“WILMINGTON—Five non-profits have aligned to debrief on how news of the chemical GenX being in the drinking water has shaped the Cape Fear region…

‘It just rocked the area,’ Cordelia Norris, of Cape Fear Surfrider Foundation, said. ‘We wanted to mark the year and talk about what happened, what we’ve learned.’

Norris is the Rise Above Plastics coordinator for the Foundation and is helping to coordinate the group’s Clean Water Week panel discussion.

Hosted by non-profits Cape Fear Surfrider, Cape Fear River Watch, Plastic Ocean Project, NC Coastal Federation, and Cape Fear Sierra Club, the panel discussion is just one event in the coalition’s Clean Water Week programming.

‘Since it’s been a year, it’s such a milestone and so much has happened,’ Norris said. ‘We wanted to get people together who really know the issues in different dimensions.’

Panelists include:

  • Dr. Jane Hoppin, an associate professor of biological
    sciences at North Carolina State University.
  • Dana Sargent, president of the board of Cape Fear River Watch.
  • Jim Fletchner, CEO of Cape Fear Public Utility Authority.
  • Dr. Larry Cahoon, Professor of biology and marine biology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
  • Dr. Jamie DeWitt,head of the DeWitt Laboratory in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at East Carolina University.
  • Dr. Susanne Brander,assistant professor at Oregon State University’s Department of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

Discussions will incorporate the audience and will be moderated by WHQR reporter Vince Winkle. Norris said the conversation will be lively and informative…

Topics up for discussion include environmental justice, what’s happened so far and what the community can expect in the future.”

Read the full article by Johanna Ferebee