During September and November of 2005, an environmental group (the C8 Working Group) held meetings about DuPont Fayetteville Works with the state agency Director for the Division Air Quality (Keith Overcash) and the Director for the Division of Water Quality (Alan Klimek), as well as an official with the Division of Waste Management. In addition, during December of 2005 the C8 Working Group held a meeting about DuPont Fayetteville Works with EPA Region IV in Atlanta.
The information about the C8 Working Group and their interaction with the state agency Directors and EPA Region IV officials was obtained from Hope Taylor of Clean Water for North Carolina during a meeting in the summer of 2019. She indicated that the state agency Directors and the EPA Region IV officials failed to tell members of the C8 Working Group about DuPont's Fluorochemicals Plant often referred to as the Nafion Vinyl Ethers plant. The C8 Working Group was only aware of DuPont's new C8 Plant (APFO Plant) that produced APFO, related to the chemical referred to as PFOA or C8.
She indicated that the state agency Directors were silent about DuPont's 2005 annual report to the agency's Division of Air Quality earlier that year which detailed many fluorocarbons (PFAAs, GenX, and PFAS chemical pollutants) discharged to the wastewater and air from DuPont's Nafion Vinyl Ethers plant. The DuPont report to the agency's Division of Air Quality included detailed information about DuPont Fayetteville's discharges in 2004-2005 of a chemical called HFPO Dimer, which DuPont began referring to years later as the "GenX chemical."
Shown below is a presentation slide obtained from Hope Taylor:
2003: DuPont notified the agency's Division of Waste Management that PFOA had been detected in groundwater as part of their "baseline study" associated with the new C8 Plant (also known as the APFO Plant).
2004 September: DuPont notified an inspector with the agency's Division of Air Quality that the fluorocarbons (PFAAs, GenX, and PFAS pollutants) in their wastewater discharged to the river won't break down - they are forever chemicals.
2005 July: DuPont's annual written report to the agency's Division of Air Quality showed air and wastewater discharges of acid fluorides, PFAAs, GenX, and PFAS chemical pollutants from their Nafion Vinyl Ethers plant (via the scrubbers).
2005 August: An editorial in the Fayetteville Observer urged state agency officials to "step in and conduct a far more extensive testing program."
2005 September: DuPont and the agency's Division of Air Quality held a meeting in Raleigh on September 23rd to discuss DuPont Fayetteville Works. The day after the meeting an environmental engineer in the agency's Fayetteville office was removed from all responsibilities and communications related to DuPont. This was the same engineer who inspected DuPont Fayetteville in 2004 and reported that the fluorocarbon chemicals in the wastewater discharged to the river won't break down.
2005 September-November: An environmental group (C8 Working Group) held meetings about DuPont Fayetteville Works with the agency Directors for Air Quality and Water Quality, as well as an official with Waste Management.
2005 December: The C8 Working Group held a meeting about DuPont Fayetteville Works with EPA Region IV in Atlanta.
2006 July: DuPont's annual written report to the agency's Division of Air Quality showed air and wastewater discharges of acid fluorides, PFAAs, GenX, and PFAS chemical pollutants from their Nafion Vinyl Ethers plant (via the scrubbers).
2006 Summer: DuPont reported the detection of PFOA in surface water and groundwater to the agency's Division of Waste Management.