Read the full article by Debbie Strauss & Joel Eisenbaum (Click 2 Houston)
“DEER PARK, Texas – In picturesque North Carolina, along the seemingly pristine Cape Fear River, a chemical company called Chemours was caught discharging an industrial byproduct called GenX and it showed up in the drinking water.
Now, that chemical is being brought to Texas from North Carolina. KPRC 2 Investigates looked into why it’s being brought here and what’s being done with the chemical once it arrives.
What is GenX?
GenX is the trade name of perfluoro-2-propoxypropanoic acid, which is used to make Teflon, fast food wrappers and other products.
What health effects are associated with GenX chemicals?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, animal studies have shown health effects in the kidney, blood, immune system, developing fetuses and, especially, in the liver following oral exposure. The data are suggestive of cancer.
How is it getting to Texas?
Since June 2017 Chemours began capturing the wastewater that included the GenX. Then, starting the week of Nov. 13, 2017, the company began arranging to have the wastewater transported by tanker truck and rail for disposal in Deer Park, Texas. Specifically, it’s being sent to Texas Molecular for deep-well injection. Texas Molecular is a Class1 Deep Well. Since 2017, the company has commissioned an average of 10 tanker trucks a day to haul away the wastewater for offsite disposal, according to the Chemours plant manager.
Environmental activist Erin Brockovich has spoken numerous times about the dangers of GenX. In August 2017, she appeared at a town hall meeting in North Carolina.
Recently, Brockovich was in Houston for a town hall meeting to discuss a different matter. KPRC 2 asked Brockovich about Chemours’ plan to dispose of the GenX through deep well injection…
KPRC 2 Investigates discovered Texas Molecular did not need to have a public hearing in order to accept the GenX from Chemours in North Carolina.
‘Texas Molecular is not required to have a specific approval or public hearing for deep well disposal of GenX waste, because this waste stream is covered under the listing of industrial wastes authorized to be injected in its three UIC Class I permits,’ according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
Transporting GenX
On Sept. 18, 2018, a tanker truck carrying rainwater from Hurricane Florence, from on-site dikes at Chemours in North Carolina leaked during transport about four miles from the plant. When residents took samples of the wastewater on the road, it tested to show the water had 2.85 million parts per trillion of GenX. That’s 17,000 times the state’s provisional health goal for GenX in drinking water of 140 parts per trillion…”