Large quantities of the likely carcinogenic chemical 1,4-dioxane were discharged by the City of Asheboro Wastewater Treatment Plant into the Cape Fear River basin last month.
Test results collected on Jan. 24 and published by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality on Feb. 7 confirmed that Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant released 1,4-dioxane — a chemical that likely causes cancer, as well as kidney and liver toxicity — into the Deep River, a tributary of the Cape Fear River. Water utilities that draw their water from the Cape Fear River, including Fayetteville’s PWC, are unable to filter out 1,4-dioxane using traditional filtration systems, which means 1,4-dioxane discharges from upstream can end up in their water supply.
In response to the notification from DEQ in late January, PWC immediately tested Fayetteville’s water intake point along the Cape Fear River, and conducted numerous tests in the following days. The good news for Fayetteville residents: Asheboro’s discharge did not reach city water, PWC spokesperson Gavin MacRoberts told CityView.
“Based on our increased sampling, this chemical was never detected and was never a threat to our customers,” MacRoberts said. “. . . There’s 85 miles of waterways that separates Fayetteville from Asheboro. And so it looks like it was diluted to the point it was non-detectable by the time it reached us.”
Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant recorded the 1,4-dioxane discharge at a concentration of 3,520 parts per billion. The concentration is about 100 times the EPA’s lifetime health advisory of 35 ppb, which represents a 1 in 10,000 excess estimated lifetime cancer risk. DEQ determined that the average monthly 1,4-dioxane concentration for downstream communities is 22 ppb.
The January discharge comes after DEQ’s attempts to regulate Asheboro’s 1,4-dioxane pollution were struck down by North Carolina Chief Administrative Law Judge Donald van der Vaart last September. DEQ appealed that ruling. Before the ruling, PWC previously filed an amicus brief along with Cape Fear Public Utility Authority and Brunswick County asking the Office of Administrative Hearings court to rule in favor of DEQ in its case against Asheboro.
While Fayetteville was spared from Asheboro’s recent discharge, the event underscores PWC’s ongoing efforts to prevent upstream communities from releasing toxic chemicals into the Cape Fear River, MacRoberts said.
“I think when incidents like this [happen] it kind of reinforces the need for protecting our downstream users, like our community, from upstream polluters,” MacRoberts said. “And that’s the reason why PWC has partnered with other communities and agencies to get this compound out of our drinking water source, which is the Cape Fear River.”
According to PWC’s test results for 2024, the utility has consistently recorded less than 1 ppb of 1,4-dioxane in samples for every month except for November, when it recorded 11.9 ppb, the highest level of 1,4-dioxane since testing began in 2014. PWC also did not detect 1,4-dioxane at a quantifiable limit in the Jan. 14 sample taken this year.
According to the Southern Environmental Law Center, Asheboro’s January discharge is the highest discharge level since 2019.
“Asheboro has the existing authority and obligation to control 1,4-dioxane pollution from its industrial customers,” SELC Senior Communications Manager Kathleen Sullivan told CityView.
In response to the ruling by Van der Vaart last year, the EPA told DEQ that it is required to control 1,4-dioxane being released into the Cape Fear River. In a letter dated Jan. 3, the EPA instructed DEQ to issue a new permit within 90 days that includes 1,4-dioxane discharge limits for Asheboro — or have the EPA take over the permitting process.
DEQ has indicated it will continue trying to regulate 1,4-dioxane, despite van der Vaart’s ruling.
“DEQ has appealed that ruling, and EPA has objected to the ruling’s removal of the 1,4-dioxane limits from permit,” the press release states. “The primary means to achieve health-based levels is to reduce and minimize the release of the contaminant at the sources. Industrial best management practices and treatment technologies exist to achieve these outcomes that protect North Carolinians’ drinking water sources.”
An EPA sampling program found North Carolina has some of the nation’s highest levels of 1,4-dioxane in the state’s drinking water. The contamination is most severe in the Cape Fear River Basin, where residents may be exposed to more than double the national average in drinking water and up to four times the average in other water sources, according to DEQ.
MacRoberts said PWC will continue monitoring 1,4-dioxane, working against upstream pollution and educating the public about the chemical’s impacts.
“Anytime you hear anything like a chemical like 1,4 dioxane in our drinking water, that can cause concern,” MacRoberts said. “And so we share that, and we’ve been fighting this for years.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Fayetteville’s water supply was contaminated with 1,4-dioxane from the Asheboro discharge. This article has been updated with the correct information. CityView apologizes for this error.
Update: This story previously cited reporting from the Port City Daily which said that DEQ identified Asheboro’s Great Oak Landfill as a likely source of the city’s 1,4-dioxane discharges. DEQ has not been able to verify this information.
Contact Evey Weisblat at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608. This story was made possible by donations from readers like you to CityView News Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy in Fayetteville and Cumberland County.