The DEQ held a Leadership Conference for its employees on November 1, 2018. Surprised at the self-congratulatory tone of DEQ officials who were speakers, and hearing no discussion of concerns, challenges, or "lessons learned" from the DEQ's handling of Chemours (DuPont) Fayetteville, an environmental engineer with knowledge of the DEQ and DuPont history notified the supervisor serving as the DEQ Chemours Hearing Officer.
The DEQ environmental engineer reported to the Chemours Hearing Officer that there was a substantial amount of evidence in the DEQ Fayetteville Office files and the agency's IBEAM database that government officials had engaged in the concealment of GenX discharge data over a period of many years.
Surprisingly, the DEQ Hearing Officer was dismissive of this notification and bragged that serving as the Chemours Hearing Officer was a "feather in my cap." The DEQ Division of Air Quality management team never followed up with the environmental engineer on the notification to the Hearing Officer of the cover-up of GenX discharge data. The Chemours Hearing Officer's report in 2019 was silent regarding the detailed GenX discharge data in the DEQ files for each year going back to 2005.
