WILMINGTON, NC – Clean Cape Fear, an alliance of community leaders, advocacy groups, educators, and professionals dedicated to protecting water quality in the region, held a meeting on July 5th with 100-plus attendees. The meeting’s focus was on getting the message about water contamination to a wider audience and under-served communities, but the discussion also highlighted larger concerns about ongoing environmental justice issues in the state.
“We believe everyone has a right to clean water and that everyone has the same right to as much information everyone else has,” said Harper Peterson, former Wilmington mayor and founder of Clean Cape Fear, during his opening remarks at the meeting.
Speakers at the event questioned whether diverse communities of southeastern North Carolina had the same awareness about the presence of GenX, and other perfluoroalkyl chemical compounds that have been linked to a host of serious health effects in both the Cape Fear River and in treated water from the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority.