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EPA announces enforcement action against Chemours over PFAS

PARKERSBURG — The U.S. EPA is requiring Chemours to analyze the release of so-called forever chemicals from its Washington Works facility and implement a plan to treat or minimize those discharges.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency announced this week what it described as “the first EPA Clean Water Act enforcement action ever taken to hold polluters accountable for discharging PFAS into the environment.”

PFAS is the name given to a group of man-made chemicals used in industry and consumer products since the 1940s, a release from the EPA said. They include C8, or PFOA, which was used for years in the Teflon manufacturing process at Washington Works when it was owned by DuPont, and GenX, the trade name of hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid, which replaced C8 in 2012.

They are often called “forever chemicals” because they don’t degrade in the environment. They have been linked to a range of health issues and were designated as hazardous substances by the EPA in August.

“Administrator (Michael) Regan has directed EPA staff to use every enforcement tool at our disposal to compel manufacturers of PFAS to characterize, control and clean up ongoing and past PFAS contamination,” Acting Assistant Administrator Larry Starfield of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance said in the release. “Through this order, EPA is taking action to address PFAS violations and better protect the resources and people of West Virginia.”

According to the release, PFAS levels in discharges from Washington Works exceeded the levels allowed in the facility’s Clean Water Act permit.

A statement from Chemours on Thursday said the company worked with the EPA on a consent decree “and will continue to take action to address the legacy deposition that (has) contributed to many of the exceedances.”

Deposition refers to past air emissions that later fell to the ground and can impact groundwater during wet weather events.

The EPA release said the Washington Works facility discharges industrial process water and stormwater to the Ohio River and its tributaries, under the terms of a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit issued in 2018 by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. An NPDES permit was previously held by DuPont, which operated the facility until it spun off Chemours and transferred Washington Works to it in 2015.

The consent order states that Washington Works exceeded permit limits on both GenX and PFOA multiple times between 2018 and March 2023. Although PFOA is no longer used in processes at the plant, a Chemours spokesman said those discharges “are related to legacy emissions impacting groundwater, not our operating processes.”

Chemours Enforcement Action

The order requires Chemours to implement a sampling plan approved by the EPA to analyze the presence of the chemicals in stormwater and effluent, then submit and implement a plan to treat or minimize the discharges to keep them within permitted limits.

“Chemours is committed to manufacturing its products responsibly to support multiple industries, including the products made at the Washington Works site supporting current critical industries like semiconductor manufacturing and emerging technologies, such as hydrogen production,” the company said in its statement.

The presence of PFOA in area water supplies led to a class action lawsuit that resulted in DuPont providing carbon activated filtration systems for multiple water systems.

Last year, the EPA issued a new, nonbinding lifetime drinking water advisory for the substance at 0.004 parts per trillion.

Earlier this year, the agency announced a new proposed maximum contaminant level of 4 parts per trillion. If adopted, public water systems would have to notify the public and take actions to reduce the level if tests show it is higher than that amount.

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