NC politicians, industry battle over who should pay for PFAS pollution cleanup

Read the full article by Gareth McGrath (Wilmington Star News)

“The tussle over pollution from ‘forever chemicals’ is heating up in both Raleigh and Washington, especially over who should be on the financial hook to clean up the PFAS contamination in public drinking water systems.

Last week, an environmental committee in the N.C. House passed a bill that would require manufacturers of manmade per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including GenX, to cover clean-up costs for public utilities.

According to the proposed legislation, the bill would target PFAS manufacturers like Chemours, which produces the substances at its Fayetteville Works site about 100 miles north of Wilmington, not PFAS customers. While Chemours makes PFAS compounds and has a long legacy − along with its former parent DuPont − of discharging the chemicals into the environment, PFAS customers use the forever chemicals in a host of household items, medical devices, weatherproof products, and firefighting foam.” …