Today, N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein announced that the State had filed a lawsuit “against DuPont, Chemours, and related companies to hold them accountable for the damage their manufacture, use, and disposal of PFAS chemicals have caused to North Carolina’s natural resources."
We have not had an opportunity to study the lawsuit, so we cannot comment about it specifically. Regardless, CFPUA applauds continued, diligent efforts by the State to hold Chemours and DuPont responsible for their decades of PFAS releases while operating profitably at the Fayetteville Works industrial site, which is about 55 miles up the Cape Fear River from CFPUA’s raw water intakes.
PFAS from the Fayetteville Works are largely responsible for the PFAS we continue to detect in our regular monitoring of river water – and the reason why CFPUA has been taking steps to reduce PFAS in raw water we treat at the Sweeney Water Treatment Plant. This includes the $43 million Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) filters under construction at Sweeney and scheduled to be operational by early 2022.
Separate from the State’s actions, CFPUA has filed a federal civil suit against Chemours and DuPont to recover the costs of the new GAC filters and other damages we and our customers have incurred and will incur as a result of the two companies’ pollution.