During an environmental agency (DEQ) inspection on September 24, 2004, a DuPont official reported that acid fluoride chemicals from their Fluorochemicals Plant were being transferred to water (via the scrubbers), resulting in fluorocarbon pollutants (also known as PFAAs, fluorocarbons, GenX and PFAS chemicals, etc.) in the wastewater discharged to the Cape Fear River. He explained that the acid fluorides were highly soluble in water, not readily emitted to the air during the wastewater process, and readily converted to fluorocarbons. The DuPont official pointed out that the resulting fluorocarbons were persistent chemicals that were not degraded by microorganisms and remained unchanged as they were discharged to the river - they are forever chemicals. (It is important to note that the Cape Fear River is a source of drinking water for Wilmington and many other downstream communities.)
As shown below, this information was included in the 2004 government inspection report (untreated fluorocarbon pollutants, that won't break down, being discharged into the Cape Fear River). Surprisingly, this important information "disappeared" from the next government inspection report written in 2005, one week after a meeting between DuPont and government officials in Raleigh on September 23, 2005. Equally surprising, the government official who wrote the 2004 inspection report describing the problem was removed from all activities and communications related to DuPont one day after the meeting in Raleigh between DuPont and state government officials. For the next 12 years, this important information about Dupont Fayetteville Works never appeared again in DEQ annual inspection reports.
... Mr. Johnson indicated that they have detected perfluorooctanoic acid, also known as C8, in one of their groundwater monitoring wells. This is quite surprising since the APFO plant only began operation in December 2002...
...He indicated that it might have been formed from a chemical reaction associated with a process stream not involving the APFO process...
... The acid fluorides are highly soluble in water, not readily emitted to the air during the wastewater process, and readily converted to fluorcarbons. The fluorocarbons are persistent chemicals that are not degraded by the microorganisms and remain unchanged as they are discharged to the river...
