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Community meeting to discuss GenX, Chemours updates

The state Department of Environmental Quality will host the meeting July 26 at the Crown Theatre.

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The state Department of Environmental Quality is hosting a community information meeting on July 26 in Fayetteville to discuss new EPA guidelines related to GenX and what that means for area residents.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the Crown Theatre. Registration opens at 5:30 p.m. The theater is at 1960 Coliseum Drive.

DEQ will discuss well sampling, and its air, water and waste management divisions also will provide updates, the agency said in a release. Officials from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services will provide an overview of potential health effects and ways to reduce exposure, the release said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on June 15 released national drinking water health advisories for four PFAS chemicals including GenX, which has plagued private well water supplies near the Chemours plant off N.C. 87 at the Bladen and Cumberland County line.

 The EPA release includes interim health advisories for PFOA and PFOS and final health advisories for GenX and PFBS. 

The EPA lists the health advisory level for GenX of 10 parts per trillion. That replaces the 2018 North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services provisional drinking water health goal of 140 parts per trillion. 

DEQ is expected to share information and answer questions about how the new health advisory for GenX impacts private drinking water well sampling in Bladen, Cumberland, Robeson and Sampson counties, the release said.

A consent order requires Chemours to provide public water or whole-building filtration for any private drinking water well with a GenX concentration above a health advisory, which is now 10 ppt.

The DEQ estimates that more than 1,700 additional private well users are now eligible for whole house filtration systems or connection to a public water supply. 

In a June 15 letter to Chemours, DEQ directed the company to revise its drinking water compliance plan and feasibility study report to address the new health advisory. 

 

EPA, PFAS, GenX, Chemours, health advisories

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