Groups sue Chemours in federal court to stop PFAS, GenX pollution
Today Southern Environmental Law Center today sued the chemical manufacturer Chemours on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina and details the pollution of air and water with toxic perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including GenX, from the Chemours Fayetteville Works Facility in violation of the Clean Water Act and Toxic Substances Control Act.
Chemours’ decades-long contamination of North Carolina’s environment must stop to prevent more harm,” said Senior Attorney Geoff Gisler. “The families and communities who drink from, swim in, and fish on the Cape Fear River deserve healthy, clean water.
Documents filed today outline Chemours’ continued PFAS pollution of North Carolina’s water and air through its stack emissions, leaking pipes, unlined pits and wastewater ditches, and contaminated equipment.
Hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians get their drinking water downstream from Chemours’ toxic discharge,” said Kemp Burdette, Cape Fear Riverkeeper. “This illegal contamination can’t stop soon enough for them and Chemours and DuPont must be held accountable for their reckless behavior.
Chemours and its parent company DuPont knowingly polluted North Carolina’s environment with toxic PFAS for nearly four decades, causing widespread and dangerous contamination of groundwater and surface waters. The Chemours Fayetteville plant is in southeastern North Carolina, along the Cape Fear River upstream of Wilmington. It has been more than a year since this pollution came to light, yet Chemours continues to release GenX and other PFAS compounds into the water, air, and soil through its stack emissions, leaking pipes, and unlined, leaking pits and ditches.
Families and communities have already been exposed to decades of toxic contamination. North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality has now found GenX in 763 private drinking water wells up to 5.5 miles away from the Chemours’ facility, and in the rainwater, fish, and honey.