and do not ignore danger signs like nausea, headache, dizziness or lightheadedness, confusion, and rapid or erratic pulse. They can all be signs of trouble. Get to a cool place, drink water slowly and seek medical help if conditions don’t improve.”

The long-term heat forecast

Webster said her office relies on predictions in the 2020 North Carolina Climate Science Report, which states that, for the coastal plain, “climate models project a substantial increase in the number of these very hot days and very warm nights by mid- to late century under both scenarios.”

By 2100, the number of very hot days is projected to increase by 11 to 49 under the lower scenario and 42 to 94 under the higher scenario, compared to the 1996–2015 average. The number of very warm nights is projected to increase by 14 to 45 under the lower scenario and 48 to 87 under the higher scenario, she sited from the report, adding that the State Climate Office regularly updates their projections, so it’s possible that they may have newer data that aren’t published as a report yet.

“We need to start preparing for more frequent heat waves and high nighttime temperatures. That continued stress on our bodies leads to health impacts such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat stroke and even mortality,” Webster said.

Resources

Webster said that residents can sign up to receive heat alerts when the weather is forecast to reach unhealthy temperatures.

The emails from the state health department’s Heat Health Alert System notify when the heat index is forecast to reach unhealthy levels in their county. The sign-up form is available in English and Spanish.

Other resources include the federally funded Crisis Intervention Program administered by the state Department of Social Services that assists those experiencing crises related to temperature, and Operation Fan Heat Relief for eligible adults to receive fans through their local Area Agency on Aging.

Warning signs and symptoms can be found on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s webpage on extreme heat symptoms as well as tips for preventing heat-related illness.

Webster said that visitors and everyone spending time outdoors or in unairconditioned spaces throughout the summer months should pay attention to how they feel in high temperatures.

“Stay hydrated, take breaks in the shade, and cool off in cold water. Watch out for dizziness, nausea, heavy sweating, heat cramps and painful muscle cramps in the abdomen, arms or legs following strenuous activity,” Webster said.

The health department recommends taking the following steps during heat season:

• Increase fluid intake.
• Wear sunscreen of 15 SPF or higher. Sunburn affects your body’s ability to cool down.
• Spend some time in a cool or air-conditioned environment.
• Reduce normal activity levels.
• Cool off by taking cool baths or showers, or placing ice bags or wet towels on the body.
• Stay out of direct sunlight, put shades over the windows, and use cross-ventilation and fans to cool rooms if air conditioning is not available.
• Wear lightweight, light-colored, loose-fitting clothing that permits sweat to evaporate.
• Drink plenty of liquids such as water and sports drinks to replace the fluids lost by sweating. As a person ages, thirst declines.
• Limit intake of alcoholic beverages or sugary drinks. If you are on a low-salt diet or have diabetes, high blood pressure, or other chronic conditions, talk to your doctor before drinking sports drinks.
• Check up on friends or neighbors who live alone.
• Never leave children or pets unattended in vehicles, even for a few minutes, as temperatures inside a car can reach a deadly level quickly.
• This can also be a good time to join your local senior center or take advantage of buildings made accessible to seniors during excessive heat. Your community’s public information office can be contacted for additional information.
• Residents are encouraged to speak with their healthcare provider about how to stay safe. Certain medications make you more vulnerable to heat-related illness.
• Keep your medicines in a cool, dry place.

The number of North Carolinians whose tap water comes from systems that contain at least one chemical compound exceeding new federal contamination limits is “coming down daily,” according to a state environmental official.

Rebecca Sadosky, N.C. Drinking Water Protection Program coordinator, told members of the state Environmental Management Commission Thursday that the numbers — an estimated 3.4 million people — will continue to slide as drinking water suppliers across the state upgrade their systems with technologies that remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

Thursday was the first time the commission has convened since North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Elizabeth Biser sent a letter to its members expressing her disappointment that the agency’s proposed groundwater standards for PFAS would not be put to a vote in July.

In the May 1 letter, Biser stated that the chair and vice chair of the commission’s groundwater and waste management committee were “refusing to hear the proposed groundwater standards for PFAS as an action item” at their Wednesday meeting.

Members of that committee denied that accusation, saying that the decision was made to push back a vote on the standards so members could first review at least a draft of the fiscal analysis that would explain anticipated costs associated with the proposal.

Commission Chair John Solomon kicked off Thursday’s meeting with a pep talk of sorts, telling fellow commissioners that they need to get to know one another, break barriers and “really, really support each other to make good deliberation and good decisions.”

“We have got some big decisions to continue make,” he said. “We’re going to regulated 1,4-dioxane. We’re going to regulate PFAS. I think we’re getting there. I think as a body y’all are coming together, but again, continue to work together as I’ve seen some of you doing in the past week.”

During the groundwater and waste management committee meeting, held the day before the commission’s meeting, committee Chair Joe Reardon and Vice Chair Tim Baumgartner defended the decision to wait for a fiscal analysis and hit back at Biser, saying DEQ chose to “grandstand” by issuing public statements that leveraged accusations at the committee instead of working through the issues with the committee.

DEQ showed commission members a “lack of respect,” Baumgartner said Wednesday. “This committee and commission deserved a right to review a full package before any consideration to move forward on these rules.”

He went on to say that agency officials had indicated last November that the Division of Waste Management was working on a fiscal note at that time. Yet, he said, the committee had not received a draft fiscal note to review. He cited Administrative Procedures Act requirement in his remarks.

“During all DEQ’s grandstanding DEQ did not provide this committee nor the EMC with a complete set of documents two weeks prior to the meeting, which is currently EMC policy,” Baumgartner said. “This persistent disregard for this committee stops today. All documents and any requests before this committee will be provided for this committee no later than two weeks prior to the scheduled meeting date or that item will be removed from the agenda. This public we serve deserves a solid rulemaking process that complies fully with APA, that is completely reviewed and conforms with the statutes and rules. This commission cannot do that if DEQ intends to work against us, withholding documents and grandstanding instead of engaging.”

Reardon said the committee’s decision to remove PFAS from its Wednesday agenda was to give the committee time to have access to “all the materials at one time.”

“The decision to remove this from the agenda was solely based on that all the materials required for rules to be adopted, including the fiscal note, was not provided to us in a timely manner,” he said.

Cape Fear River Watch Executive Director Dana Sargent, in a news release Thursday, thanked Biser for her letter to the committee.

“The environmental management commission’s mission is to adopt rules for the “protection, preservation, and enhancement of the state’s air and water resources,” Sargent wrote. “If the new EMC members don’t understand their mission, they should stand down.”

The spat comes a month after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it had set maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs, on several PFAS.

The new federal regulation means hundreds of water systems will have to routinely monitor for PFAS and report the results of that monitoring to their customers.

Utilities that have drinking water contaminated with PFAS exceeding the MCLs have five years to integrate technology that will bring them into compliance. More than 300 municipal and small water systems sampled in 2022 had PFAS detections above the newly established MCLs, according to DEQ.

Sadosky walked the EMC on Thursday through that timeline, one that requires systems to submit water samples to EPA-certified labs for testing beginning June 25.

North Carolina currently does not have any EPA-certified labs to test for PFAS. Sadosky said the state is waiting for guidance from the EPA on where samples may be sent this summer.

The new federal drinking water standard is expected to put a hefty price tag on utilities. The federal government is funneling billions to assist with costs associated with the measure.

The state needs surface water and groundwater standards because PFAS gets discharged into those sources and ultimately into drinking water intakes and public water supply wells, “driving up the costs for public water systems to come into compliance with the new federal drinking water standards, which has a direct impact on out-of-pocket costs for North Carolinians,” Biser said in her May 1 letter.

EPA does not establish surface water and groundwater standards.

After a multi-agency search Monday evening near Nags Head to rescue a 70-year-old male who had departed aboard an inflatable vessel, the U.S. Coast Guard is reminding boaters of the importance of wearing a life vest.

The crew of Nags Head Fire Rescue Fireboat 16 located and recovered the individual, who was wearing a life jacket, but showing signs of severe hypothermia west of Jockey’s Ridge State Park. The man was then treated by emergency medical services on-site and transported to Outer Banks Hospital, according to the Coast Guard.

“If he was not wearing a lifejacket, he may have not survived out there,” said Lt. Cmdr. Nicholas M. Pavlik, the search and rescue mission coordinator for Coast Guard Sector North Carolina. “His diligence to wear protective gear while on the water contributed to his life being saved. As we approach the warmer months of the year, it should be noted that warmer temperatures do not mean warmer water. Always be prepared and check the weather before going out.”

A family member had notified the Coast Guard that the man, who had been aboard an inflatable sailing vessel, was overdue.

Watchstanders issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast, directed the launch of a Coast Guard Station Oregon Inlet 27-foot Shallow-Water Response Craft, a Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew, along with local rescue crews.

Nags Head Fire and Rescue officials said they were called at 6:42 p.m. Monday to assist in the search.

The man had launched a small sailboat from the public sound access at 6912 South Croatan Highway, and the boat had washed ashore north of the access at Jockey’s Ridge State Park, according to Nags Head Fire and Rescue. “With strong west/southwest winds, two to three feet of swell, and cold water, the situation was very serious.”

“Our rescue boat was deployed and we worked to understand the wind and drift pattern. After initiating a search grid, we heard someone yelling from the water. Thanks to swift coordination, we were able to safely bring him aboard our vessel in less than an hour from being called to the scene. He was responsive and we were able to quickly assess his condition and provide medical care,” states a Nags Head Fire Rescue Facebook post from Monday.

The station crew found a pontoon from the vessel lodged in the marsh near Jockey’s Ridge and the helicopter crew located the rest of the vessel capsized in the middle of Roanoke Sound, with no one aboard.

As summer boating season approaches, Coast Guard officials encourage the public to review the following safe boating tips:

• Always wear a life jacket. There is usually very little time to reach for stowed vests when accidents occur. Wearing one at all times reduces the risk of drowning. Federal law requires mariners to have a personal flotation device aboard for each passenger.
• Have sufficient means of communication including a VHF radio. VHF channel 16 is the international hailing and distress frequency and can be used to reach the Coast Guard during emergencies.
• Never boat under the influence. It is illegal to operate a boat while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. There are stringent penalties for violating BUI/BWI laws, which can include large fines, suspension or revocation of boat operator privileges and jail terms.
• Never turn your back on the water. There are strong rip currents along the Atlantic coast, and sneaker waves are common.
• Dress for the water temperature, not the air temperature.
• Even if boaters do not plan to enter the water, they should be prepared for an emergency. Paddleboarders, kayakers and wind surfers who are likely to go in the water should wear a wetsuit to decrease their risk of hypothermia and a life jacket to prevent them from drowning before rescuers can get on scene.
• File a float plan. A float plan is simply letting family and friends know where you are going and your expected time of return. File a float plan with someone who is not getting underway with you and stick to the plan. A float plan assists responders in the search of an overdue boater who may be in distress.

For more boating information, go to http://www.uscgboating.org/ and for weather conditions please visit http://www.weather.gov/.

There’s an opportunity to hear from a health professional about the potential risks and hazards associated with climate change during the next “Science on the Sound” with the Coastal Studies Institute at the East Carolina University’s Outer Banks Campus.

Dr. Alex Hodges, a clinical professor in the Department of Advanced Nursing Practice and Education at East Carolina University, will present “Ready for Change: Building Effective Climate Readiness” at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 23, on the campus in Wanchese.

Hodges is a climate change expert and has collaborated with Americares and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her area of research is related to the climate impacts within Eastern North Carolina.

The session will focus on a nurse practitioner’s perspective on climate change and its implications for primary care, as well as ways to be better prepared for related challenges.

Hodges volunteers at the nurse practitioner at the Community Care Clinic of Dare, providing primary care, and serves on the Dare County Board of Health and Human Services.

The monthly “Science on the Sound” in-person lecture series brings perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics in northeastern North Carolina. The public is encouraged to attend the program being offered at no charge. It will also be live-streamed on the CSI YouTube channel.

WILMINGTON – President Joe Biden announced Thursday afternoon millions of federal dollars coming to North Carolina to replace lead drinking water service lines.

“These lead lines are tough, durable, and they don’t rust, but we’ve long since learned that they lead to poisonous toxins in our water. The science is clear, lead service lines pose severe health risks, damaging the brain and kidneys, to children especially, they stunt growth and learning and cause lasting brain damage. We know we can stop it. We know how to do it,” Biden said.

Biden’s remarks to an invitation-only crowd in the Wilmington Convention Center were met with applause, cheers and shouts of affirmation from audience members yelling “That’s right” and “Yes!”

Across the country, nine million lead service lines connect water mains to homes, schools, daycare centers and businesses, he said. There are some 300,000 of these lead pipes disbursing drinking water in North Carolina.

“The cost to replace them is consequential,” Biden said. “Too many families only learn the threat to their children after they get sick. You know, this is, for some time, why I’m determined to fix it. Until the United States of America, God love us, deals with this, how can we say we’re a leading nation of the world for God’s sake. There’s no safe level of lead exposure.”

The only way to connect all Americans to clean water is to replace every lead service line, he said.

Biden talked about his landmark Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, one where a record $15 billion has been dedicated to fund lead pipe replacement.

“Today we’re releasing a third installment of that funding, an additional $3 billion dollars nationwide, which will bring the total to $250 million to North Carolina so far,” he said.

The president said the issue is not only one of safety, but about basic fairness to communities across the country. Nearly half of the funding has been directed to disadvantaged communities that have “borne the brunt of lead poisoning,” he said, adding that tribal lands are also receiving funds.

“Studies show communities of color have been hardest hit,” Biden said. “We have to make things right. Clean water, healthier communities, peace of mind, and jobs befitting those communities, jobs of plumbers, pipe fitters, laborers, engineers. Good paying jobs you can make a serious living with without a college degree to raise a family on.”

Protecting people from lead contamination is just one of the nation’s most ambitious agendas, he said.

The federal government is funneling $9 billion to upgrade filtration systems of public water systems found to have elevated levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

“They’re very dangerous chemicals that shouldn’t be in our water supply,” Biden said.

Wilmington has become ground-zero for PFAS contamination after scientists discovered several years ago a number of these chemical compounds in the Cape Fear River, the drinking water source for tens of thousands in the region.

Biden touted his infrastructure law as the most significant investment in the nation’s roads, bridges, ports, airports and public transportation, including passenger rail from Raleigh to Richmond, Virginia.

More than 50,000 projects in more than 4,000 communities have been announced to receive funding.

“To date this has dedicated over $9 billion dollars to North Carolina alone,” Biden said.

As his roughly 20-minute address neared its end, Biden spoke more like an incumbent on a campaign trail, touching on everything from job growth and rising wages to lower prescription drug costs, and taking verbal shots at his Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump.

Biden chastised the Republicans who voted against the infrastructure law, narrowing in on Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., whom the president said called the infrastructure law fatally flawed and “a liberal trojan horse for the socialist agenda.”

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t think ensuring kids can drink clean water to avoid brain damage is a socialist agenda,” Biden said. “You may recall that my predecessor promised infrastructure every single week for four years. Didn’t build a damn thing.”

Instead, he said, the Trump administration rolled back wetland protections, gave mining companies leeway to contaminate groundwater and slashed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s budget.

Biden promised to “be a president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not.”

“I believe doing what’s always worked best for this country, investing in all Americans.” He said. “I’ve never been more optimistic about our nation’s future. Let’s get out and work together and get this done and may God bless you all and protect our troops.”

Wilmington was Biden’s second and final stop in North Carolina Thursday.

He opened his remarks in the Port City by naming the four law enforcement officers killed Monday in a shootout in a Charlotte neighborhood, asking for prayers for the victims’ loved ones.

Biden visited privately with families of the victims in Charlotte before boarding Air Force One and heading to the coast.

He was accompanied by EPA Administrator and former North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Michael Regan and Gov. Roy Cooper, both of whom took the podium before a standing-room only crowd anxious to see the president.

Seats for the invitation-only event were filled two hours before Biden’s arrival, prompting event volunteers to fill any open spaces with chairs inside a room of makeshift walls of blue fabric.

Erin Carey, acting director of the North Carolina chapter of Sierra Club, was among the crowd invited to attend the event.

“We are grateful to the Biden administration for their determination to bring about the bipartisan infrastructure bill, an effort that has brought significant advancements in water quality initiatives, giving communities hope that the fear of drinking water contamination might one day be in the past,” she said in an email following the event. “It is comforting to know that our leaders are prioritizing the health of children and families, as well as the environment, as they put our tax dollars to good use – removing lead pipes from our service lines and PFAS from our drinking water.”

A group of pro-Palestinian protestors were gathered about a block away from the convention center shouting, “Free, free, free Palestine” and waving Palestinian flags. Trump supporters also showed their support for the former president.

Biden’s remarks Thursday afternoon came on the heels of a number of new federal environmental regulatory rollouts announced in recent weeks, including enforceable limits on PFAS in public water systems, a ban on most uses of methylene chloride, and a suite of rules addressing pollution from fossil-fueled power plants.

The day before Biden’s visit, NCDEQ announced a new state-implemented human health risk assessment for 1,4-dioxane in drinking water.

The health risk assessment was directed by the North Carolina General Assembly last year to examine the risk of exposure to the chemical, which is used primarily as a solvent in manufacturing processes, in drinking water. There are currently no federal drinking water standards for 1,4-dioxane.

North Carolina has the third highest measured concentration of 1,4-dioxane in drinking water in the country, exposing residents in the state to concentrations of the chemical that may be more than double the national average in drinking water and as much as four times the average in surface and groundwater, according to DEQ.

The Cape Fear River Basin has been found to have the most detections of the chemical in the state.

The EPA, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and International Agency for Research on Cancer classify 1,4-dioxane as a likely carcinogen.

Earlier Thursday, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, or CFPUA announced it is close to wrapping up an inventory of its 70,000 water service lines. None of the lines checked so far are made of lead, according to the authority.

The utility will forward its inventory check to state regulators by mid-October.

DEQ recently tapped the utility to receive $4.16 million in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, money that will be used to replace about 300 galvanized service lines believed to have lead connectors.

These lines and connectors are coated to prevent lead from getting into drinking water.

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.

Tidal flooding is creating a potential public health hazard on the streets and roads of coastal towns, according to a recently published study.

The study found elevated levels of fecal bacteria in water samples collected over the course of two months from a tidal creek in Beaufort and its streets following rainfall.

Dr. Natalie Nelson, an associate professor at North Carolina State University, explained that the study reaffirmed what researchers already knew — stormwater runoff is the largest culprit of elevated levels, or levels that exceed regulatory recreational water quality standards, of enterococcus bacteria in Taylors Creek.

Tidal flooding forces water into the town’s stormwater system that empties into Taylors Creek. When the system exceeds capacity, water overspills onto road surfaces.

This type of flooding occurs when rainfall causes saltwater to overflow from the ocean, sounds and estuaries and, because of sea level rise, it’s becoming more prominent in coastal areas like Beaufort.

Samples collected from floodwater patches on roadways almost consistently had elevated concentrations of enterococcus bacteria.

And, in some cases, bacteria in those samples maxed out the detection limit, Nelson said.

“What it indicates to us is that the concentrations were likely high because of a source from within the stormwater network,” she said. “We say that because the floodwaters, it’s not like they were so extensive that we could really argue that they might be flushing the land surface. But, because those floodwater patches were pretty small, we think the elevated concentrations were coming from within the stormwater network.”

When floodwaters glazing the roadways drained back into the stormwater system during ebb tide, researchers recorded higher levels of bacteria in the creek, indicating that the contamination in the creek is coming from the stormwater network, Nelson said.

The contamination wasn’t present in all of the locations sampled and the presence of the contamination was brief, she said.

Enterococci are bacteria that live in the gastrointestinal tract of humans and warm-blooded animals. People who swim or play in waters with bacteria levels higher than state and federal standards have an increased risk of developing gastrointestinal illness or skin infections.

“I think the problem that we uncovered is not at all unique to Beaufort,” Nelson said. “The stormwater network was never designed to have water come back up through it and then go into places where pedestrians encounter and so we’re now in an era where we have to think about how our infrastructure systems are being stressed in new ways and how that might lead to new types of issues like maybe floodwaters having issues with contamination, but it’s a topic of ongoing research.”

In recent years, Beaufort has repaved hundreds of feet of one downtown street with pervious pavement, which allows water to soak through to the ground rather than route the water to the town’s stormwater system.

That project fell under the 2017 Beaufort Watershed Restoration Plan, one that aims to restore hydrology and reduce polluted runoff using retrofits that direct stormwater to filtrate into the ground or collect it for later use.

The town is among a number of coastal communities that have been examining how to best respond to what researchers often call “sunny day flooding” and other weather-related issues that are being exacerbated by the changing climate.

Dozens of coastal municipalities and counties have received grants through the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management’s N.C. Resilient Coastal Communities Program, or NC-RCCP.

The program is a creation of the state’s 2020 Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan, which was the result of Executive Order 80 signed by Gov. Roy Cooper in October 2018.

NC-RCCP aims to boost resilience efforts in the state’s 20 coastal counties and encourages those who live and work along the coast to participate in finding solutions to prioritize projects designed to help their communities bounce back from storms and floods.

For more information about tidal flooding and precautions, visit North Carolina Sea Grant’s website.

Vulnerable adults have access to help through Operation Fan Heat Relief to reduce their risk of heat-related illnesses.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Aging is partnering with area agencies on aging and local service providers to distribute fans to adults with disabilities or those 60 and older.

Sign up for assistance from May 1 to Oct. 31 at area aging agencies across the state.

Operation Fan Heat Relief, which has been in place since 1986, was supported with donations from Duke Energy Carolinas, Duke Energy Progress, Dominion and Valassis.

The relief program allows agencies on aging and local provider agencies to purchase fans for eligible individuals, and a limited number of air conditioners based on a person’s specific health conditions. Last year, the division received $86,000 in donations, allowing for the distribution of 3,097 fans and 21 air conditioners.

“As individuals age and develop chronic medical conditions, they are less likely to sense and respond to changes in temperature, and they may also be taking medications that can worsen the impact of extreme heat,” officials said. “Operation Fan Heat Relief helps vulnerable adults at risk for heat-related illnesses stay safe during the summer.”

Officials recommend taking the following steps during high temperatures:

• Increase fluid intake.
• Spend time in cool or air-conditioned environments regularly.
• Reduce strenuous activity during the afternoon.
• Speak with their physician before summer about how to stay safe while taking medication that can affect the body’s ability to cool itself such as high blood pressure medications.

More information about Operation Fan and Heat Relief, including tips on preparing for extreme heat and a list of local agencies distributing fans, is available on the NCDHHS website.

The bright green scum coating areas of the Cape Fear River’s surface caught everyone by surprise.

Until that summer in 2009, no one had seen Microcystis blooms in the river, which for decades leading up to that point had been monitored for algae.

“The community members, researchers, the water utilities, this was a really strange system to have these types of cyanobacterial blooms,” in the Cape Fear, said Madi Polera, a doctoral candidate at North Carolina State University. “Many historic blooms are typically associated with some kind of nearby, still-moving water, like another lake or reservoir, and the blooms appear immediately downstream.”

Even more baffling was the fact that the blooms abruptly stopped appearing in the river in 2012 — and they haven’t appeared since.

The presence of blooms set off a flurry of investigations. Water utilities studied what types of toxins the blooms may have been emitting into the drinking water supply and how to best remove those toxins from the raw water source. Wildlife officials wanted to know how the blooms might affect fisheries, particularly the anadromous fish swimming upstream to spawn.

Two years after the blooms disappeared, researchers in 2014 initiated a forensic-like investigation to rule out any possible explanation of how the algae got into the river, how to prepare for a reoccurrence of the blooms, and seek out ways to prevent the blooms from sprouting up on the river’s surface again.

Polera, one of the authors of the study that was published in March, explained that the investigation was not one where researchers tried to prove anything.

The study “was just what is the most likely, the most plausible aspects that we could not rule out,” Polera told Coastal Review via telephone earlier this week.

Microcystis algae blooms are made from a recipe largely of nitrogen and phosphorous. The cyanobacteria thrives in waters like lakes and ponds, blooming during warm summer months before hunkering down into the sediment, where it lies dormant in the winter.

Microcystis blooms produce a few different types of toxins, primarily microcystin. Microcystin can affect the liver and is considered a possible human carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency. If ingested, microcystin and the other toxins can cause digestive issues and may cause flu-like symptoms in both humans and animals.

Dogs are especially sensitive to microcystin.

The blooms in the Cape Fear River were localized primarily upstream of Lock and Dam No. 1, an area where conditions are ripe for algae growth because of the lake-like effect the dam has on the water. The dam is near Riegelwood, a community roughly 30 miles upstream of Wilmington and near the drinking water source intake for thousands in the region.

“What we really tried to do was look at everything that we know about the biology of Microcystis and what can contribute to it and kind of go down the list to rule out any possible explanation,” Polera said. “We started with the conditions in the river and we asked what is special about these four summers and at this location that may have changed to now support these blooms that we’ve never seen before.”

Were the summers between 2009 and 2012 particularly hot? Was there an unusual amount of nutrients in the river? Did the turbidity change in a way that would favor Microcystis blooms?

Polera first turned to monitoring data collected between the early 1990s through the 2000s. It was determined that there was nothing particularly unique about those summers or that location.

Researchers then turned way upstream to Jordan Lake where waters, they knew, had harbored other cyanobacteria in the past. Could a chance in the lake have created conditions that allowed Microcystis to incubate there and send it down river?

No. Researchers determined that the blooms that appeared that far downstream could not have possibly gotten there from the lake.

“We’ve never seen blooms at any other areas of the river that have the same type of lake-like characteristics that Lock and Dam 1 does. There were no blooms behind Buckhorn Dam, no blooms behind Lock and Dam 3 and there were occasional surges out of Jordan Lake when they got really big rains that we didn’t see blooms immediately following that,” Polera said.

Next, researchers focused a little closer to Lock and Dam No. 1, turning their attention to major industrial dischargers.

They were able to rule out wastewater treatment plants in Fayetteville and Elizabethtown.

But they could not eliminate Smithfield Foods’ plant in Tar Heel, a tiny town in Bladen County that’s home to the largest pork-processing facility in the country.

After confirming the presence of Microcystis in samples of discharge from the plant, researchers combed through monitoring reports to look at whether there was a correlation between when the facility discharged into the river and when the blooms appeared.

Next, researchers compared the Microcystis found in the plant’s discharge to that found downstream near the dam.

“Yes, there’s chlorophyll in there. Yes, there’s Microcystis. Yes, there’s enough nutrients. Yes, they were discharging during the times. Yes, they were discharging enough based on our calculations and modeling that what was coming out of the discharge was enough to seed the population that we saw downstream. I just can’t find anything in their data and in our sampling to say, no, this wasn’t possible,” Polera said.

One simple way to prevent the possibility of future blooms, she said, is for regulatory agencies to require industries that may have chlorophyll a, which allows algae to use sunlight to convert molecules into organic compounds, to monitor for that particular type of chlorophyll.

The EPA is currently proposing revisions to wastewater discharge standards for meat and poultry products facilities. The revisions would require facilities to reduce the amounts of nutrients and other pollutants they discharge by using “affordable and available wastewater treatment technologies.”

“I think the good news is we have been watching now for over 10 years,” Polera said. “We’ve been prepped and ready to go if it ever does happen again. The water utilities are very prepared, if it does happen, to make sure that nothing gets into the drinking water and they can do that very effectively. As far as the risk goes, the water utilities and researchers that are really keeping an eye on the conditions of the river have it covered. My hope is that with all that preparation and additional monitoring, I would be surprised if we see it again.”

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.”

A webinar next week is set to bring together climate scientists, public health professionals and policy specialists to speak on the dangers of extreme heat.

The North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency and the State Climate Office of North Carolina are hosting “Navigating North Carolina’s Rising Temperatures: Understanding and Addressing the Health Risks of Heat.” The webinar is from 10-11:15 a.m. Wednesday, April 17. Register at go.ncsu.edu/heat-health.

“We know North Carolina summers are getting hot. But they’re getting hotter, and we’re especially seeing the increase in nighttime temperatures. Heat illness and death is also preventable. Flooding gets a lot of attention — but heat is more of a chronic, silent threat,” State Climate Office Director Kathie Dello said.

“Each year, on average, heat kills more people than all other natural disasters combined,” NCORR’s Resilience Policy Advisor Andrea Webster told Coastal Review, adding that while many coastal residents are “understandably preparing for the impacts of stronger hurricanes and heavy precipitation events,” they shouldn’t forget about heat.

As more heat records are broken — March 2024 was the warmest March ever recorded globally — stronger hurricanes, more intense wildfires and other climate-related challenges, Webster said the NCORR Resilience Program team is working to help local governments and elected officials reduce economic, social and environmental consequences, and managing the impacts.

Local governments “have protocols they enact when hurricanes or ice storms hit, but they typically don’t have a plan of action for when a heat wave is in the forecast,” Webster said.

Speakers during the webinar will talk about the state’s changing temperatures, the dangers of extreme heat to human health, evidence-based strategies for preventing heat-related illnesses, how communities are already preparing, and how the state can help.

In addition to the host agencies, partners for the webinar are the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Carolinas Climate Adaptation Partnership, the Duke University Heat Policy Innovation Hub, Chatham County Public Health Department, and N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health.

Looking ahead, NCORR, the State Climate Office and the Department of Health and Human Services plan to release a Heat Action Plan Toolkit later this month to help local governments and health professionals encourage residents to take care of themselves during extreme heat.

Webster said the toolkit will include extreme heat thresholds to help local governments know when to implement heat preparedness activities. Thresholds for multi-county regions across the state are being developed.

Dello said that the State Climate Office works to help residents understand their weather and climate risks.

“We do this in a few different ways,” Dello said, including with original research in partnership with state agencies, working with N.C. Cooperative Extension and N.C. Sea Grant to raise awareness, and work with K-12 teachers to teach them about the environment.

The webinar came about at the request of communities that are already preparing their residents for extreme heat, Webster said.

NCORR, the State Climate Office and other partners held last a workshop last summer in Fayetteville on heat action protocol development.

“When asked what additional resources would be helpful, the local governments in attendance requested a ‘heat and health 101’ training. This workshop is in direct response to that request,” Webster said.

Dello added that this how a lot of their projects and work begins.

“Someone expresses an idea or need, and we’ll assemble the resources to try to help them out,” Dello said.

NCORR has been working with the local governments in the Community Disaster Resilience Zones, or CDRZ, designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency last year. These zones, which include nearly all coastal counties, were designated to “build and strengthen community resilience across the nation by driving federal, public, and private resources to the most at-risk and in-need communities,” according to FEMA.

The team is meeting with officials to help them understand the risks of climate change in their community and what resources and solutions are available to help.

“North Carolina residents are used to hot temperatures, but we need to start preparing for more frequent heat waves and high nighttime temperatures,” which Webster said is especially concerning because of the increase in emergency room visits from not being able to cool down several nights in a row. “That continued stress on our bodies leads to health impacts such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat stroke and even mortality. Unlike other climate change impacts, heat-related mortality and morbidity are 100% preventable.”

Webster said NCORR hopes to offer more opportunities to learn about preventing heat impacts on residents and infrastructure in the future. Sign up for the NCORR Resiliency Updates e-newsletter to learn more.

“There are steps we can take to keep our residents and our tourists cool. North Carolina’s coast has a high number of outside visitors in the summer months. If they come from a much cooler area, their bodies are likely less adapted to extreme heat. Raising public awareness of symptoms, cooling and hydration strategies, and resources to stay cool can drastically reduce health impacts and emergency department visits,” Webster said.

Featured Image

An anole, freshly shed of its skin except the still-peeling tip of the nose, suns in a Beaufort agapanthus bed. For us creatures who don’t normally peel, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise that protection from the sun’s rays is important year-round, not just during the warmer months. Photo: Dylan Ray

Update: State officials lifted this advisory Tuesday, April 16.

Officials advised Wednesday against swimming at a soundside public access near Holly Ridge in Onslow County because bacteria levels in the water were found to exceed the state’s and Environmental Protection Agency’s recreational water quality standards.

An advisory was posted for the public access into the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway at Morris Landing Clean Water Preserve at the end of Morris Landing Road.

The advisory is not a beach closing for Stump Sound, but instead advises against swimming within 200 feet of the sign.

Test results of water samples taken Monday and Tuesday indicate bacteria levels that exceed the state and federal action levels of 104 enterococci per 100 ml for Tier 2 nondaily use sites. Swimming areas are classified based on recreational use and are referred to as tiers.

State officials will continue testing the site, and they will remove the sign and notify the public again when the bacteria levels decrease to levels below the standards.

The North Carolina Recreational Water Quality Program tests water quality at ocean and sound beaches in accordance with federal and state laws. Enterococci, the bacteria group used for testing, is found in the intestines of warm-blooded animals. While it does not cause illness, scientific studies show that enterococci may indicate the presence of other disease-causing organisms. People swimming or playing in waters with bacteria levels higher than the action level have an increased risk of developing gastrointestinal illness or skin infections. 

State recreational water quality officials sample 221 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 the waters are colder.

For more information on the N.C. Recreational Water Quality Program or to a view a map of testing sites, visit the program’s website and follow the program’s social media.

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.”

State officials are expected to ask the panel of experts making up the Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board for direction on existing PFAS health risk data during the meeting at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Raleigh.

The board that guides the departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services will be asked to look at and compare exposure assessments from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, compounds.

Exposure assessments, which include measuring the amount, frequency and duration of exposure, are one way to find out if a community could have been exposed to a certain type of substance in their environment, according to the CDC.

The public is invited to attend the meeting in the Archdale Building, 512 N Salisbury St., Raleigh, or listen online through WebEx. Webinar number is 2437 875 2089 and password is NCDEQ. There will be an in-person public comment period during the meeting with an opportunity to sign up upon arrival.

Related: NC scientists receive tools for tracking new compounds

Other items on the draft agenda include an update on a PFAS rulemaking package, and peer-reviewed studies published since the board’s 2023 recommendation on PFMOAA, which is a PFAS unique to North Carolina.

The board also will discuss human health risk data for 1,4-Dioxane in drinking water. The substance 1,4-Dioxane is a solvent used in the manufacture of other chemicals, and is a trace contaminant of some chemicals used in cosmetics, detergents and shampoos, per the CDC.

The Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board includes experts in toxicology, public health, ecology, engineering, and other related fields who assist the departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services. To learn more about the board and hear recordings of past meetings, visit the website.

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.

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its statutory authority when it ordered a Texas-based company to stop creating long-lasting toxic chemicals while manufacturing plastic containers.

The three judges for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans filed their unanimous decision Thursday, vacating the two orders the EPA had issued Dec. 1, 2023.

The orders under the authority of the Toxic Substances Control Act, Section 5, directed Inhance Technologies LLC in Houston not to create per-and-polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, as a byproduct during production of fluorinated high-density polyethylene, or HDPE, plastic containers. The containers are used to store products such as pesticides, fuel and automotive liquids.

The EPA argued that the PFAS in the plastic containers can seep into the liquid products and lead to potential exposure, like seeping into groundwater or through fish ingestion.

Inhance has been using the same fluorination process since 1983 to create “a barrier that keeps dangerous substances from leaching out of their containers, and keeps outside substances from permeating in,” the ruling states.

The EPA used its authority under Section 5, which allows the agency to determine and regulate new substances, rather than Section 6, which is broader and includes all chemicals but also has more requirements.

“Inhance argues that the EPA exceeded its statutory authority by issuing orders under Section 5 instead of Section 6 because Inhance’s forty-year-old fluorination process is not a ‘significant new use’ under TSCA. We agree,” Circuit Judge Cory Wilson writes in the ruling.

“I am exceedingly pleased with the ruling and grateful to our customers and employees for their resilience, dedication, and support,” Inhance Technologies President and CEO Andrew Thompson said in a release.

Jeff Landis in the EPA’s media office told Coastal Review Monday that the agency “is reviewing the decision.”

The EPA began looking into Inhance after being notified by an environmental group in September 2020 that PFAS contamination was present in a mosquitocide stored in one of the company’s fluorinated containers, the agency said.

The EPA determined that when Inhance products go through the fluorination process, numerous types of PFAS are manufactured. These chemicals leach into the product.

The agency argued that the “fluorination process was subject to a significant new use rule regarding long-chain perfluoroalkyls (PFAS),” and issued Inhance a notice of violation in March 2022 for failing to notify the agency before it began manufacturing PFAS.

“Inhance had five years from the proposal of EPA’s long-chain PFAS significant new use rule in 2015 to when it was finalized in 2020 to inform EPA that it was manufacturing long-chain PFAS as part of its process,” the EPA said. After the notice, the agency found that Inhance continued to manufacture the regulated PFAS and intended to continue with its fluorination process and the Department of Justice filed suit on behalf of EPA against Inhance in December 2022.

The notice directed Inhance to either change its fluorination process so it no longer manufactured PFAS, or to temporarily halt the fluorination of any products that resulted in the creation of PFAS, the ruling states. Instead, Inhance submitted significant new use notices for the nine PFAS it manufactures to EPA for review on Dec. 30, 2022.

The EPA requires significant new use notices under Section 5. If the EPA finds that there is not enough evidence to determine the effects of the substance or presents an unreasonable risk of injury, then the agency must issue an order prohibiting or limiting the manufacture of the substance.

The EPA announced Dec. 1, 2023, that after reviewing the significant new use notices from Inhance and consistent with the “Framework for Addressing new PFAS and New Uses of PFAS,” the agency had determined that three of the PFAS “are highly toxic and present unreasonable risks that cannot be prevented other than through prohibition of manufacture.”

The agency also determined that the other six of the nine PFAS chemicals manufactured by the company may present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment, and under the Toxic Substances Control Act, “is requiring the company to cease manufacture of these chemicals, and to perform additional testing if it intends to restart production,” the Dec. 1, 2023, press release explains.

“PFAS should not be in the plastic containers people use every day, period,” Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Assistant Administrator Michal Freedhoff said in the Dec. 1, 2023, release. “EPA’s action today is one more way we are furthering the Biden-Harris Administration’s Strategic Roadmap to combat PFAS pollution.”

A week later, on Dec. 8, 2023, Inhance announced plans to seek review by the 5th Circuit, “to stop the one-sided orders” issued by the EPA.

“If allowed to take effect, the orders will force Inhance Technologies to shut down its 11 barrier technology facilities across the U.S., disrupting downstream industries and related supply chains that rely on the company’s environmentally critical technology,” the company said.

As a result of the EPA learning about PFAS in mosquitocide through this type of container in September 2020, the agency announced Feb. 15 a new method to serve as an additional tool for its staff and for industries that use HDPE containers to identify PFAS contamination.

Inhance has fluorinated up to 200 million containers annually, “which is more containers than there are households in America. The release of 2.2 Kg (kilograms or 4.85 pounds) of these 9 PFAS could cause significant contamination of drinking water supplies leading to risks of adverse health effects in millions of people,” according to the EPA.

“For example, EPA recently proposed a Maximum Contaminant Level of 4 parts per trillion for PFOA in drinking water. Additionally, EPA has also proposed that there is no level of PFOA in drinking water that is without risk of adverse health effects. If 2.2 Kg of PFOA were released to drinking water sources, it would contaminate more than 145 billion gallons of water to levels that would exceed this proposed enforceable level. This corresponds to almost three years’ worth of water use in the City of New Orleans,” the EPA continued.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, and the Center for Environmental Health, or CEH, responded Friday, announcing jointly that the organizations were “deeply disappointed and alarmed” by the 5th Circuit’s “flawed decision.”

The groups said Inhance Technologies’ fluorination process “results in hundreds of millions of plastic containers leaching toxic PFAS chemicals into food, cosmetics, cleaning supplies, fuels, and other household products.” The public health danger must be addressed, they said.

“Significantly, Inhance’s customers are now unquestionably on notice that their products contain several PFAS that EPA has determined are harmful to health. They should consider alternatives to fluorination that are PFAS-free,” PEER said.

The two organizations and the EPA are plaintiffs in a December 2023 suit in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to enforce Toxic Substances Control Act requirements against Inhance.

“PEER and CEH will now pursue that case in addition to any other remedies that are available to abate this significant and unreasonable danger to public health, and will urge the government to do so as well,” they 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.

In 2021, a bacterial disease outbreak in Rhode Island was linked to people eating raw oysters grown and harvested in floating cages.

It was that state’s first such outbreak of Campylobacteriosis from shellfish, one that an environmental investigation later traced to birds as the likely source of contamination.

North Carolina hasn’t had any such case, but the possibility is a concern as the numbers of floating shellfish farms, which can be attractive roosting spots for birds, increase in the state’s coastal waters.

Shellfish growers who use floating equipment, including cages and bags, are required to have action plans to deter birds from perching on gear protruding up from the water surface.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries, which oversees shellfish lease permits, is required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to inspect lease operations at least once a year.

But, as with a number of state agencies, the division is shortchanged on personnel, leaving fewer than 60 officers to cover hundreds of miles of the state’s coastline spanning 20 counties and 2.5 million acres of water.

“We are patrolling the waters every day for all types of violations,” said N.C. Marine Patrol Col. Carter Witten, the division’s top law enforcement officer. “We need people and we need officers.”

The division has been given the green light to create a new aquaculture position, someone who will help inspect leases and make sure lease holders are in compliance.

It’s a step in the right direction, but more leases, paired with the continuing coastal population boom — more residents, more boaters, more recreational fishermen — only further tip a scale where circumstances outweigh staff.

There is the potential to fund additional division enforcement positions through the Commercial Fishing Resources Fund, but such a decision lies solely with the Marine Fisheries Commission and the Funding Committee.

The first water column lease issued in North Carolina was in 1991.

Today, there are more than 150 water column shellfish leases covering a little more than 500 acres along the coast.

The number of existing leases pales in comparison to the number of applications submitted to the state over the past decade – nearly 270 since 2014.

Proposed water column leases spanning a total of just under a dozen acres in Pender County were met early last month with a flurry of local opposition during a public hearing hosted by the division.

The majority of speakers said that while they supported local shellfish farming efforts, the addition of leases in the waters near Topsail Island will infringe upon popular fishing spots, impede boating and kayaking access, affect the viewsheds of waterfront properties near the farms, and may affect water quality from roosting birds.

Those lease applications from two area oyster farming companies are awaiting final determination, according to the division’s website.

Water column leases, where aquaculture equipment is placed in the water body rather than on the water bottom, are appealing to growers for a few reasons, explained the division’s Shellfish Sanitation and Recreational Water Quality Section Chief Shannon Jenkins.

“With floating gear being so prevalent here in North Carolina and other coastal states, it has a lot of advantages as far as air drying and not getting as many barnacles and things like that,” Jenkins said. “It has faster grow rates in many cases that the farmers find beneficial. But along with that, it can attract birds.”

To try and keep birds from perching on rows of cages within a lease, shellfish growers use repellents such as zip ties, their pointy ends jutting upward to deter birds from landing, or spinning whirligigs.

“We don’t say whether their plan will work or won’t work,” Witten said. “All we can do is evaluate it and see whether it’s working or not. If it’s not working we can advise you that you need to come up with something else. Something might work today and next month it doesn’t work and you have to change it. You can have zip ties all over it and I’ve seen birds land on it.”

A lease holder is required to use the bird deterrent method specified in a permit application.

“If we go out there and they haven’t done that then we can do a notice of violation on their permit because they didn’t follow their plan,” Witten said.

But there is a major incentive to growers to try and keep birds from congregating on floating gear and, let’s be blunt, pooping on their cash crop.

“First and foremost, the lease holders, they’re smart business people and they don’t want to get anybody sick. It would not be good for business,” Jenkins said. “Right now, North Carolina shellfish industry has a really great track record and great reputation. It’s obviously rare for this to cause a health issue, but it is certainly a potential. It’s also not a good visual to have bird waste on people’s cages. It’s, again, in their interest perception-wise and health-wise and reputation industry-wise to remain diligent on that.”

He said it is possible that more staff positions like the one the legislature approved during the North Carolina General Assembly’s last session will be needed if shellfish leases continue to grow at the rate they have in recent years.

“We’re supposed to inspect shellfish lease operations at least once per year according to the National Shellfish Sanitation Program, so to remain in compliance with that we would need that ability to do that,” Jenkins said. “It could be problematic if we got to a point where we were not able to do that.”

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.

Reprinted from North Carolina Health News

Christie Woolard, manager of what will soon be arguably the most remote pharmacy in North Carolina, joked that she has a “terrible commute to work each day.”

In reality, Woolard more or less works from home. She lives with her dog in an apartment above Ocracoke Health Center Pharmacy on Ocracoke Island.

Accessible only by ferry or private plane, the island is about 26 miles from the mainland coast. It was purportedly a favorite hideout of the pirate Blackbeard, who was killed there by British mercenaries in 1718. 

While Ocracoke’s isolation might have been advantageous for bygone buccaneers, it presents a challenge for contemporary islanders in need of prescription drugs. 

The unincorporated community has for years relied on Beach Pharmacy, a drugstore on neighboring Hatteras Island, for next-day deliveries. But those deliveries can be delayed if choppy waters or high winds — or both — prevent the shop’s couriers from safely crossing the Pamlico Sound on the state ferry system. That leaves residents at risk of running out of medicine, or lacking if they need emergency medications.

That shouldn’t be an issue once Woolard’s pharmacy — the first ever pharmacy on Ocracoke Island — opens. The facility is within walking distance of most homes in the small village that occupies the southern end of the island, which had a population of 797 permanent residents at the 2020 Census. 

Woolard moved to Ocracoke in July. A 1992 graduate of Campbell University, she spent most of her career as a pharmacist in North Carolina before taking a break to travel the U.S. in 2019.

“I decided it was time to pull up my roots,” she said. “I had been all over the country — New Mexico, South Dakota, Washington — and I just got homesick. When I saw the ad for this, I was like, ‘It’s time to get back closer to home.’”

Surprisingly complex launch

On a recent November afternoon, Woolard was working to secure stock for the empty metal shelves lining the pharmacy’s walls. It has been difficult to find a wholesaler that will deliver to the island, she said. 

Various other challenges have delayed the opening of the pharmacy, which was first announced by Ocracoke Health Center, the community’s nonprofit medical clinic, in June 2022. The center’s leadership originally expected the facility to be up and running by spring or summer of this year.

“I’ve been a pharmacist for a long time, but I didn’t know how complex getting a pharmacy open was,” Woolard said. “I figured it would take me a month of work and we’d be done. I had no idea it would be this complex.”

She hopes to finally begin filling prescriptions by January, giving the pharmacy a few months to prepare for the island’s busy summer season. Tens of thousands of travelers flock to Ocracoke to fish, surf and sightsee from June to August, swelling the population.

The Ocracoke Health Center Pharmacy will be open to anyone visiting the island, making it the first public pharmacy in Hyde County. The county’s only other pharmacy is restricted to patients of Engelhard Medical Center, the health center’s sister clinic on the mainland.

“From a moral and ethical standpoint, I can’t say, ‘You can’t come here. Go to the Walmart up the street,’” Woolard said. “There is no Walmart up the street.”

Even when it comes to over-the-counter drugs, the options are limited. The local Variety Store is the only establishment that sells common items such as allergy medications and pain relievers.

Woolard said the pharmacy will offer a selection of antihistamines, vitamins and other over-the-counter drugs when it opens. They will not be sold at the high “resort prices” that are commonly charged in other tourism-centric locations, she said.  

‘More convenient’

The pharmacy can’t open soon enough for Jim Ogden, who has lived on the island for more than a decade.

Ogden has brain cancer and takes multiple medications a day. His prescriptions are currently filled at Beach Pharmacy in Hatteras and then dropped off at Ocracoke Health Center for pickup.

But there were several instances this past summer when his drugs arrived late because the ferry wasn’t running.  

“If there’s high winds or high tides, they can’t deliver,” he said. “And if I can’t get my medication, I’m in trouble.”

Assuming the Ocracoke pharmacy had Ogden’s medications in stock, he’d be able to get them the way most people on the mainland get their prescription drugs — by picking them up the same day at their local pharmacy.

Ogden said he plans to have his prescriptions sent to Ocracoke Health Center Pharmacy when it opens. He predicts that many fellow islanders will do the same.

“It’s going to be much more convenient,” he said.

This article first appeared on North Carolina Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. Coastal Review partners with North Carolina Health News to help bring our readers relevant news of the coast.

Native Americans in North Carolina face a disproportionately higher risk for preterm birth because of exposure to mixtures of toxic metals in their private drinking water wells, according to a recent study.

Women whose private wells have tested for higher levels of lead or cadmium, as opposed to those whose wells with lower levels of those metals, have an increased risk of giving birth prematurely, or before 37 weeks, the study found.

Researchers also found that people exposed to a mixture of lead, cadmium and chromium are at higher risk of preterm birth, said Dr. Lauren Eaves, research scientist and adjunct assistant professor with the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Gillings School of Public Health and co-author of the study.

“We also found that the effect was strong among American Indian individuals, and I think it’s important to both highlight this but (to also) put it in the correct context that this isn’t any unique genetic susceptibility,” she said.

University researchers and others at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences combined 20 years of well water test records and more than 1 million birth certificates from 2003 to 2015 and found that 9.4%, or 124,000, were preterm.

North Carolina has the largest population — more than an estimated 2 million people — of people in the country who get their drinking water from private wells.

Unlike water provided by public systems, private well water is not protected by the Safe Water Drinking Act, which sets limits on the levels of certain contaminants in drinking water.

The effect of this, nationwide, equates to higher levels of metals, particularly arsenic and lead, in the bodies of people who rely on private well water as opposed to those on public water systems, Eaves said.

This places low-income and nonwhite families in rural areas at particular risk because they often lack the financial means to upgrade their wells with filtration systems or drill new wells.

According to information provided by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, private well owners are, in most cases, responsible for getting their water sampled.

PFAS contamination

Hundreds of private wells in the Cape Fear River Basin have either been tested or are waiting to be tested for GenX and other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, contamination linked to Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant in Bladen County.

Under the terms of a consent order, Chemours is responsible for paying to either install filtration systems in homes with wells that test for high levels of those contaminants or tap fees for households where access to public water systems are available.

The state has also established a pilot program that provides some financial assistance to low-income households to buy treatment systems or pay for public water system connection fees in areas where PFAS contamination cannot be attributed to any one particular source polluter. The pilot program is only for private well water users in New Hanover, Pender, Columbus, Brunswick and Guilford counties.

The spotlight PFAS contamination in the Cape Fear region is shining on water quality issues within the state is likely to aid at least some Native Americans living in North Carolina, but not all.

Systemic environmental injustice

Eaves said that what is most likely happening in Indigenous communities is that they’re experiencing forms of environmental injustice, such as municipal underbounding.

Municipal underbounding occurs when cities and towns keep communities of color outside of municipal boundaries.

Research is limited on whether this type of environmental injustice is occurring in Native American communities in the state, Eaves said.

However, municipal underbounding is “very well documented” for Black communities in North Carolina, she said.

“So, we hypothesize that this might be also happening for American Indian communities and we’re currently working on trying to actually scope out the evidence for that,” she said.

The study does not identify which tribes in the state face the greatest risk for preterm birth.

“What we do know is that larger communities of American Indian folks in Robeson County, Scotland County, and these areas where there are huge environmental injustice problems for our Lumbee community, for our Cherokee community out in the west, but particularly in that southeast region — Lumbee, Coharie — face a lot of environmental injustices and this lack of resources around private well water is compounding that,” Eaves said. “I think there’s limited resources for folks to test and treat that water and I think that’s what that finding is really demonstrating is that we need to pay particular attention to more vulnerable communities.”

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, more than 130,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives live in North Carolina.

There are eight state-recognized tribes: Coharie, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, which are also fully recognized by the federal government, Haliwa-Saponi, Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, which also has partial federal recognition, Meherrin, Sappony, Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation and Waccamaw Siouan.

Representatives for the Coharie in Sampson County and the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina in Robeson County did not respond to questions and requests for comment.

In the United States, the rate of preterm births is highest for Black infants at 14.4%, followed by Native Americans and Alaska Natives at 11.8%, according to March of Dimes.

Preterm babies can suffer from a myriad of physical and mental impairments. The first-year average medical costs for premature babies in the U.S. was about four times greater than that of full-term babies in 2016.

That same year, the annual societal economic cost, including medical, educational and lost productivity, associated with preterm births was no less than $25.2 billion.

It can be incredibly stressful for communities experiencing higher rates of preterm births as members of that community seek answers to uncover why early births are occurring and how to protect not only pregnant women, but everyone in that community, Eaves said.

“And, I think it can be really distressing to know that there are contaminants in your water,” she said. “Everyone deserves clean water and so I think it can have a huge emotional effect on communities. I think that thinking about environmental health and exposures during pregnancy is under-researched and not considered as often as I think it should. I hope that as a state we continue to raise awareness around this and provide resources for pregnant folks to be able to protect themselves in the context of metals. We need to work to reduce these exposures that our communities are facing.”

Several of the people Gov. Roy Cooper appointed to boards and commissions, positions announced Monday, reside on the coast.

Cooper appointed Lacey Edwards of Havelock to the Catawba Indian Nation Foundation Board of Directors as an enrolled member of the Catawba Indian Nation. Edwards is a teacher in Havelock.

Virginia Gardner Vinson of Edenton was appointed to the Edenton Historical Commission as a member at-large. Vinson has worked as the director of adult education for the College of Albemarle, director of the commission’s Penelope Barker House, heritage tourism development officer, and executive director of the Chowan Hospital Foundation.

Ahoskie Mayor Weyling J. White was appointed to the North Carolina Forestry Advisory Council as a representative with experience in city and regional planning. White is also a practice administrator for the Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center.

Dr. Janet F. Davidson of Wilmington was appointed to the North Carolina State Historical Records Advisory Board as a member at-large. Davidson has been the Cape Fear Museum Historian since 2005. Previously, she was a historian and exhibition curator for the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution.

Jacob Harrison Joplin of Morehead City was appointed as chair to the Underground Damage Prevention Review Board. Joplin is the CEO and general manager of Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative, where he has worked since 2000. Joplin was serving as vice chair of the board prior to this appointment.

Dare County Emergency Management has received the 2023 Preparedness Award from the International Association of Emergency Managers for the county’s “Love the Beach, Respect the Ocean” safety campaign launched in 2018.

The award was presented during the nonprofit organization’s annual conference held the first week of November in Long Beach, California. The association is a 6,000-member nonprofit educational organization that is globally recognized as being the premier organization for emergency management.

County municipalities, ocean rescue agencies, nonprofit organizations, business partners and the National Park Service work together on the “Love the Beach, Respect the Ocean” campaign to bring awareness to the potentially life-threatening beach and ocean hazards, such as rip currents, severe weather, extreme heat, offshore wind, shorebreak, holes in the sand and encounters with marine wildlife.

“Ocean hazards — particularly rip currents, which are the third most deadly weather-related hazard in the nation — are recognized as a top threat in the Outer Banks Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan and have needlessly claimed lives in Dare County over the years,” Dare County Emergency Management Director Drew Pearson said in a statement. “To help reduce the number of lives that are lost and the amount of injuries that occur due to these hazards, Dare County Emergency Management partnered with several key entities throughout the Outer Banks to develop a unique and engaging initiative that addresses the dangers presented by beach and ocean hazards by keeping beachgoers well informed.” 

The campaign is an effort to reach Dare County residents and visitors through a range of resources, including a Love the Beach, Respect the Ocean website, videos, daily beach conditions reports, text and email alerts, radio announcements, signage and various print materials that are posted and distributed by local businesses, as well as a robust social media presence. 

According to the International Association of Emergency Managers’ 2023 Awards Book: “The campaign’s success is evident in the decline of rip current drownings and near-miss rescues, showcasing its positive impact on beach safety. Furthermore, the collaboration among various stakeholders — including municipalities, lifeguard agencies, tourism bureaus and more — highlights the whole-of-community approach to mitigate ocean hazards. The willingness to share this successful model without proprietary restrictions underscores the commitment to public safety and highlights the potential for replication in other communities facing different hazards. The Dare County Emergency Management team has set a commendable example for proactive and effective emergency management practices, making them deserving winners of the prestigious Preparedness Award.”

Although the community-based campaign is primarily led by Dare County Emergency Management, Pearson attributed its success to the dedication of those who have partnered with the county including six municipalities, the National Park Service, Outer Banks Forever, The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, local businesses and all area ocean rescue agencies.

“On behalf of Dare County, I would like to extend our sincere appreciation to these partners whose contributions to our Love the Beach, Respect the Ocean initiative have ultimately helped to save lives and prevent many tragedies from occurring along the Outer Banks,” he said.

Foreign shrimp imports are overwhelming the country’s inventories of shrimp and driving market prices for locally sourced shrimp to record lows, prompting widespread calls from elected officials and organizations throughout southern Atlantic and Gulf Coast states for the federal government to declare a fishery resource disaster.

Governors of coastal states from North Carolina to Florida to Texas are being pressed to ask U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to determine a fishery resource disaster for the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery.

In what one North Carolina coastal county’s board of commissioners refer to as an “unprecedented catastrophic crisis,” shrimpers are struggling to maintain operations because they’re making substantially less for their catch while paying historically high fuel prices and other inflation-driven costs.

Shrimpers are also being forced to dock their freezer boats, or vessels with onboard freezers, because they can’t move their product in a market flooded with frozen shrimp from overseas.

Their recourse is turning largely to selling their catch dockside to local clientele and restaurants and seafood markets that conscientiously serve and sell locally sourced seafood.

Last week, the American Shrimp Processors Association, or ASPA, filed anti-dumping petitions on frozen warmwater shrimp from Ecuador and Indonesia. Dumping is the import of goods below normal value.

The group also filed countervailing duty petitions, or import taxes created to offset an exporting country’s subsidies, on frozen warmwater shrimp from Ecuador, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Imports from those countries last year exceeded 1.5 billion pounds — more than 90% of all U.S. shrimp imports — and $6.6 billion, according to the association.

“If successful, the tariffs should help discipline imports and provide a vital lifeline to a domestic industry that is desperately fighting for its survival,” the association said.

In late August, the Southern Shrimp Alliance sent letters to Gov. Roy Cooper and the governors of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas asking them to consider submitting a regionwide request for a fishery resource disaster determination.

Congressman Vicente Gonzalez Jr., D-Texas, took a similar request directly to the Commerce Department Sept. 29, asking Raimondo to initiate a review and fishery resource disaster determination for fisheries on the Gulf.

Under the federally enacted Fishery Resource Disasters Improvement Act of 2022, fishers may be entitled to financial assistance when a disaster is determined, including a change “that results in significant loss of access to the fishery resources … for a substantial period of time and results in significant revenue loss … due to an allowable cause.”

Cooper’s press office did not respond to a request for comment.

The governor is starting to get similar calls to take action from elected officials representing North Carolina’s coastal areas.

The Onslow County Board of Commissioners is among the latest of the state’s coastal counties to join a growing chorus of local elected officials asking the federal government to step in.

A resolution the board unanimously passed during a mid-October meeting states, “The consequences of the inundation of imported shrimp into our markets have caused significant revenue loss and loss of access to the shrimp fishery resource itself, for small family-owned fishing businesses and other supporting businesses.”

Boards of commissioners in Pamlico and Craven counties adopted similar resolutions earlier this fall.

“This is important for the coastal communities in North Carolina to step out and share this because, as the resolution has stated, it is having a major impact on the local shrimpers and fishermen here and the biggest (impact) is by the time they finish loading up the shrimp boats to head out they’re already way behind on what they’re going to make,” Onslow Commissioner Chairman Tim Foster said at the board’s Oct. 16 meeting. “What this is doing is driving down the cost of the shrimp and it is on the verge of eliminating the local businesses in our areas of Sneads Ferry and Swansboro.”

Davis Seafood Inc. in Sneads Ferry has been moving most of its shrimp locally, according to Joseph Davis.

And though the family-owned business has been able to sell what it has brought in locally, Davis Seafood still feels the pinch of low shrimp prices not accounting for high fuel costs.

“It’s a very unlevel playing field that we have to deal with,” he said in a telephone interview. “The overall price does affect us. We did freeze a lot of shrimp this summer when the boats were working in Pamlico Sound. We probably froze more shrimp than usual.”

Davis said he has a brother-in-law who operates a freezer boat, one that probably hasn’t been out to catch shrimp in about two months because of the lack of demand, he said.

NC Catch Board of Directors Chair Dr. Barbara Garrity-Blake said the levels of shrimp imports to the U.S. are “just unprecedented.”

“They’re just off the charts right now,” she said.

“We’ve essentially become a dumping ground for imported shrimp, especially from China. Wholesale prices right now are so low and fuel prices are high so it’s really hard to make the numbers work,” Garrity-Blake continued. “Right now, across the United States, our freezer operations are filled with shrimp because this dumping has been going on so long our local wholesalers can’t even move their shrimp. There are more commercial fishermen that are selling directly to consumers. But, that doesn’t work for everybody. Not everybody’s set up to do that.”

NC Catch works with local Catch programs aimed at educating the public about locally sourced seafood.

The organization promotes the benefits of eating local seafood, touting everything from a difference in taste to the fact that seafood fished from U.S. waters is not pumped full of preservatives needed to survive being shipped from regions thousands of miles away.

“Think about the carbon footprint if nothing else,” Garrity-Blake said. “All that fuel requires getting that seafood from one side of the planet to the other when we have the best product right here, right here in the Pamlico Sound, right here in the Core Sound that was caught last night, fresh, 100% organic, no chemicals.”

Seafood imports do not need to be completely shuttered altogether because, in order to meet national demand, some level of imports is needed, she said.

“What we need to do is strike a balance,” Garrity-Blake said.

She said educating consumers across the country is key to ultimately turning the tide on reducing the amount of shrimp imports coming into the country.

“We believe that the consumers are the sleeping giant and all of those consumers have the power to turn a lot of this around,” Garrity-Blake said. “Our message to consumers is to ask where your seafood comes from and then demand that you get local seafood and eventually restaurants, the markets, are going to have to meet that demand. We like to stress to consumers that their really only access to local seafood is through commercial fishermen, unless they’re fortunate enough to have the means to travel to the coast, to have a boat, to be really good at say, casting a net.”

She said the problem is “of our own making” because the U.S. government has heavily invested in economic projects in developing countries where cheaper labor costs undercut market prices on home soil.

Bradley Styron of Quality Seafood in Cedar Island said fishermen can’t maintain the lifestyle they’re accustomed to “on third-world wages.”

“Around here people are having to do whatever they can to try to make it,” he said. “Fuel is high. Shrimp are cheap. Before the imports came along we didn’t have this problem. It ought to be worth them making some phone calls to their senators and legislators. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out. They want a decent product and the only way to have that is through a strong commercial fishing industry.”

State environmental officials are mulling a request from Wilmington’s predominate drinking water supplier to add another chemical compound to the list of PFAS the state is studying to understand potential health effects in people.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Executive Director Kenneth Waldroup met with members of the N.C. Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board Wednesday to talk about the challenge of removing perfluoropropionic acid, or PFPrA, from the utility’s raw drinking water source. The board advises the Department of Environmental Quality and the state Department of Health and Human Services in identifying contaminants of concern and determining which contaminants should be studied for public health risks.

More than one month has passed since the utility sent a letter to the board’s chair and DEQ, asking that PFPrA get added to the state’s priority per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, list.

PFPrA is an ultra-short-chain PFAS. Ultra-short-chain chemical compounds are the smallest and hardest to remove during drinking water treatment.

In the year since the utility began operating its multi-million-dollar granular activated carbon system built specifically to remove PFAS from its raw water source, the Cape Fear River, smaller compounds, including perfluoro-2-methoxyacetic acid, or PFMOAA, have broken through the water treatment plant’s filtration, Waldroup said.

“We elected in an abundance of caution to increase our filter exchange,” he said.

Replacing filters more frequently ups the plant’s operating costs to an estimated $1 million annually.

The cost to replace one filter ranges between $600,000 to $700,000, Waldroup said.

CFPUA set a goal to prevent no more than 10 parts-per-trillion of PFMOAA from getting into treated drinking water going to 200,000 customers.

There are no federal or state limits on ultra-short-chain PFAS, so the utility chose the target of no more than 10 PPT to comply with proposed federal limits on six PFAS.

PFMOAA is not one of the compounds the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposes to regulate.

The agency is expected to finalize limits on a combination of four chemical compounds: GenX, perfluoronanoic acid, or PFNA, perfluorohexane sulfonic acid, or PFHxS, and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid, or PFBS; and set maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs, of 4 PPT each on perfluooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and perflurooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, two of the most widely studied PFAS.

PFMOAA is, however, on the state’s priority study list of PFAS.

During an online meeting Wednesday, Waldroup told members of the advisory board that PFPrA is breaking through the filtration system at “similar and even higher levels” than PFMOAA. The utility has set the same treatment target of no more than 10 PPT for PFPrA.

PFMOAA and PFPrA are among a number of chemical compounds specific to Chemours Fayetteville Works facility, which is more than 70 miles upstream of Wilmington.

The DuPont spinoff for decades discharged PFAS, including GenX, into the Cape Fear River, the air, and the ground.

Under a 2019 Consent Order between Chemours, DEQ and Cape Fear River Watch, the company has had to install technology, including a thermal oxidizer and underground barrier wall, to drastically reduce the amount of PFAS it discharges into the air and river.

A little more than a year ago, DEQ issued Chemours a discharge permit that ultimately limits the amount of PFMOAA that may be released from the plant to less than 20 parts-per-trillion, or PPT.

Waldroup told the board the utility is seeking state guidance in determining maximum limits for ultra-short-chain PFAS.

Utility officials are investigating the potential of new treatments that, when paired with the CAG, may help bolster PFAS removal.

Human health effects of PFMOAA and PFPrA are unknown.

A pilot study of the National Resource Defense Council across 16 states found PFPrA in 24 out of 30 samples. Half of the samples contained higher concentrations of PFPrA than any other PFAS detected those samples.

Amy Delinsky, an environmental chemist with DEQ, explained that PFPrA is used to replace now-banned chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which were primarily used as refrigerants.

“The amount of PFPrA is actually expected to increase with time as a result of the use of these replacement refrigerants,” Delinsky said. “PFPrA also can be found in the environment as the result of the breakdown of longer-chain PFAS. Certain manufacturing facilities can produce PFPrA associated with some of the process that’s happening at the facility, whether it’s direct manufacturing or as a byproduct.”

PFPrA is found throughout the world.

Chemours “does appear to be the main source of PFPrA in the southeast part of the state,” Delinksy said.

The state Division of Water Resources has multiple testing stations through the state, including one at Lock and Dam Three in the Cape Fear River near Chemours.

PFPrA was detected between 1,000 and 1,500 PPT from water samples taken at that site in May and June of 2022, Delinksy said.

Seven out of 286 public water supply wells DWR sampled this year contained PFPrA above 20 PPT.

Those systems are in five counties in the Cape Fear, White Oak, and Tar-Pamlico river basins. Those counties include: Carteret, Cumberland, Franklin, New Hanover, and Pender.

Delinksy said the state will continue to gather additional data and work with the advisory board to develop specific questions related to CFPUA’s request to discuss at the board’s Dec. 6 meeting.