GenX — a toxic compound scientifically linked to several cancers, high cholesterol, thyroid disorders, reproductive issues, fetal development problems and a depressed immune system — is … ahem, necessary to fight climate change?
That’s the claim by Chemours, in its March filing to the EPA rebutting the agency’s toxicity assessment of GenX. Sharon Lerner of the Intercept first reported on the document earlier this month.
Chemours, whose GenX discharges have contaminated drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people in the Lower Cape Fear River Basin, contends that GenX and other fluoropolymers are “essential in manufacturing lithium-ion batteries central to electrifying cars … .”
The company is also the major U.S. manufacturer of key components in hydrogen fuel cells, “which show great potential for harnessing green hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels.”
Chemours’s audacious climate change argument is new, signaling a last-ditch effort to thwart the EPA’s pending new health advisory goal for GenX. That goal, which the agency has said will be more stringent, is due out this spring.
Last fall, EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced that scientists had found GenX is more toxic than previously thought. The agency is expected to issue a new, more stringent drinking water advisory this spring. (File photo: Lisa Sorg)
There is no federal or state drinking water standard for GenX or any type of PFAS, also known as perfluorinated compounds. The NC Department of Health and Human Services has set a health advisory goal of 140 parts per trillion for GenX in drinking water. The EPA’s updated health goal could be as low as 5 parts per trillion.
Unless the EPA corrects its toxicity assessment of GenX, Chemours wrote in the filing, regulations could “cause significant harm to Chemours as well as to the broader U.S. economy.”
Meanwhile, peer-reviewed science and broad health studies have demonstrated that GenX causes significant harm to living beings.
Donald van der Vaart (File photo: DEQ)
Former DEQ Secretary-turned-judge to oversee Wake Stone case
Wake Stone is contesting the NC Department of Environmental Quality’s denial of its mining permit, which would have allowed the company to build a quarry on 105 acres next to Umstead State Park. Wake Stone and DEQ have been ordered to enter mediation, but if a settlement isn’t reached, the case will be heard by an administrative law judge, beginning July 11.
And the judge? None other than Donald van der Vaart, former DEQ secretary under Gov. Pat McCrory. Van der Vaart, who was a senior fellow at the conservative John Locke Foundation after his DEQ gig, is now the chief administrative law judge, appointed by Republican state Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby.
Another big mining case, that of Carolina Sunrock‘s proposed quarry in Prospect Hill, in southern Caswell County, remains unresolved. Opponents reached a settlement with DEQ over its approval of the mining permit, which should afford more drinking water protections.
However, there is still disgruntlement among mine opponents over DEQ’s opportunities for public participation — or lack thereof — when the mining permit was still in play. The agency held one public hearing, but days before DEQ approved the permit, there was a flurry of changes — all done without public notice or input. (Opponents of a proposed discharge permit for Chemours are also begging for a public hearing, so far to no avail. DEQ is accepting public comment through May 2.)
Before the first stone can be excavated, Carolina Sunrock must also navigate a convoluted vested rights disagreement at the county level. “Vested rights” allow a company to continue a use or to complete a project as it was approved, despite subsequent changes to a county ordinance. As it pertains to Caswell County, commissioners passed a temporary moratorium on polluting industries in 2020.
If a Caswell County judge determines that Carolina Sunrock doesn’t have vested rights, then the mining permit is in jeopardy; the state’s approval is contingent upon the county’s go-ahead. A court date has not been set.
And because nothing is simple in Caswell County, the Watershed Review Board still has to rule on the project. The quarry property boundary would lie roughly 1,000 feet from South Hyco Creek, the headwaters for Roxboro Lake. The lake is the supplemental drinking water supply for the City of Roxboro.
The ginormous Yadkin County mine is still in a holding pattern. The county’s planning board will meet May 9 for a second public hearing on the rezoning proposal. The mine, owned by a subsidiary of Synergy Materials, an out-of-state company, would be constructed 800 feet from West Yadkin Elementary School and 500 feet from several nearby homes.
The post The Week in Pollution: Chemours says toxic GenX helps fight climate change appeared first on The Pulse.