The evidence suggests that state government officials misled the Science Advisory Board, the media, and the public about NC DEQ's long history of communications with DuPont Fayetteville Works regarding their GenX, PFAS chemicals. Surprisingly, the DEQ Division of Air Quality has continued to conceal its detailed knowledge, which extends back nearly 15 years, of GenX and PFAS chemical waterwater discharges from the Fluorochemicals Plant (via the scrubbers) along the Cape Fear River. New information in 2020 points to how DEQ failed to share this important information with U.S. EPA officials.
At a meeting on December 4, 2017, the Science Advisory Board heard presentations prepared by state government officials. Surprisingly, the DEQ Division of Air Quality presentation concealed essential historical information, including how DuPont had written repeatedly in annual reports to DEQ that chemicals in the "acid fluoride family" were being transferred to water from their Fluorochemicals Plant (via the scrubbers), resulting in PFAS pollutants (PFAAs, fluorocarbons, GenX and PFAS chemicals) in the wastewater. It is important to note that the chemical plant's scrubbers are "control devices" regulated by government officials (NC DEQ Division of Air Quality and U.S. EPA under the Title V inspection and permit program). As a result of this government regulatory responsibility, for nearly two decades DEQ officials had access to detailed information describing the discharge of chemical pollutants (acid fluorides or acyl fluorides, PFAAs, fluorocarbons, GenX and PFAS chemicals, etc.) to the wastewater from the Fluorochemicals Plant (via the scrubbers) and into the Cape Fear River.
It should be noted that much of the concealed government information is contained in NC DEQ's own IBEAM database, as well as in the state agency's Fayetteville Office and Raleigh Central Office files. The meetings of the Science Advisory Board provided an opportunity for government officials to "come clean" with the public and work collaboratively with academic experts to identify "lessons learned" and needed changes in both the DEQ and the U.S. EPA. Instead, the evidence suggests that DEQ officials concealed essential information from the Science Advisory Board, the impacted communities, and the public.
There is a substantial amount of evidence that DEQ Division of Air Quality officials are in the 15th year of concealment of detailed data on PFAAs, GenX, and PFAS chemical wastewater discharges into the Cape Fear River from the DuPont (Chemours) Fluorochemicals Plant (via the scrubbers). The evidence suggests concealment by multiple officials in the DEQ Division of Air Quality over many years. The Cape Fear River is a source of drinking water for Wilmington and many other downstream communities.
In light of the many years of state agency concealment, it seems reasonable and fair to ask why the public should trust the state and federal government officials responsible for the oversight of facilities that are major sources of pollution in North Carolina. Surprisingly, as of June 30, 2021, there is no indication of an independent, bipartisan, and transparent investigation of what went wrong in government officials' handling of the DuPont (Chemours) Fluorochemicals Plant and the discharges of GenX and PFAS chemicals that caused the Wilmington to Fayetteville Drinking Water Crisis.
