North Carolina plays an outsized role in America’s perennial chemical water pollution crisis, with much of the attention focused on chemical company Chemours’ Fayetteville plant.
Company officials acknowledged that the plant permanently discharged chemicals into the Cape Fear River for decades, primarily under DuPont control, before spinning off Chemours amid mounting legal liability. These emissions contaminated a major drinking water source in Wilmington and the surrounding area, and air emissions carrying PFAS contaminated groundwater around the plant.
Chemours is currently focusing on a high-profile U.S. Senate race in North Carolina, with its corporate political action committee donating $5,000 to Republican candidate Michael Whatley’s campaign. The Delaware-based company has donated $6,500 to five Republican state legislators over the past two years, according to federal campaign finance data.
Whatley campaign spokesman DJ Griffin did not respond to an email or text message asking about the Republican candidate’s position on Chemours.
Questions Mr. Griffin did not answer included whether he believed Mr. Whatley adequately addressed the pollution allegedly caused by Chemours and DuPont. Republican candidates’ positions on the settlement agreement. and the Trump EPA’s decision to rescind Biden-era health restrictions on Gen X and three other PFAS.
Erin Carey, president of the Sierra Club’s North Carolina chapter, said it’s disappointing that Whatley isn’t discussing PFAS contamination and is accepting campaign contributions from companies involved in that contamination.
“This is both shameful and incomprehensible,” said Carey, who lives in Wilmington and has been drinking contaminated water for 20 years.
Scientists have linked exposure to some PFAS with a number of health effects, including certain cancers, reduced fertility, and developmental delays in children.
The donation comes as Chemours waits for the Trump Environmental Protection Agency to roll back parts of the Biden-era PFAS rule, which Chemours has long opposed. The company has long argued that the maximum contaminant levels for GenX and three other chemicals are not supported by science and that the former EPA did not go through the proper regulatory process before enacting them.
And last month, the company and the U.S. Department of Justice announced a settlement that would pay Chemours $22.5 million in civil penalties for PFAS contamination in New Jersey, North Carolina and West Virginia. As part of the settlement, Chemours agreed to spend at least $90 million over the next 15 years to prevent pollution at three of its plants, including the Fayetteville plant.
North Carolina Democratic leaders, including Gov. Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson, slammed the settlement.
Jackson said North Carolina officials played no role in creating the agreement and called it an “insult” to the roughly 500,000 people whose drinking water is contaminated by the Kemah tribe.
Additionally, Jackson noted that North Carolina stands to receive up to $30 million as part of the deal. In comparison, the agreement includes up to $280 million to provide drinking water around Chemours plants in New Jersey and West Virginia, and $60 million to prevent wastewater from flowing from the Washington plant in West Virginia.
Former governor and current Democratic Senate candidate Roy Cooper has been fighting the Chemours contamination throughout his tenure since it became public in 2017.
Cooper posted a message on social media platform X about the settlement: “This backroom deal is yet another example of Washington bailing out billionaires and big corporations instead of defending hard-working people. I fought to hold corporations accountable for air pollution, and I plan to do the same as my senator.”
Chemours’ political activities
Chemours founded the corporate PAC in 2018, a year after the contamination in the Wilmington area became public. The PAC is funded through regular monthly contributions from Chemours employees.
In North Carolina, the company has so far primarily supported Republicans in the state Legislature, focusing its donations on strongly anti-regulation Republicans such as Rep. Jimmy Dixon (R-Duplin) and Sen. Brent Jackson (R-Sampson).
The only contribution Chemours PAC made to a federal candidate was $1,000 to former Congressman Wiley Nickel in 2023. A Wake County Democrat is leaving Congress to become the next Wake County district attorney after legislative Republicans changed the district he represented to favor Republican candidates.
Chemours did not respond to a series of questions about why its PAC is supporting Whatley’s campaign. What specific laws or regulations are of concern? Or why this is the first time the Whatleys have invested in a U.S. Senate race in North Carolina.
Notably, Chemours donated $5,000 to Whatley’s campaign on March 3, technically during the primary election period. This means the PAC could make up to $5,000 in additional contributions for the general election.
During this election cycle, Chemours PAC also made contributions of up to $15,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the official campaign arm of Senate Republicans.
Carey pointed out that Chemours effectively circumvents most federal PFAS restrictions and North Carolina’s comprehensive PFAS regulations.
The state Environmental Control Commission is currently working to implement PFAS and 1,4-dioxane monitoring and abatement rules supported by Republican-appointed EMC members in place of numerical limits previously proposed by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
“As someone who has been drinking poisoned water for 20 years, it’s very disappointing to know that while those of us left behind are paying to clean up the mess, the company that did it is effectively buying our way out of this problem,” Carey said.
New Hanover County’s Cape Fear Public Works Department spent $43 million building a granular activated carbon system that can remove PFAS at one of its drinking water plants, and also incurs recurring costs associated with replacing filters. Brunswick County is also spending about $170 million to expand one of its water treatment plants and install reverse osmosis filters that are expected to reduce PFAS.
Both utilities are suing Chemours to recover the cost of renovating the water facilities.
