RALEIGH – The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality ordered Chemours to broaden its PFAS assessment and revise its groundwater cleanup plan after finding what the agency called significant deficiencies in the company’s proposal.
DEQ said it sent comments to Chemours on Monday concerning the company’s On and Offsite Assessment and Corrective Action Plan under a 2019 consent order. The department directed the company to fully assess contaminated soil and groundwater throughout the Lower Cape Fear region, evaluate risks to people and the environment, and submit a plan that complies with state groundwater law.
Regulators also told Chemours to include all PFAS associated with the Fayetteville Works facility rather than a limited group of compounds. DEQ said the company must evaluate how remaining facility emissions affect groundwater and develop a plan to address those impacts.
The agency said Chemours has spent approximately $1.2 billion complying with the consent order but has not completed an assessment of the contamination’s extent or provided an adequate long-term cleanup plan. DEQ attributed that figure and those conclusions to its own review; Monday’s announcement did not include a new court ruling.
DEQ also credited the company with several completed measures, including stopping highly contaminated wastewater discharges, building a mile-long subsurface barrier wall and treatment system, installing groundwater and stormwater treatment systems, reducing air emissions, sampling roughly 27,500 household wells and offering clean-water assistance to about 10,500 families.
Monday’s direction is part of a process established in a September 2026 settlement among Chemours, North Carolina, 11 counties and municipal water systems. The department said that process was intended to move delayed long-term consent-order work forward.
In a separate letter, DEQ’s Division of Air Quality raised concerns about data collection, laboratory analysis and transparency involving Fayetteville Works emissions and listed actions it said were immediately required.
WWAY reported the state action Tuesday. A current Chemours response was not included in DEQ’s announcement. In September, WUNC reported that Chemours said it had installed emissions controls, treatment and remediation systems, monitoring programs and replacement drinking-water supplies, and that the company maintained it had complied with the consent order.
The directives require more assessment and revised plans; they do not, by themselves, mark the cleanup as complete.
Sources
- North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality: Nov. 9 direction to Chemours
- WWAY: Nov. 10 report on the DEQ action
- WUNC: September consent-order background and Chemours response
Photo Credit: Blipperman via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Contextual file photograph of the Cape Fear River at Raven Rock State Park, not the Chemours facility; center-cropped and resized. Adaptation distributed under CC BY-SA 3.0. License.
Editor’s Note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.