Tell the EMC: The Lower Cape Fear Deserves Real Polluter Regulations
John D. Solomon (Chair) and Members of the N.C. Environmental Management Commission, N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Staff
Dear River Watchers,
The nearly 600,000 people who live in the Lower Cape Fear, and who get their drinking water from the Cape Fear River Basin, understand far too well what it means to have their water poisoned by the dangerous, toxic chemicals that are PFAS and 1,4-dioxane. It’s happened more than once—in Cumberland County, in Bladen County, in New Hanover County, in Brunswick County, in Pender County.
When industry poisons our water, we suffer. We get sick, we can't eat out of our river or enjoy recreating in it, our property value is decreased, our water bills go up to pay for expensive treatment.
Industry has shown time and time again that they will choose profits over people, if allowed to. So, we rely on our government to protect people from corporate greed. This is our government’s job.
But lately, our state government is failing to protect the people of our state. The Environmental Management Commission, or EMC, is choosing to instead protect polluters and their profits and make North Carolinians suffer further. They’ve taken rules written by polluters and are proposing to formally adopt them soon—if we don't speak up. And here’s the thing: the rules don’t actually do ANYTHING to reduce how much PFAS or 1,4-dioxane industry dumps into our drinking water.
In fact, these so-called “minimization rules” would actually allow industry to dump even more of these chemicals into our water. These chemicals have serious health impacts: they weaken our immune system and they can cause numerous types of cancer, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, thyroid disease, and developmental harm in our children.
The state allowing industry to pollute our drinking water means that WE have to pay to treat it. Cape Fear Public Utility Authority has spent more than $90 million dollars since 2017 to address PFAS contamination, including the installation of state-of-the-art water treatment systems. Brunswick County is wrapping up a $270 million reverse osmosis system. 1,4-dioxane is challenging to remove from drinking water and it can slip through even advanced treatment systems, and then into our homes.
The EMC is supposed to adopt rules to protect, preserve, and enhance the state’s air and water resources, but we’ve seen a troubling trend lately of the EMC instead protecting the profits of polluters and preventing the public—specifically in the Lower Cape Fear—from having meaningful input.
This is wrong. This must stop. We all have a duty to fight this injustice.
And we have a chance to do that—please join us in this fight by signing our petition before the public commenting period closes on June 15th.
Thank you for taking action,
P.S. With your signature, you will receive a follow-up email with more ways to speak up about this, including joining us at two upcoming public hearings in the Lower Cape Fear and a list of talking points to help you make an impactful public comment.
Sponsored by
To:
John D. Solomon (Chair) and Members of the N.C. Environmental Management Commission, N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Staff
From:
[Your Name]
We, the undersigned, submit comments for both the PFAS monitoring and minimization rules and the 1,4-dioxane monitoring and minimization rules. We are addressing both rule sets together given that the comment periods are running concurrently, the rule structures are similar, and PFAS and 1,4 dioxane affect many of the same communities across our state.
We write to oppose the Environmental Management Commission’s draft PFAS and 1,4-dioxane rules. The draft rules will not protect public health, and our communities cannot afford to wait any longer for real protection.
The draft rules require industrial and municipal polluters to draft ‘minimization' plans, but do not actually require polluters to reduce the amount of PFAS or 1,4-dioxane they dump into our rivers. There are no benchmarks or reduction goals that polluters must meet. Further, the monitoring provisions of the rules provide little benefit: the state already knows where 1,4-dioxane is being discharged and reporting on only three PFAS means we will be kept in the dark about the vast majority of toxic PFAS pollution in our state.
For years, North Carolinians in the Cape Fear River Basin and elsewhere have been exposed to dangerous chemicals in their drinking water. PFAS have been linked to cancer, thyroid disease, immune system damage, and developmental harm in children. 1,4-Dioxane is a likely human carcinogen and can cause liver and kidney damage. Both have been discharged into the Cape Fear River Basin at levels far exceeding what EPA considers safe.
Rather than moving forward with the draft rules as written, the EMC should instead adopt health-based discharge limits for PFAS and 1,4-dioxane. A purely voluntary approach to pollution reduction will not protect public health and is not a step forward. Please oppose the current draft rules and instead set tight limits for these dangerous chemicals.