August 25, 2005
SOURCE: North Carolina C8 Working Group
New Discoveries of DuPont C8 Pollution
in Fayetteville:
Additional Concerns Raised Over Government
Inaction and Threat to Drinking Water
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C., Aug. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- 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 U.S. 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.
