Chemours' GenX pollution worries spread to West Virginia

A Teflon chemical that last year contaminated a North Carolina river that provides drinking water to a region of more than 200,000 people also has been detected at a well under a Chemours facility in West Virginia, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.     

In an apparent effort to determine the extent of the chemical, called GenX, in the area's water, Delaware-based Chemours this month is complying with an EPA request to collect and test drinking water samples in Ohio and West Virginia for signs of the unregulated chemical.

The tests are occurring within the same waterways that had been polluted during past decades by a carcinogenic GenX precursor chemical, called PFOA. Chemours and its former parent company, DuPont, last year reached a $671 million settlement with residents over the effects of the PFOA pollution on the area's water and air.

In a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency obtained by The News Journal, Chemours agreed to test for the chemical during its regularly scheduled water sampling analyses this month at four public drinking water systems and 10 private wells near its Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

“What additional sampling may be necessary will be determined in large part by the results of the February round,” EPA spokesman David Sternberg said in an email.

Sternberg did not respond to a follow-up question on Friday, asking why officials from Chemours are conducting the tests rather than the EPA.

The EPA in January requested the tests, citing as a reason the GenX pollution found last year near a Chemours facility in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Concentrations of the chemical in the nearby Cape Fear River there peaked to 3,700 parts per trillion, following a spill in October. The North Carolina health department’s goal for the chemical in drinking water is 140 parts per trillion.

Chemours is providing bottled water to well water owners who live near the river. 

“EPA is concerned that drinking water wells in the vicinity of the Washington Works facility may similarly be contaminated by GenX,” Kate McManus, the EPA’s acting water protection director, said in a letter sent to Chemours in early January. “This concern is based in part upon the fact that GenX has been detected in three on-site production wells and one on-site drinking water well, at the Washington Works facility.”

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Following its 2015 spinoff from DuPont, Chemours had been seen as particularly vulnerable to environmental lawsuits because it assumed many of DuPont's legacy product lines, such as Teflon –once one of the company's most profitable substances.

Citron Research in 2016 called the company "a bankruptcy waiting to happen" due to its "environmental liabilities" and high debt. 

Yet over time, the uncertain sentiment diminished as the company reported strong earnings, reformed its balance sheet, and in early 2017 arrived at the two-thirds-of-a-billion-dollar settlement over PFOA, which it is paying along with DuPont. 

Analysts saw the settlement as a positive step because it lent a degree of certainty to the company after it had been plagued by a cloud of potential litigation from thousands of legal claims.

Yet, last summer concerns re-emerged when GenX was first found in North Carolina water. The company since has been hit with multiple lawsuits filed by a county government, a water utility and residents.

North Carolina regulators also partially revoked a wastewater permit last fall for the company's sprawling, 2,150-acre fluoroproducts plant near Fayetteville. And, they referred the pollution matter to the state Bureau of Investigation “to determine if there is evidence of criminal violations.”

Concerns about the company's financial health are likely to heighten with the discovery of GenX in West Virginia. 

Chemours, headquartered in downtown Wilmington, employs about 1,000 people in Delaware.

Chemours sales of fluoroproducts, which include Teflon and refrigeration products, totaled nearly $2.3 billion for the company in 2016. The company will report its full-year 2017 sales figures on Wednesday. 

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Touted as a safe alternative, GenX replaced PFOA about a decade ago in the production of Teflon's low-friction surfaces. Yet, critics say the chemical also is toxic.

“It seems that every day we learn more about the danger these substances (GenX) pose and the extent of Dupont’s and Chemours’ callous disregard for the lives of thousands of North Carolinians,” attorney Ted Leopold said in a statement in January.

Leopold in October filed a class action lawsuit against the Delaware companies on behalf of North Carolina residents who drink Cape Fear River water. Leopold, who is with Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, told the News Journal that he is seeking a billion dollars from the companies.

In an amended complaint filed last month, Leopold cites researchers from Stockholm University who said in a study published last month that GenX could be more toxic than PFOA, which has been linked to kidney and testicular cancers, thyroid disease, hypertension and other illnesses.

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North Carolina does not refer to GenX as a toxic chemical because it still is relatively untested, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Quality told the News Journal last fall.

Chemours CEO Mark Vergnano told The News Journal in November that he believes there are no health issues associated with GenX in North Carolina, "and we don’t think anyone’s at risk."

Besides asserting publicly that people in North Carolina are safe, Chemours also has been lobbying the EPA in recent months.

According to federal disclosure reports, Chemours began to lobby the federal agency directly in July, shortly after GenX pollution in North Carolina became known publicly. The company prior to that date had limited its federal lobbying efforts to members of Congress, according to the reports.

Sternberg on Friday did not respond to an emailed question about effects the lobbying has had on EPA decisions. 

Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow him on Twitter @kbaker6.