It would also provide additional funding for toxicology work in laboratory animals, research on PFAS levels in citizens and their potential health effects, and development of technologies to reduce PFAS exposure.Īccording to the bill, at least $10 million would be directed to UNC for the development of technologies that use water filtration or other chemical or physical methods to remove or reduce GenX and other PFAS from water supplies. Senate Bill 544 would allow the PFAS Testing Network to expand its analysis and statewide water and air testing of PFAS. In July, it released findings showing that nearly half of the public utilities tested had detectable levels of PFAS in their drinking water. Mike Lee (R-Wilmington) and other Republicans that would allocate $15 million to the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory, which is housed at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.Ī branch of the collaboratory - the PFAS Testing Network - has been using more than $5 million in state funding to test all of the municipal water systems in North Carolina for PFAS contamination. “One, it’s probably the problem is so huge and unwieldy that where do we even get started? Isn’t this something that maybe EPA should be tackling, you know, do we actually have the manpower and the wherewithal to manage that in our state? How’s it going to affect commerce? We just don’t have a history of being very aggressive with exposure to toxic chemicals.” Republican PFAS fundingīutler and Harrison didn’t mention a bill introduced in April by Sen. “First of all, in terms of doing something more aggressive, I think it’s a couple of things,” Harrison said.
Harrison agreed that partisan politics is a big part of the problem, but she said it goes even deeper than that. And I don’t understand it because, honestly, clean water should not be a partisan issue. “DuPont, Chemours and all these other big industrial manufacturers pay a lot of money to politicians … They pay the max to an awful lot of very influential Republicans. Most of the bills were filed with overwhelming support from Democrats – but including a handful of Republican co-sponsors – have been introduced in previous legislative sessions, and all of them, Butler and Harrison agree, have zero chance of being approved this time around. Pricey Harrison (D-Greensboro), would go so far as to ban the manufacture, sale and distribution of PFAS in the state. House Bill 444 is among 10 that have been filed since March 22 that aim to reduce or eliminate PFAS in North Carolina - and, in the case of Butler’s bill - hold the polluters responsible. Deb Butler (D-Wilmington) would put the onus of cleanup on the backs of the industries that caused the contamination in the first place. Some of the state’s lawmakers want to make the polluters pay.Ī bill introduced in the General Assembly by Rep. Lawsuits have been filed in New Hanover and Brunswick counties in an effort to recoup the money. Brunswick County recently announced in January that it is raising rates to offset filtration costs and expansion of its water treatment plant. If these projects move forward, ratepayers - and not the companies that contaminated the water supplies - will be footing the bills. The money would also expand the town’s water treatment plant. In Cumberland County, officials have approved spending $10 million to run public water lines to two schools and homes whose wells have been contaminated with the substances, much of which is the result of contamination emanating from the smokestacks at the Chemours Fayetteville Works plant on the border of Bladen County.Īnd in the small Chatham County town of Pittsboro, officials are eyeing a $42 million filtration system for the removal of PFAS and perhaps an even more troubling chemical, a likely carcinogen known as 1,4 dioxane. Lessons from Abroad: How Europeans have tackled opioid addiction and what the U.S.
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