— Chemours has been shipping GenX waste across the Atlantic, collecting the chemicals at its Bladen County plant for processing in an arrangement that surprised state regulators.

The company says it's simply recycling these materials as it has been for years, but a contractor's bankruptcy in Europe required it to ship more material back from a plant in the Netherlands. The company said all of the GenX is created at its Fayetteville Works near the Bladen-Cumberland line, and it is simply shipped to the Netherlands for use there, then some is shipped back for recycling, which reduces waste.

Both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Quality have asked the company a number of questions about the process in the last two months. The EPA issued a "notice of temporary objection" in December, and notes from a conversation between employees at the two government agencies indicate DEQ was interested in whether the imports were meant to circumvent European regulations.

The substances involved are considered hazardous waste in the Netherlands but not in the United States, according to DEQ.

The temporary notice and other details were first reported Friday by NC Policy Watch.

A DEQ inspector learned of the imports by chance during an inspection of the Bladen County facility, the department said. The state has stepped up its scrutiny of the plant since news broke in June 2017 that Chemours was releasing GenX and other chemicals into the Cape Fear River.

Those discharges have stopped, and the company is installing expensive scrubbers to keep the chemicals, the health effects of which are not fully understood, out of the air. The company said the recycling process used on the imported material creates fewer emissions than making new material at the plant.

DEQ has said wastewater from the Fayetteville Works goes to Texas for deep-well injection. The EPA's letter indicates waste may also be sent to an incinerator in El Dorado, Ark., and asks the company for clarification.

The company told DEQ in a letter dated Thursday that it handles the re-imported material the same way it handles virgin chemicals at the plant. A DEQ spokeswoman told WRAL News the department would enforce the same water and air rules at the plant regardless of whether the material involved crossed an ocean.

Chemours spokeswoman Lisa Randall characterized the re-imported materials Friday as "product," not waste. But the EPA's letter repeatedly refers to waste, and DEQ's letter repeatedly refers to wastewater.

Randall said she couldn't say how much volume is involved, but DEQ notes from a December conversation with EPA put the upper limit at 90 metric tons in 20 shipments planned this year. Those notes describe the material as waste and as "a sludgy liquid."

The December notes say the concentration of individual chemicals in the slurry was unknown, and among the things EPA has asked for is "detailed chemical composition information, background safety data and toxicity information."

Chemours said in its letter to DEQ Thursday that it would answer all of the department's questions and the EPA's questions by Feb. 5.

Attempts to reach EPA officials Friday were not successful, due to the partial federal government shutdown. The company said it has previously gotten EPA approval to re-import and recycle these chemicals, but now it must bring more back to North Carolina.

"The recent bankruptcy of our European recycling contractor requires us to take responsible actions to ensure we continue to recycle the vast majority of the GenX," the company said in a statement. "The re-importation of material from Dordrecht (in the Netherlands) for responsible recycle is not something new."