The federal government and chemical manufacturer Chemours have struck a deal that promises the company to pay up to $450 million in damages for decades of PFAS contamination at its facilities in three states, including North Carolina. But the vague details and little restraint on the agreement have some wondering whether federal authorities fired Mr. Chemours too easily.
Despite the headline numbers, North Carolina officials accused the dealmakers of not engaging the state in negotiations or securing additional funding for the state, which has already spent millions of dollars fighting pollution from Chemours’ Fayetteville plant in Bladen County.
governor Josh Stein and the Attorney General jeff jackson When it was first announced on June 25, they called the settlement a “backroom deal” and claimed that the Environmental Protection Agency had not included them in the discussions that led to the announcement.
As is often the case with such large transactions, the federal complaint and the consent agreement with Chemours were filed in court on the same day. That means EPA and Chemours were working out the details of the lawsuit shortly before it became known.
Environmental advocates also criticized the agreement, saying it stopped short of punishing Chemours for its environmental pollution. Lawyers for the organizations said this is the latest example of the EPA taking an industry-friendly approach to PFAS regulation and framing it as a victory for the American people.
“If anything, I think what[the EPA]is doing is handing out polluters like Chemours, and this settlement is exactly that.” Coribelan attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council told Carolina Public Press.
“I think their shareholders are crying tears of joy over this because this is just a freebie for them,” Bell said.
What does Chemours’ deal with North Carolina State include?
The EPA valued the fines and relief at $450 million, but that number is nowhere to be found in the actual terms of the deal.
According to the consent agreement, Chemours will pay a $22.5 million civil penalty to two litigants: the EPA and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. North Carolina, which is not a party to the lawsuit, will not receive a civil penalty.
Chemours also agreed to pay up to $90 million over the next 15 years for PFAS mitigation projects in West Virginia, New Jersey and North Carolina. But there is no minimum amount the company must spend on these mitigation projects, and there are no guidelines on how that money should be distributed among the three states.
Civil penalties and funding for mitigation projects are the only two specific financial commitments in the agreement, totaling just over $100 million. The difference between this number and EPA’s headline figure, $337.5 million, is likely the estimated cost of complying with other provisions of the agreement.
This includes enhanced requirements for Chemours to capture or destroy at least 99.5% of GenX compounds at its facilities in North Carolina and West Virginia (previously the requirement was 99%) and third-party audits to identify release points at the Fayetteville plant and recommend controls for two other potentially hazardous chemicals manufactured there.
North Carolina is excluded from other parts of the agreement, including treatment and alternative drinking water programs in areas that have tested positive for high levels of PFAS.
Chemours spokesperson jess roseau North Carolina received less money in the new agreement, in part because of a previous settlement agreement the state Department of Environmental Quality reached with Chemours in 2019, the state Department of Environmental Quality told CPP in an email.
The court-enforceable agreement included a sampling program for private wells near the Fayetteville plant facility. Chemours also had to take several other steps to reduce the release of PFAS into the surrounding air and water.
“The Fayetteville plant has already invested more than $400 million in recent years to significantly reduce PFAS emissions,” Loizeau said.
North Carolina withdraws from negotiations, attorney general says
Nevertheless, North Carolina officials thought the state should have received more from the recent settlement.
“This agreement is an insult to the people of Eastern North Carolina,” Jackson said in a joint statement with Stein.
“Our state is ground zero for GenX contamination, but this agreement does virtually nothing to clean our water. It was the chemicals that caused this mess, and the chemicals should clean it up. EPA will hear from my office.”
Mr. Jackson is currently leading a separate lawsuit against Chemours and its predecessor company, DuPont, over PFAS contamination from its Fayetteville plant facility. The lawsuit was originally filed in Cumberland County and then transferred to the state Supreme Court, where oral arguments are expected to be heard in September.
A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office said the EPA’s settlement with Chemours does not affect ongoing litigation.
Responding to Jackson and Stein’s claims of backroom deals, the EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice said in a joint statement that they were actually invited to participate in settlement negotiations, but “decided to act on their own authority.”
The settlement is not yet final, as it must first go through a 30-day public comment period before receiving final court approval. Instructions on how to submit comments are provided in the Federal Register notice.
Groups frustrated by EPA’s inconsistencies on PFAS
Environmentalists say the Chemours settlement, which the EPA called a “landmark agreement,” follows a pattern of softening approaches to PFAS under the guise of progress.
Earlier this year, the current government Lee Zeldin During the “PFAS Destruction Event,” the government announced that it would call for the rescission of regulations that set maximum contaminant levels for four types of PFAS, including GenX, in drinking water.
The EPA said the rollback would result in new rules in 2024 that are more “realistic” and “legally defensible” than the previous limits. Critics derided the move as undoing years of progress.
“This doesn’t loosen up the gas,” Bell said. “It’s like slamming on the brakes and making everything go backwards.”
Since Zeldin took over the agency last year, the EPA has focused most of its PFAS mitigation efforts on the two most well-studied types: PFOA and PFOS. The agency also rescinded regulations on other forms of PFAS that have been less studied but are likely to be harmful to humans.
Jiang ZhuanAn attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center told CPP that industry is likely to participate in regulating these PFOA and PFOS chemicals because they are largely being phased out and replaced with new alternatives.
“That’s why EPA says, ‘We’re sticking to our standards for PFOA and PFOS,’ because it looks like they’re doing something about PFAS, but in reality they’re legacy PFAS that the industry has long abandoned,” Zhuang said.
EPA doesn’t stop there. It also recently canceled a 272-page draft risk assessment that looked at potential human health risks from PFAS in sewage sludge used as fertilizer. Previous studies have found that farms use PFAS-contaminated sludge as fertilizer, which then makes its way into food crops and livestock.
Such draft risk assessments are typically a precursor to future regulations regarding the potential hazards being studied. EPA replaced it with a much shorter nine-page document that minimized the findings of the original risk assessment.
Chiang called this an alarming downgrade, but said it’s the type of action he’s expected to see from the EPA over the past year.
“They play to the industry and issue press releases like they’re doing something good,” she says. “But if anyone is paying attention, it’s that this administration has absolutely no interest in protecting us from toxic chemical pollution.”
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