Cumberland County’s lawsuit is continuing against The Chemours Co. over the PFAS and GenX “forever chemicals” contamination of residents’ drinking water, the county attorney told the county commissioners at their meeting on Monday morning.
A trial will happen no sooner than Sept. 10 in Cumberland County Superior Court, County Attorney Rick Moorefield said. There are no settlement talks underway.
Moorefield briefly updated the commissioners on the status of the Chemours lawsuit during the public portion of the commissioners’ meeting, and then met with them behind closed doors for more than 40 minutes to further discuss it outside the presence of the public.
The Board of Commissioners in March 2022 sued Chemours, Corteva and DuPont Co. because the drinking water wells of homes, businesses and schools were contaminated over the years by emissions from the Chemours chemical factory south of Fayetteville, off N.C. 87 at the Cumberland-Bladen County line.
DuPont built and operated the plant, and later transferred it to Chemours, a company that DuPont created in 2015. Corteva is another company spun off by DuPont, in 2019.
The general public became aware of the GenX and PFAS contamination in 2017, when it was reported by the Star-News newspaper in Wilmington that the Chemours plant had been discharging the chemicals into the air, groundwater and the Cape Fear River for decades, affecting the drinking water in much of southeastern North Carolina from Wilmington to southern Cumberland County.
GenX is a PFAS chemical. “PFAS” stands for perfluoroalkyl substances and polyfluoroalkyl substances. These are man-made substances that are used in the manufacture of many industrial, commercial and household products. They are knowns as “forever chemicals” because they are extremely slow to break down naturally in the environment.
PFAS chemicals have been linked to health problems in people. Some include cancer, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure during pregnancy. And PFAS chemicals have been found around the world. New federal regulations require public water utilities to install expensive PFAS filtration systems in the next several years.
Residents in the Chemours contamination zone in Cumberland County have resorted to bottled water or installed filtration equipment. Two public schools in the contamination zone have instructed students and staff to not drink the water. The county is working with the Fayetteville Public Works Commission to extend a water line to the area, but that is years away from completion.
Following litigation with the state, Chemours has said it halted the discharge of PFAS into the river. It also spent $100 million to install equipment to capture PFAS gases that it used to release into the atmosphere.
Some of the latest developments in the lawsuit, according to Moorefield:
- A negotiation for a start date is underway. Previously set for March, it could be in September or October.
- Some witnesses have been deposed, and more depositions are to come.
- Discovery (the sharing of information between the lawsuit’s parties) is scheduled to be finished in early March.
- Court-ordered mediation must be completed by May 30.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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