State investigating chemical leak into air at Chemours plant

State regulators are investigating a reported chemical leak into the air at the Chemours plant in Bladen County, where officials have already threatened a key company permit over liquid discharges into the Cape Fear River.

Posted 10:06 p.m. Nov 17, 2017 — Updated 5:41 p.m. Nov 22, 2017

Travis Fain

RALEIGH, N.C. — State regulators are investigating a reported chemical leak into the air at the Chemours plant in Bladen County, where officials have already threatened a key company permit over liquid discharges into the Cape Fear River.

These chemicals are related to GenX, and officials believe they would have "dispersed fairly rapidly with the prevailing winds and that they would not have caused any health effects as a result of inhalation," state Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Jamie Kritzer said in an email Friday.

Chemours, a chemical manufacturer, told the state Wednesday morning that it found a leak in its vinyl ether manufacturing area and that it believed that leak lasted about 13 hours, DEQ said in a news release Friday. The leak came from a condensation tower, and the company said it repaired a valve believed to be the source, the department said.

Now, DEQ officials are looking into whether the release constitutes a violation of the company's air permit. They began proceedings this week to revoke Chemours' wastewater discharge permit over an unreported spill in October, the latest in a saga over chemical releases into the river, which feeds municipal drinking supplies in and around Wilmington.

One of the chemicals released into the air this week is a precursor to GenX, a compound Chemours had been releasing into the river and whose health effects are not well documented. The state has said repeatedly it believes treated water from the river is safe to drink, but it has ordered the company to provide bottled water to people who live near the plant whose private wells tested above a certain threshold.

Chemours told the state that about 55 pounds of hexafluoropropylene oxide (HFPO) and 70 pounds of HFPO dimer acid fluoride were released in the air leak, DEQ said in its news release. Both are fluorinated compounds, with the HFPO dimer acid fluoride being a precursor to GenX, Kritzer said.

DEQ staffers are continuing to investigate the compounds' properties, he said.

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