ROBESON COUNTY, NC (WBTW) – Robeson County officials are worried the chemical, GenX, will contaminate water in the county.
Director of the Robeson County Health Department, Bill Smith, said GenX is used to make Teflon and that The Chemours Company facility in Fayetteville is the source of the chemical.
Earlier this year, in June, Chemours issued a statement to North Carolina residents that said the company would safely dispose of GenX produced by the company’s Fayetteville location. It also stated the company did not believe emissions from the facility impacted the safety of drinking water.
“One of the products that they [Chemours] allow to burn, when it comes in contact with moisture, turns into GenX so that’s why two of the lakes up there are polluted,” said Smith.
Smith also said The North Carolina State Department of Environment along with labs contracted by Chemours are testing bodies of water near the plant for GenX.
“They know it’s in Bladen and Cumberland and Chemours is less than three miles from our line and they keep widening the search,” he said. “So it’s only a matter of time before it’s going to be in Robeson County.”
Smith said GenX has been found in Cape Fear River which causes him to fear the contaminant is on its way to Robeson County. He said Wilmington, Brunswick, and Pender counties all use Cape Fear River for drinking water.
“The Lumber River Basin starts just where the swamps come out of the Cape Fear so it should start to trickle down,” he said. “We got notice today that there was another elevation of its levels in the river and there should be none because they’ve stopped contamination so there must be another source in there somewhere.”
Smith said there is no data on humans so it’s unclear what can be considered a “safe level” of GenX. He said there has to be another source of GenX because Chemours said it has stopped its contamination.
“Something is still continuing to change the amount going into the river and they’re not discharging any so what is it?”
The Robeson County Health Director said he believes the state will test Robeson County early next year. He said he suggests residents wait until the state does a test on the water, before residents pay for a test themselves.
“At the point the level is too high then they [the state] have to provide you water,” he said. “You’re also looking at long-term solution of how do you get public water into that area? Either Bladen has to come in or Cumberland comes down or Robeson goes up so that’s your true solution,” Smith continued. “Nobody wants to use bottled water the rest of their lives”
Smith said the health departments are involved because they are responsible for private drinking wells.
“All these places have private drinking wells,” he said. “What we found is that the shallower the well, the more likely it was to be contaminated so the people who have deep wells are probably okay.”
He said he’s worried GenX is already in the Lumber River Basin.
“Anytime it rains everything washes in and so this may have been in their water for some time and they’ve never known it,” he said.
Smith said one of his biggest concerns is that the chemical is airborne, after it was found in local honey in a neighboring county.
“It’s spreading outside of where it was discharged,” Smith said. “It’s showing up in wells some miles away so it couldn’t get there from the water, it had to be airborne.”
Smith said GenX was originally reported in honey from a Robeson County Bee farm because the farmer had a St. Pauls address. He said GenX in honey is not as serious as GenX in water.
“You would have to have a spoon full of honey per minute for the rest of your life to get what you would get from water,” he said.
President of the Robeson County Beekeepers Association, Terry Nunnery, said he’s concerned for Robeson County as both a beekeeper and as a resident.
“We’ve got a lot of things to worry about in Robeson County and I reckon that’s added to the situation,” Nunnery said. “We don’t know what’s coming down the pipeline, we’re trying to fight diseases and pests and then something like this is added to the fire it just makes it even worse.”
Nunnery said he doesn’t believe the bees could transfer GenX from Fayetteville to Robeson County because they only travel within five miles of their location for food and water.
Smith said if GenX is found in Robeson County, the Robeson County Health Department will work with property owners on the wells.
“The state got some money to handle this operation so they’re picking up the lab tests and I think they’re going to pass them on to the industry,” Smith said. “So we don’t want to assume anything locally that would cost the residents so we’re waiting to see what the state does.”
