The NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has identified significant deficiencies in Chemours’ compliance with its ongoing obligations to address forever chemicals (PFAS) contamination in groundwater across southeastern North Carolina. In comments sent to the company today, DEQ detailed the problems in Chemours’ On and Offsite Assessment and Corrective Action Plan and laid out expectations for how Chemours must comply with the 2019 Consent Order and North Carolina law.
Among other things, DEQ has directed Chemours to:
- Fully assess contaminated soil and groundwater throughout the Lower Cape Fear region and any associated risks to human health and the environment.
- Revise its Corrective Action Plan to restore contaminated groundwater in compliance with state law.
- Expand its Assessment and Corrective Action Plan to include all PFAS associated with the facility and not just a limited subset of contaminants.
- Evaluate the impacts of remaining emissions from the facility on groundwater and develop a plan to address those impacts.
While Chemours has spent approximately $1.2 billion on Consent Order compliance, it still has not finished assessing the extent of PFAS contamination in the environment, nor has it provided an adequate plan to address the contamination.
“Today’s direction to the company makes clear that DEQ expects Chemours to clean up all the areas they have polluted,” said DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson. “DEQ will hold Chemours accountable no matter how long it takes.”
Since the Consent Order was finalized, Chemours has:
- Stopped discharging highly contaminated wastewater from the Fayetteville Works plant.
- Constructed a subsurface barrier wall more than a mile long and a treatment system to prevent PFAS contamination from migrating into the Cape Fear River.
- Installed multiple systems to treat contaminated groundwater and stormwater.
- Installed pollution control technology to reduce PFAS from facility air emissions.
- Sampled approximately 27,500 wells belonging to southeastern North Carolina households for the presence of PFAS.
- Offered clean drinking water (via filtration systems) to approximately 10,500 families whose wells are polluted with PFAS and agreed to connect additional homesites to municipal water systems.
While these initial measures were focused on preventing new contamination and providing clean drinking water to affected residents continues, the development and implementation of Chemours’ long-term clean-up plans has stalled.
Today’s action by DEQ is a major step forward in a process outlined in the September 2026 settlement among Chemours, North Carolina and 11 counties and municipal water systems. That process was agreed upon to end the delay in Chemours’ fulfillment of its long-term Consent Order obligations.
Those materials can be viewed here.
In a separate action, DEQ’s Division of Air Quality also sent correspondence expressing concerns about data collection, lab analysis and transparency regarding air emissions from the Fayetteville Works facility. It included a list of immediately required actions. That letter is available here.