Rob Clark is worried about the water his family drinks.
Clark and his wife and young children live in Wilmington and are among almost 1 million residents who get their drinking water from the Cape Fear River basin. The river is heavily polluted with “forever chemicals” called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and the industrial solvent 1,4-dioxane. They have been linked to cancer and other health issues, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“Every time we take a sip of water, whether we want it or not, that anxiety is there,” said Clark, 35, who is the water quality programs manager for the nonprofit Cape Fear River Watch.
The N.C. Environmental Management Commission hopes to rein in the pollution through four proposed rules, which would require some companies to test for PFAS and 1,4-dioxane in their discharge water quarterly for a year.
Positive samples would result in ongoing monitoring. Companies with detectable amounts of the chemicals would also have to develop a plan to “reduce or eliminate” them, with the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality reviewing the plan every two years. If the plan is not met, then an updated one would be provided to NCDEQ.
Environmental activists and skeptics told the commission at a public hearing on Tuesday in Fayetteville that the rules don’t go far enough. Some said NCDEQ should provide specific limits on 1,4-dioxane and PFAS, and create consequences for companies that don’t meet them.
“Do we really think that polluters are going to cut into their profits in order to do the right thing and stop discharging these chemicals into our waterways?” Clark asked the state commission. He was among 13 people who addressed the commission at Fayetteville Technical Community College’s Tony Rand Student Center.
Publicly owned water systems, like the Fayetteville Public Works Commission, would also be required to test their water for the chemicals four times in one year. They would be subject to quarterly monitoring by NCDEQ if any of the chemicals are found until four tests come back as undetectable.
Much of the PFAS contamination in the Cape Fear comes from Chemours’ Fayetteville Works plant on the border of Bladen and Cumberland counties. In 2022, the company asked the state for permission to increase its production of vinyl ethers that contain PFAS. NCDEQ is still considering the proposal.
The Fayetteville Public Works Commission is investing $133.7 million to build a granular activated carbon filtration system to eliminate PFAS from its drinking water. It said in its 2024 water quality report that 1,4-dioxane “cannot be removed through our traditional water treatment process.”
Protecting Downstream Communities
There were five releases of 1,4-dioxane above the EPA’s advisory levels of 0.35 parts per billion into the Cape Fear River last year, according to Rhonda Locklear, environmental programs manager for the Fayetteville Public Works Commission.
One came from the city of Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant upstream of Fayetteville. Asheboro is home to StarPet, a polyester factory that releases 1,4-dioxane two miles away from the city’s treatment plant. The Cape Fear River Watch and Haw River Assembly filed a lawsuit last year against StarPet and Asheboro over the discharges.
Locklear called for the N.C. Environmental Management Commission to update 1,4-dioxane rules to include a 24-hour discharge notice for downstream drinking water suppliers and set limits on how much can be discharged.
“Without clear and measurable reduction targets, downstream communities remain at risk,” she said on Tuesday.
Asheboro, Greensboro, and Reidsville sued NCDEQ in 2024, arguing that the agency’s 1,4-dioxane limits were arbitrary and unenforceable. A judge with the North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings agreed with the cities, saying in the decision that NCDEQ acted “erroneously” and “arbitrarily” in labeling 1,4-dioxane a carcinogen and placing limits on its discharge.
However, the EPA told NCDEQ in a letter that it is required to control the chemical under the federal Clean Water Act. A Wake County Superior Court judge ruled in February that NCDEQ does have the right to limit the discharge of 1,4-dioxane in drinking water.
The Fayetteville Public Works Commission didn’t see a spike in 1,4-dioxane in its drinking water following the Asheboro discharge that exceeded advisory levels, but Locklear said there have been times when the amount of the chemical was “unacceptably high.”
NCDEQ found 47 detectable samples of the chemical, many in the northern part of the Cape Fear River Basin, between June 2024 and June 2025.
Mick Noland, former chief operations officer for the Fayetteville Public Works Commission, said NCDEQ’s proposed rules are “unlikely” to eliminate 1,4-dioxane and PFAS from the Cape Fear River. He said known polluters will likely ignore what he called “voluntary” mitigation plans.
“The burden of removing these contaminants should be placed on the dischargers for both
PFAS and 1,4-dioxane rather than on downstream water utilities,“ he said on Tuesday.
Kevin Morris, deputy executive director of the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, said ratepayers also should not be “left to suffer the health risks and absorb the cost of responding” to chemical discharges upstream.
“Without clear and measurable reduction targets, downstream communities remain at risk.”
Rhonda Locklear, environmental programs manager for the Fayetteville Public Works Commission
Clark said he might install an under-the-sink filtration system in his home. Some filtration systems certified to reduce PFAS can cost up to $1,000, according to the EPA. The best option for removing 1,4-dioxane from water is an under-sink reverse osmosis filter system that starts at $300, according to the Yale School of Public Health’s Superfund Research Center.
But many people can’t afford to install such systems, Clark said.
“These rules are going to disproportionately impact working-class people who are already burdened,” he said. “They’re basically going to have to drink this water without even a personal means to address it.”
EPA Changes
As southeastern North Carolina tries to attract more industrial companies, stricter rules for chemicals like 1,4-dioxane and PFAS are critical to protect natural resources, said Michal Brzezicki, grassroots manager for the North Carolina chapter of the Sierra Club.
Brzezicki told the state commission that his parents moved his family from Poland to North Carolina partly because of the state’s natural beauty.
“What happens if this becomes a state that’s associated with pollution, with dangerous water systems that aren’t safe for people to drink?” Brzezicki said. “What sort of talent will this state be able to attract, and what sort of businesses will want to follow that talent here, if people think that North Carolina is a polluter-friendly state?”
Jonelle Kimbrough, executive director of the nonprofit Sustainable Sandhills, said she is concerned about the precedent the proposed rules would set as states across the country develop regulations surrounding 1,4-dioxane and PFAS.
“Do we really think that polluters are going to cut into their profits in order to do the right thing and stop discharging these chemicals into our waterways?”
Rob Clark, water quality programs manager for Cape Fear River Watch
New York is the only state with a maximum contaminant level in its drinking water for 1,4-dioxane, though California, New Jersey, Illinois, and Virginia are developing limits, according to the SL Environmental Law Group.
Under President Donald Trump’s administration, the EPA delayed enforcement of its drinking water standards for six types of PFAS. Finalized in 2024 under then-President Joe Biden, the regulations were the first national and legally enforceable standards limiting the amount of PFAS in drinking water.
This week, the EPA launched a new initiative to help communities remove forever chemicals from drinking water. The initiative provides “resources, including funding and technical assistance, to drinking water systems with PFAS challenges,” according to the agency’s press release.
“We just want the rules to have more teeth,” Kimbrough said, “because if they don’t, then nothing is going to change, and the people of North Carolina will essentially not be protected from forever chemicals.”
