“State officials are trying to determine the source of 25 potentially harmful chemicals that have been discovered at elevated levels in wells near the plant that makes GenX.
The state has been investigating GenX since July. The compound, which is made at the Chemours plant in Bladen County, has been linked to several forms of cancer in animal studies, but it isn’t known if the effect is the same in humans.
The state Department of Environmental Quality filed an amended complaint against the company Monday. The agency filed its initial complaint against Chemours in September.
GenX has been discovered in 639 private wells near the plant, including 190 at levels above the state’s provisional health goal for the compound…
The company submitted a report to the state in January that said GenX was found in a well on the Chemours property at a level of 640,000 parts per trillion, according to the amended complaint. Tests on three other wells showed levels of the compound higher than 100,000 parts per trillion.
The state’s provisional health goal for the compound is 140 parts per trillion.
The report also showed elevated concentrations of ‘numerous’ per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, were found in wells on the Chemours property, according to the amended complaint. The report lists tests done for GenX and 25 other compounds…
The amended complaint says one compound was found at a concentration of 8.17 million parts per trillion. The concentrations of three other PFAS compounds mentioned in the document ranged from more than 22,000 parts per trillion to 1.94 million parts per trillion.
A statement released by the Department of Environmental Quality in response to questions about the compounds said state officials do not yet know how they are used or if they are produced at the Chemours plant. Some of the compounds have shown up in tests from other locations, it said.”
Read the full article by Steve DeVane.