The Southern Environmental Law Center has sued The Chemours Co. in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch, according to an announcement from the law center Wednesday.

The announcement stated that the lawsuit targets the company's "pollution of air and water with toxic perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including GenX, from the Chemours Fayetteville Works Facility in violation of the Clean Water Act and Toxic Substances Control Act."

Geoff Gisler, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, stated in the news release, “Chemours’ decades-long contamination of North Carolina’s environment must stop to prevent more harm. The families and communities who drink from, swim in, and fish on the Cape Fear River deserve healthy, clean water.”

The company's North Carolina facility is at the Fayetteville Works manufacturing site on the Cape Fear River, 10 miles south of Fayetteville on N.C. 87. 

According to the release, documents filed Wednesday by the conservation groups in court outline "Chemours’ continued PFAS pollution of North Carolina’s water and air through its stack emissions, leaking pipes, unlined pits and wastewater ditches, and contaminated equipment in violation of both the Clean Water Act and Toxic Substances Control Act."

The release stated that the conservation groups earlier notified Chemours of their intent to sue the company in federal court if it did not stop its illegal releases of PFAS.

'Hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians get their drinking water downstream from Chemours’ toxic discharge,” said Kemp Burdette, Cape Fear Riverkeeper, in the release. “This illegal contamination can't stop soon enough for them and Chemours and DuPont must be held accountable for their reckless behavior.”

In July, the Southern Environmental Law Center announced that it had filed a lawsuit against the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch, claiming the state agency should use its authority to require Chemours to immediately stop all emissions and discharges of GenX and other related compounds.

Wilmington, Delaware-based Chemours shared plans earlier this year to make an investment of $100 million into the Fayetteville Works facility in a long-term effort to reduce emissions of GenX and other related compounds.