Proposed North Carolina PFAS rule requires no reductions of the toxic chemicals

N.C. Environmental Management Commission to consider rule that would allow over 600 industries to release PFAS indefinitely

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — On Tuesday, March 11, the Water Quality Committee of the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission will consider a proposed rule for PFAS, or forever chemicals, that does not require any reductions of the toxic chemicals. This comes after the Environmental Management Commission systematically blocked efforts by the state to protect North Carolinians from toxic PFAS chemicals through water quality standards.

“This draft rule is offensive to families throughout North Carolina who deserve clean, safe drinking water.” said Jean Zhuang, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Under this rule, PFAS-polluting industries could do absolutely nothing to reduce their toxic waste for the next century and face no consequences. This rule protects over 600 industry polluters above communities and abandons the 3.5 million North Carolinians drinking water contaminated with harmful forever chemicals. The Environmental Management Commission cannot move this rule forward.”

Rather than requiring PFAS-polluting industries to reduce their toxic contamination, the proposed rule would allow wastewater treatment plants to give polluters nearly a decade to sample and prepare a plan with “goals” for minimizing PFAS. If industries do not make progress toward their “goals,” they would face no consequences. Under that process:

• Wastewater plants receiving PFAS pollution from industrial sources would have nearly six years to assess whether those sources have reduced their pollution at all.
• If absolutely no reductions have happened during those six years, industries and the wastewater plants would have another two years to create a new plan with “goals” to reduce PFAS pollution. The cycle repeats every two years without any requirement for the wastewater plant or industry to meet concrete reductions.
• There are no consequences under the rule for industries and the wastewater plants who fail to reduce their PFAS pollution.

In July 2023, the Department of Environmental Quality presented protective water quality standards for PFAS to the Environmental Management Commission that would have compelled wastewater treatment plants and industrial PFAS polluters to filter out the toxic chemicals—saving the state 9.96 billion dollars over 36 years by preventing sickness, limiting the need for costly water treatment at water utilities and homes, and preserving property values. But shortly thereafter, the North Carolina legislature changed the makeup of the Environmental Management Commission—ensuring that most of the Commission members advocate for polluters over people. Since that change, the Environmental Management Commission has blocked PFAS water quality standards and instead directed the agency to draft the current proposed rule—a rule that fails to require industries to reduce PFAS pollution at all.

Throughout North Carolina, industries that release PFAS – possibly over 600 facilities according to the Department of Environmental Quality – pay municipal wastewater treatment plants to take their industrial waste. Because wastewater plants do not remove PFAS, they release the harmful chemicals directly into downstream drinking water supplies and spread PFAS-contaminated sludge onto farm fields throughout the state, which can impact food and drinking water wells. Wastewater plants have the authority and obligation to stop their industrial customers from sending toxic chemical pollution like PFAS to their wastewater plants in the first place.

PFAS are a class of thousands of human-made chemicals that include PFOA, PFOS, and GenX, and are associated with serious health harms. These contaminants are known as forever chemicals—they do not dissipate, dissolve, or degrade but stay in water, soil, and our bodies. PFAS are not removed by conventional water treatment, so it is critical that industrial sources treat for them and that PFAS chemicals are kept out of drinking water sources.