Company officials think the PFAS spikes in late May and early June were related to rental pumps

State officials are investigating recent reports that the level of potentially harmful compounds increased temporarily near the Chemours plant in Bladen County.

Company officials believe the increase was linked to rented pumps that were used when the higher readings were detected.

State regulators also are reviewing test results that showed a new chemical in samples taken at the Chemours facility near the Cumberland County line. A company spokeswoman said the compound is made at the plant.

Chemours notified the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) about the reports in letters from plant manager Brian Long to Linda Culpepper, the interim director of DEQ’s Division of Water Resources. The letters, which are on the Chemours website, were posted on the Stop GenX in our Water Facebook page.

Long’s Aug. 8 letter includes a report on tests for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) compounds from two locations at the plant. The levels went up in late May and early June, but then declined, according to the letter.

The report by Geosyntec Consultants said activities at the plants were reviewed in an effort to determine the cause of the increases. Both coincided with the use of rental pumps, it said.

“These activities may have disturbed local conditions resulting in transient increases in PFAS,” the report said. “For instance, this could come from potentially increased groundwater contributions containing PFAS in these samples.”

A Chemours spokeswoman said Tuesday in an emailed response to a question about the increases that the company continues to believe they may be linked to the pumps.

A DEQ spokeswoman said in an email that state officials are investigating the data provided by Chemours.

A June 10 letter from Long to Culpepper said that in April and May, a laboratory at Chemours and TestAmerica, an independent lab, started analyzing samples for PFAS compounds for which analytical methods did not previously exist. One of those compounds is difluoro-sulfoacetic acid (DFSA), the letter said.

The Chemours spokeswoman said DFSA is an intermediate made at the plant. An intermediate is a compound used to make another compound.

The tests mentioned in Long’s letter are required by a consent order signed by Chemours, DEQ and Cape Fear River Watch, an environmental group. The order, which was signed in November, outlines the company’s response to a GenX contamination near the plant and includes a commitment to test for and study similar compounds.

GenX, which is a PFAS compound, is made at the Chemours plant in Bladen County. The chemical also is a byproduct of other processes at the facility, which is off N.C. 87 near the Cumberland County line.

State officials started investigating GenX in 2016 after the Wilmington Star-News reported that researchers had found the chemical and similar compounds in the Cape Fear River. GenX has since been found in hundreds of private wells around the Chemours plant.

GenX, which is used to make nonstick cookware and other products, has been linked in animal studies to several forms of cancer, but it isn’t known if the effect is the same in humans. Chemours officials say the amount of GenX in the private wells is not harmful.

In August, Chemours submitted several reports and other information to DEQ on how it plans to reduce levels of PFAS compounds that reach the Cape Fear River, according to a statement released by the company. Chemours already has reduced the amount of GenX in the river by more than 95 percent and cut air emission of PFAS by 92 percent, it said.

Chemours is recommending seven actions, four that will be completed within two years and three that will take up to five years to complete, according to the statement.

“These actions, highlighted by two actions to capture and treat groundwater-related loading sources directly at the river, will substantially reduce PFAS mass that enters the river near the Fayetteville facility through various pathways, including site outfalls, seeps and ground water sources,” the statement said.

Staff writer Steve DeVane can be reached at sdevane@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3572.