Cumberland County will spend $1.3 million to research potential water sources to supply a public water system in the Cedar Creek community where drinking water wells have been contaminated with forever chemicals.
These water sources might also supply Gray’s Creek, Amanda Lee, the county government’s general manager for natural resources, told the Board of Commissioners on Monday. Gray’s Creek and Cedar Creek are townships in southern Cumberland County separated by the Cape Fear River.
The board voted unanimously to seek Cedar Creek water sources. This was 11 days after state officials and local governments from Cumberland County to the coast announced a $455 million lawsuit settlement with Chemours, DuPont, and Corteva for contaminating drinking water throughout Southeastern North Carolina.
Since 2024, the county has been extending public water to Gray’s Creek amid a broader plan to provide public water throughout its unincorporated communities. In part, this effort is due to forever chemicals—also known as PFAS, which are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances linked to increased cancer risks—from Chemours’ Fayetteville Works factory in Bladen County just outside Gray’s Creek. Cumberland County plans to use its portion of the $455 million PFAS settlement—$161.5 million—to help underwrite the water system.
“We’re beginning to get more aggressive with it as we move forward now, now that we have the settlement behind us,” commissioners Chair Kirk deViere said at a meeting of the Fayetteville Public Works Commission on Wednesday. The city-owned PWC supplies municipal water in and around Fayetteville and provides wholesale water service to Hoke County as well as other municipalities.
Well Water, River Water, Municipal Water?
According to a county budget document for the Cedar Creek study, engineers will evaluate existing public water supplies and groundwater sources, and whether to take water from the Cape Fear River.
They also will do an environmental analysis, assess the treatability of the groundwater and river water, and consider the rehabilitation or replacement of a well supplying drinking water to the town of Stedman.
The work includes well construction, budgeted at $200,000 of the $1.3 million.
The county has a $500,000 loan—which will be forgiven less a $10,000 administration fee—from the North Carolina State Water Infrastructure Authority to help pay for the project. The remaining $815,000 is from the county’s coffers.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
