Area leaders and lawyers representing a potential class-action lawsuit against The Chemours Co., recently reacted to the proposed consent order issued last week requiring the company to pay the largest fine ever levied by North Carolina environmental regulators.

The agreement is a step in the right direction for addressing concerns that have been raised by Chemours' release of GenX compounds into the Cape Fear River, Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo and New Hanover County Commissioner Rob Zapple said Monday when asked about the news from last week. 

Late last Wednesday, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) issued a news release that stated the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Cape Fear River Watch and NCDEQ, signed a proposed consent order with Chemours that requires the company to fix pollution in the Cape Fear River caused from per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances.

The order laid out several potential requirements for the company, including short- and long-term cleanup efforts, a 92 percent reduction of GenX emissions by the end of the year, funding of health studies for the PFAS and payment of a civil penalty of $12 million to the state, as well as $1 million for investigative costs. 

The suit, however, "really addresses issues happening around the plant," Zapple said Monday of the order that is aimed to fix issues with Chemours' operations at the Fayetteville Works site in Bladen County.

"We have issues here at our local plant that have been caused by emerging contaminants that have been put into our water from Fayetteville Works that this settlement does not really address," Zapple said. 

In addition, Zapple said he hopes that Chemours would also be held financially responsible for "whatever filtration system or process that is necessary to guarantee that we will have clean water now and in the future."

Saffo had a similar opinion, saying that he hopes some of that $12 million in civil penalties would flow to Wilmington's water utility, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, for funding the upgrades needed at its water treatment plant to filter GenX and other emerging contaminants still being studied.

“I would like to know what they are going to do with the $12 million fine. I would like to see some of that money down here to help offset those costs for CFPUA to put that filtration in,” Saffo said, adding that Chemours should be fronting the costs to take some of the burden off ratepayers.

In a statement released Monday afternoon, CFPUA officials said that the proposed agreement "fails to provide a solution for the citizens of New Hanover County who continue to be exposed to PFAS compounds ..."

In addition, officials also pointed out that the agreement does not address river sediment contaminants, or remediation solutions, as well as groundwater contamination in New Hanover County. 

The water utility also addressed its February resolution that requested the state agency to "stop all operations at the Chemours site involving emerging contaminants."

"CFPUA believes this should happen until Chemours has installed technology at the site that will capture air emissions and until we fully understand how PFAS compounds find their way into our water source," officials said in the release. 

The utility is still pursuing its ongoing lawsuit against Chemours and Dupont, officials said, adding that ratepayers should not be responsible for the cost of additional treatment for PFAS compounds.

CFPUA services about 200,000 customers in New Hanover County, according to the release.

“The big concern moving forward is what other compounds and chemicals are out there we do not know about, where they are coming from or what they are,” Saffo said.

In addition, Saffo said he supports Gov. Roy Cooper's efforts for more support for the state environmental regulating agency.

“Cape Fear River Watch has done a wonderful job in moving this forward, working on the legal side with Southern Environmental Law Center to finally getting some admission from Chemours,” Zapple said Monday.

"This is just the beginning, I think, of what I hope will be a number of actions taken ... to hold Chemours responsible for cleaning up our water," Zapple added. 

The order is now in a 30-day comment period before it goes before Bladen County Superior Court for approval, according to NCDEQ's release.

The proposed consent order, if accepted by the court, will resolve NCDEQ's pending lawsuit against Chemours for violating state water quality laws, according to the agency's release. In addition, Cape Fear River Watch agreed to dismiss its lawsuit against Chemours for violations of the Clean Water Act and Toxic Substances Control Act.

A proposed class-action lawsuit, however, is still pending in federal court. One of the lead attorneys for the class action case, which has several named defendants including a Wilmington resident, issued a statement Monday regarding the order.

While the proposed agreement is a "good step forward" in addressing contamination issues in the state, there is still a large population of North Carolina residents who are not touched by the move last week, Ted Leopold, partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll and co-lead counsel in the federal class-action case, said Monday.

"The settlement that The Chemours Company reached with the state last week represents a small but encouraging step toward addressing its role in dumping harmful chemicals into the Cape Fear River and releasing them into the air and the harm that conduct has caused North Carolinians," Leopold said in a news release.

“Because the relief in this tentative agreement is largely limited to just the tiny percentage of well-water properties, it leaves unaddressed the needs of hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians harmed by contaminated public drinking water, and all those harmed by Chemours’ actions, and so we will continue the aggressive pursuit of our class action lawsuit to secure broader relief," he added.