New Discoveries of DuPont C8
Pollution in Fayetteville: Additional Concerns Raised Over Government Inaction
and Threat to Drinking Water
August 26, 2005 — By United Steel Workers
Fayetteville, NC — The North Carolina C8 Working Group has found new evidence
that ammonium perfluorooctanoate — or C8 — has further contaminated groundwater
wells and a discharge channel leading to the Cape Fear River at the DuPont Co.
Fayetteville Works.
The latest instances of C8 contamination were discovered during sampling at new
groundwater wells and at a discharge channel leading to the Cape Fear River on
June 2, 2005. Newly obtained documents show the highest levels of C8
contamination yet found at the Fayetteville plant. It was quietly reported to
the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in a
July 22, 2005, letter from DuPont officials to state hydrogeologist Larry
Stanley.
The recent surface water samples were the first analyzed for C8 since March of
2003 when DuPont found traces of C8 in discharges leading to the Cape Fear
River. Although the company took samples of surface water at various locations
in 2004, it did not analyze them for C8.
“This is what happens when you let polluters investigate themselves with no
accountability to anyone,” said Rick Dove, southeastern representative for the
Waterkeeper Alliance and member of the NC C8 Working Group. According to a
January 13, 2004, letter from DENR officials, DuPont had been allowed to conduct
its own investigation into the cause and extent of contamination “without
regulatory oversight from any state or federal agency.”
The NC C8 Working Group, a coalition of public interest organizations, last
month called for strict state oversight and investigation into reports of
contamination at the DuPont facility. The group has asked state Health Director
Dr. Leah Devlin to investigate the impact of C8 exposure to nearby community
members and to workers at the DuPont plant. The group also delivered a letter to
the DENR director requesting a meeting to discuss C8 groundwater contamination
and the immediate need for agency oversight.
DENR has not responded to the request to meet with representatives of the public
interest organization, though the agency has met in the past with DuPont
officials.
DENR asked DuPont to investigate all potential sources of C8 contamination in
June 2003, after the first instances of groundwater and surface water
contamination were discovered. After meeting with DuPont corporate officials,
DENR instead allowed the company to conduct a voluntary, self-directed
investigation with no state or federal regulatory oversight.
North Carolina’s citizens first learned of earlier C8 discovery in July 2005
when the United Steelworkers (USW) made available its research in Fayetteville.
The USW represents 850,000 workers in the United States and Canada, some of whom
are exposed to C8 in manufacturing plants around the country. In June, a panel
of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientists labeled it a "likely" cancer
risk for people. It is said to be in the blood of most of the population and has
been found at elevated levels in the blood of DuPont’s Fayetteville employees.
The NC C8 Working group is increasingly concerned that DuPont continues to
withhold crucial information from the public. The group points to revelations of
C8 contamination at a DuPont plant in Circleville, Ohio. DuPont and Ohio
officials assured the public that drinking water was not affected. Within days
of those assurances, the EPA said C8 had indeed been found in drink water
supplies and that DuPont’s investigation is “unacceptable.”
The EPA criticized DuPont for not using the lowest levels of detection in its
sampling for C8 in Ohio. According to the NC C8 Working group, DENR should not
allow DuPont to continue to use the same “unacceptable” methods in North
Carolina that DuPont used in Circleville, Ohio.
North Carolina C8 Working Group contacts