Read the full article by David Schultz
“The EPA will propose new safety levels in a matter of weeks for a class of chemicals manufactured by the Chemours Co. that have triggered water contamination concerns across the country.
The Environmental Protection Agency is on pace to release draft safety levels by the end of September for the chemicals the company has been marketing as GenX, said Peter Grevatt, the EPA’s top drinking water official.
These numbers, also known as ‘toxicity values,’ will attempt to define the thresholds for safe exposure to GenX chemicals through water, soil, air, and other media, Grevatt said. He spoke at an Aug. 29 conference of state environmental officials in Stowe, Vt.
The EPA will share these toxicity values with them before posting the numbers on the agency’s website, he told the officials. The values are part of a broader agency effort to assess contamination at Superfund sites and other locations.
‘We want to share this with the states before it appears publicly so you can think about the implications for your programs,’ Grevatt said…
GenX has been an especially vexing problem in North Carolina, where Chemours had a manufacturing facility in Fayetteville that is now the subject of numerous lawsuits.
In addition to new safety levels for GenX, the EPA also will come out next month with numbers for the chemical perfluorobutane sulfonate, a component of the Scotchgard products produced by the 3M Co.
These numbers will be in draft form, and the public will have an opportunity to comment on them before they become final, Grevatt said.”