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Chemours to hold 2 public meetings on planned expansion

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Chemours has scheduled two public information sessions this week to discuss its plans to expand the manufacturing capabilities at its Fayetteville Works site off N.C. 87 at the Cumberland and Bladen County line.

The first session is set for Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m. at Bladen Community College in Dublin. The second is scheduled for Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Cultural Arts Center in Leland.

The company has not discussed its expansion plans, saying it will not provide information before the public sessions. Lisa Randall, the regional communications manager for Chemours, said the company plans to hold a media information session from 4 to 4:30 p.m. prior to the public meeting.

The planned expansion would “support an increase in domestic production in the semiconductor, transportation, clean energy, consumer electronics, and communications industries,” Chemours said in a Sept. 6 statement announcing the meetings.

Chemours has been under a consent order since 2019 to clean up decades of per- and polyfluoroalkyl contamination — also known as PFAS or forever chemicals — that have been emitted from the plant into the air and the Cape Fear River.  

Several environmental groups were outraged when they heard about Chemours’ plans to expand production.

“Chemours has been running ads trying to convince us that they’re ‘good neighbors,’’’ Dana Sergeant, executive director of Cape Fear River Watch, said in an email. “We think that contaminating the drinking water for 510,000 people (and counting) is not neighborly. The neighborly thing to do would be to shut the plant down. Chemours is planning the opposite.’’

She said the 2019 consent order requires Chemours to hold two public meetings on this – one for impacted communities near the facility and one near impacted communities downstream. 

Sergeant alleges that Chemours will not give the public an opportunity to comment during the information session. She said “Cape Fear River Watch is shifting that agenda.”

She said the group has rented a room at Bladen Community College and plans to let people make public comments before heading over to the meeting organized by Chemours.

The group has been approved to gather outside the Leland Cultural Arts Center and plans to have a table and space there where people can comment as well, she said.

“We will provide materials for folks to share with the Chemours reps, and to take home with them for their own knowledge,” she said.

Cumberland County, Chemours, drinking water

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