Read the full article by Gareth McGrath (StarNews Online).
“Toothless. Shameful. Embarrassing.
‘This commission wrote a love letter to polluters,’ said Emily Donovan, cofounder of local environmental advocacy group Clean Cape Fear, to thunderous applause from the more than 200 people who packed the meeting room in the Skyline Center.
When the N.C. Environmental Management Commission came to Wilmington in late April 2026 to hold a public hearing on proposed PFAS monitoring and minimization rules, commission members and staff heard an earful from dozens of frustrated residents who have felt angered and to some degree abandoned by state regulators since the StarNews in 2017 first reported the presence of unknown chemicals in their drinking water.
The proposed rules wouldn’t set penalties or specific limits for businesses found to be discharging the ‘forever chemicals’ into the environment, instead requiring industry to largely self-regulate itself − something speaker after speaker on April 23 said simply wouldn’t work.”…