August 28, 2021
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — North Carolina cited Chemours on Thursday for multiple state air pollution violations, saying the company has been exceeding its GenX air pollution limits for much of 2021.
In its letter to Chemours, environmental officials warned the company that the state is preparing an enforcement report against the chemical makers for its multiple violations, according to the notice of violation letter.
State officials said in the letter that Chemours could be facing up to a $25,000 fine per day for its current violations or any future indiscretion of North Carolina’s air quality rules.
For more than three decades Chemours, and before it DuPont, polluted the air, groundwater and Cape Fear River with PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. PFAS are a group of chemical compounds used for various commercial purposes, but are generally considered harmful to humans.
The company’s Fayetteville Works plant is in Bladen County between the river and NC 87, near the Cumberland County line.
EPA officials are studying the toxicity of the compound being emitted from the Chemours plant that has contaminated water wells in Gray’s Creek area.
After the StarNews brought the decades-long contamination to light in 2017, the state, Cape Fear River Watch and Chemours entered into a consent order in 2019. Part of that consent order required Chemours to reduce its air emissions of GenX compounds by more than 99%.
“In March 2021, excess GenX emissions resulted in noncompliance with the rolling 12-month totals for March, April, May and June of 2021,” according to a press release from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
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