Read the full article by Peter Castagno (Port City Daily)
“A long fight to mandate comprehensive PFAS testing in North Carolina may continue after three judges appeared sympathetic to local nonprofits’ argument at a recent hearing.
On Tuesday, attorney Bob Sussman — representing the Center for Environmental Health, Cape Fear River Watch, Clean Cape Fear, and Toxic Free NC — argued against the Environmental Protection Agency before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Virginia.
Sussman called to reverse a district court’s dismissal of the groups’ petition — Center for Environmental Health (CEH), et al., v. EPA — to require Chemours to fund testing of 54 PFAS compounds in North Carolina. Chemours, a spinoff of DuPont, released PFAS into the Cape Fear River for 40-plus years from its Fayetteville Works facility, 100 miles upstream from Wilmington.
The groups sued the EPA in 2022 for failing to grant their 2020 request to hold Chemous accountable for funding research on the health impacts of PFAS contamination on residents, produce, and the environment. They cited the Toxic Substances Control Act, which allows citizens to petition the EPA to regulate and study chemical substances posing a reasonable risk to human health and the environment.” …