WRAL Documentary: 'Forever Chemicals: North Carolina's Toxic Tap Water'

We're all contaminated

We made baby bottles with it

We made their formula like that's what we did

When I take a shower I am showering in contaminated

water that we are bathing and cooking and cleaning and

contaminated water

All of these North Carolinians are talking about the toxic

chemicals found in their water

Now that water coming out right there is contaminated

I don't think people realize how screwed up this situation

is

I'm tired of to be honest watch your friends fight

cancer

You shouldn't have to worry that your water at your

home is making your family sick that it's unacceptable

The chemicals were dumped into their water supply by a

plant in North Carolina

Chemistry Powers today

Good thing

It's at camo we can owned by Kors a subsidiary

of Dupont

It infuriated all of us to learn that Kors have

been dumping this chemical compound into our Cape Fear River

for decades

Cape Fear provides drinking water for hundreds of thousands of

North Carolinians in the southeastern part of the state

We should not have to live this way and it's

all because of them and what they done

They thought it was paradise

I can run from my house to the beach and

it's great marathon runner Beth Klein Marino her husband and

daughter moved from Michigan to North Carolina to live by

the water and grow their family

Beth had just completed back to back races

I took like a little break from you know to

give my body a break and stuff and we got

pregnant you know and we weren't planning on it but

we were really happy a son they would name Samuel

Here's her daughter announcing the big news

This is all this is all I have of um

Samuel

What's what's in here Yes this is blanket

There's lots of clothes that we bought because we thought

we'd be taking home a baby and not losing one

a son

They'd only get to meet for a few moments and

we had like a proper funeral for him

You know all my cousins aunts and uncles you would

have thought Samuel like lived to 90

We came home and then started you know to heal

and stuff

And then that's when found out about Gen X in

our water and right away I just thought could this

have caused the problems with my son The problems with

me Good morning everyone

Welcome

I appreciate you all being here

Why is Gen X being just charged into the river

Like every few days we're hearing about more genx

In 2017 the world learned toxic chemicals and by products

had been dumped in the Cape Fear River

The water supply for Beth and hundreds of thousands of

others in Wilmington and surrounding areas was contaminated with these

chemicals

The chemicals are part of a class of compounds known

as PFAS dangerous man made toxins called Forever chemicals because

they never break down and build up in our bodies

and the environment

Forever chemicals have been linked to negative health problems including

cancer liver damage and birth defects

Scientist Jamie Dewitt has been studying forever chemicals like PFAS

and PFOA since 2005

We know that exposure to P foa through drinking water

especially has been linked to many different human health problems

linkages for testicular and kidney cancer depression of vaccine antibody

responses elevations in cholesterol in the blood and problems with

pregnancy and development

I mean what kind of keeps you up at night

when you when you think about people just drinking this

I think about effects of pfas exposure on babies and

Children and adolescents because they're not fully formed

And I'm like got your good old pregnancy book that

says nothing about po in here

And then we soon found out that Samuel didn't develop

his kidneys bladder or bowels and I had placenta problems

Beth Marino

Beth was part of a 2017 NC state study which

found higher than normal levels of P A

In 97% of participants

I found out that I had really high levels of

multiple p in my blood

She has no proof it caused Samuel's death

I will never know the exact levels that Samuel had

But if I had it in my blood then he

had to have it too

And Beth has been trying to get answers for years

I lost my son and I did drink the water

She spoke at the very first news conference about Jen

X in 2017

I don't think you should advise them to drink this

water because I drank that water

She's part of a class action lawsuit against Kors and

she created the nonprofit North Carolina Stop Gen X in

our water every day

I have people message me and call me and they're

wondering the same thing the water I'm drinking toxic

Is it causing me or my Children to be sick

Was created in the 19 forties

It became popular in the 1960 s when Dupont's non

Stick Cookware made Teflon a household name

Well good thing

Now it's in everything from makeup to waterproof clothing to

fast food wrappers

One of the leading manufacturers of these Forever Chemicals is

here in North Carolina outside of Fayetteville on the Cape

River

Dupont started making PFAS in Fayetteville

In 1980 later they introduced a New Forever chemical called

Genx

Dupont spun off its P fast division into a company

named Camo in 2015

But in the process of manufacturing the chemical they were

discharging it directly into the Cape Fair River and they

were emitting it in the air and in the air

it could go for miles and then when it lands

on the ground it could fall into folks drinking water

Wells

Tests show forever

Chemicals have seeped into at least 7000 wells across an

area spanning 800 square miles surrounding the Fayetteville plant

They found 16 different chemicals in my Well Mike Waters

lives near the plant in Fayetteville in a community called

Grays Creek

He talked to us after surviving a massive heart attack

These are actually tomatoes green peppers some hot sweet peppers

He's also been fighting a rare form of leukemia

You know I I make a joke 23 years in

special forces and enemy couldn't kill me

This is what feeds the water to the house

But you know what my water here will

Now he's on the front lines of this crisis

I actually literally care about my neighbors

I'm fighting hard for the community recruiting neighbors like Jamie

White

She's lived in Grace Creek since 2008 is legally required

to provide bottled water to people with contaminated wells

We go through probably 10 bottles of water a day

These gallon size jugs we're soaked every day trying to

lift and juggle and move because as you can see

how full these are Jamie gets 30 bottles of water

delivered to her home every two weeks to drink and

cook with y'all

You actually don't even realize how much water you use

She always runs out

What is this gonna do to my kids The chemicals

What are they doing to the kids It's a fear

shared by everyone

Wral environmental reporter Liz mclaughlin and I interviewed at Jamie

White's house one afternoon all have contaminated water and all

wanted to share what life has been like

I think it's disgusting

It's like heartbreaking

It can't kill me

It's not harming the people

My doctors and Duke actually told me if I drank

out the tap it would make my cancer worse than

what it is right now

Go go go

Carrie Atkins has thyroid cancer that has spread to her

lungs and liver

She and her animals live in a trailer a few

miles from Jamie a 2023 study shows elevated PFA in

the blood of dogs and horses tested in Grace Creek

My dog has cancer

He's literally fighting for his life right now

She can't afford to pick up and leave like I

want to move but I can't move

I'm stuck in the cell and the only thing that

goes through my mind is well well my fur babies

and I die together because we're all battling

She is closer to me than my actual sister is

and to watch her go through all this with her

house and her dogs it breaks my heart and it

scares me and I refuse to even run my water

Britney Tripp lives next to Carrie

Her son has autoimmune issues

Am I going to turn out like Harry and have

cancer Is my son going to develop cancer from this

It's a mother's worst nightmare thinking about this with Children

This is so beyond just giving us a bottle of

water

Kelly Arthur and her family moved to Grace Creek in

1997

Our daughter at the age of 20 was diagnosed with

Hodgkin's lymphoma

Our neighbor across the street from us was diagnosed with

Hodgkin's lymphoma

All of their wells had gen X and I just

don't think that that's a coincidence

And while many get bottled water to drink and some

have gotten filters installed and paid for by camo in

the way it works the water comes in here it

goes through a sediment filter

Thousands still have to use contaminated water every day

What we're bathing in what we're showering what we're watering

our gardens that is we're still using the contaminated water

I've lost plans

Like I said friends from cancer

Couples explain to their families explain to their grandkids why

they're not here

So Vicky Mullen's own grandchildren live with her

How do you tell a five year old he can't

take a bath because they tell you not to sit

in the water

You can shower in it but you cannot you know

you can't take a bath in it

This is our life right here

This is crazy

She's sick of living with bottled water and fighting for

clean water

I feel like they're waiting on us to die

Oh they'll they'll stop

They're gonna die

So it it doesn't matter I'm going down fighting and

I'm not giving up

coming up

They went from one small town to another small town

They had to know the truth because we know what

happened up in West Virginia

They know

this was kind of like part two in a in

a horror tale

Dupont had been making PFOA including a forever chemical called

C eight in West Virginia

Since the 19 fifties

Internal memos from the 19 eighties show Dupont knew about

possible birth defects in babies born to women working in

the Teflon Department

In the nineties a farmer sued Dupont after the company

bought his land to dump materials and hundreds of his

cows died in 2001

His attorney filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of

50,000 people in the Ohio River area

When they learned Dupont had been contaminating their water

The moment the news broke in Parkersburg West Virginia 20

years ago should have been the moment that everyone started

looking at

Where is this happening elsewhere in the country And let's

make sure we stop it

Now permits show Dupont was producing Teflon at the Fayetteville

plant since at least 2006

Then later Gen X

Gen X was supposed to be a safer alternative

But Dupont's own lab studies showed the replacement caused liver

and kidney problems and cancerous tumors in rats

In 2017 Reporter Vaugh Haggerty uncovered Gen X was found

in the Cape Fear River

I couldn't believe this was going on

Kors which was spun off from Dupont in 2015 has

never denied the dumping

They told local officials that this stuff had been in

the water since for almost 40 years

Kamo said it did not violate any laws because genx

was not listed as a pollutant by the EPA meaning

the company was in compliance with its state discharge permit

Neither Kors nor Dupont ever admitted wrongdoing even after paying

more than $670 million to settle thousands of lawsuits in

Ohio and West Virginia

It's there

Emily Donovan a mom in Wilmington co founded the group

Clean Cape Fear

The subcommittee will come to order

She's fought for Camo to pay for clean up today

I'd like to speak to you as a mother who

has spent the last two years getting a crash course

in biochemistry

Friends who fought alongside her got sick

It's not fair

It's not fair

This happened

Emily's neighbor Amy Shan was diagnosed with a rare cancer

affecting the head and neck

Her husband Jonathan said things got bad fast

90% of those diagnosed are still alive

Five years later she didn't last two years

Something had to accelerate

That tests show PFAS from the Fayetteville site in their

water and Amy's blood

If they're the one that put the chemicals in the

water and that's what caused my wife to lose time

on her life and lose the time to be with

her daughter

They should be a fault for it

Clean

Cape Fear member Tom Kennedy traveled to Washington DC to

show lawmakers what a dad fighting to live looked like

He really wanted to make sure that his face and

the girl's faces were seen

He died of male breast cancer in 2022

Leaving behind his wife Christine and their two daughters

I want you to look at my family and understand

that my family could be your family

These families admit they can't prove forever

Chemicals directly caused their loved ones to get sick

While multiple studies from the National Cancer Institute and Centers

for Disease Control link PFAS to increased cancer risk that

doesn't prove causation

Amos spokesperson pointed to two studies that show rates for

some cancers were not significantly higher in the counties impacted

by gen X contamination from 2011 to 2015

However the agency behind one of those studies ncds said

in some counties some cancer rates including testicular and liver

cancers were significantly higher than the state rate

An agency spokesperson said a comprehensive research study is needed

We don't know but we deserve to know

We brought these concerns to the head of the Environmental

Protection Agency Michael Regan

They absolutely deserve to know what is causing or what

has caused or potentially caused any of these illnesses

Regan used to be in charge of the North Carolina

Department of Environmental Quality

In 2019 a settlement between Deq and Comores resulted in

a consent order requiring Comores to stop polluting pfas into

the air and water surrounding the plants

Comores must also sample wells provide bottled water or if

the levels of PFAS are high enough provide filters in

Grace Creek Jamie White just got her filter installed but

said it took fighting with Camoes for five years

A very long five years of tears and fighting and

yelling through the phone because they don't want to listen

and they didn't want to do their part

Jamie's next door neighbors the grimes family just moved in

They don't have a filter

So Kelly Grimes bathes her newborn in the sink using

the bottled water

Kors sends I won't bathe him in the water

I won't let him have contact with it

I don't clean his toys off with the water

Do you regret buying the house I regret buying it

because I know that there are issues that are going

to come

I have four other Children that are bathing and showering

in the Kims

Water Kors is not required to provide water or filters

to people in Wilmington

So I guess the people that can't afford it we

should just all drink the water and hopefully not die

And the company does not have to pay to remove

PFAS from the Cape Fear River that cost falls on

the customer

Haggerty went from reporter who broke the Gen X story

So this is the Director of Communications at the Cape

Fear Public Utility Authority Utility Authority spent $43 million on

filters to remove PFAS from the water

So these were designed to specifically do what these were

designed specifically to remove Kors

P the filters are working but Kors didn't pay for

it

They were the ones who poisoned the water not us

So they should have to clean it up

North Carolina

Attorney General Josh Stein has filed lawsuits against Dupont and

Kors

Now they engage in these sales and changing who owns

what it's all malarkey

It's all nonsense

It's all about avoiding responsibility

In March of 2023 Michael Regan's EPA proposed the first

ever drinking water standard to establish legally enforceable levels of

six pfas chemicals to near zero including two original Teflon

chemicals but there are more than 9000 chemicals in this

class and one tweak of the compound means a whole

new forever chemical to be researched and potentially regulated

Yes we've started with six of the most dangerous that

we are aware of these companies who will undeniably litigate

against our standards

We want to be sure that they can stand up

in court

Kas sued the EPA in 2022 for setting a health

advisory for Genx claiming the agency failed to use the

best science when making its determination

Residents worry the company will fight the drinking water standard

too

They still swear that this stuff is safe and that

we're all crazy

Good neighbors care at Camoes

We care

Next Kim Morse is not a good neighbor

If I had a neighbor like that I'd say please

move

Has a great pr team

Good neighbors care at Coors

We care

North Carolina is our home

Our quality of life and environment must be protected

The good Neighbor campaign is absolutely insulting

They are not a good neighbor

Our goal a 99% reduction by 20 30

The Coors commercials never mention its contaminants from the Fayetteville

works facility

They are trying to eliminate you did bad you poisoned

us and now you're trying to get like applauded for

making efforts to fix what you did

As part of the 2019 consent order Kao's started filtering

PFAS from its waste water and installed a $100 million

thermal oxidizer to stop emitting pfas into the air

They had installed one in Parkersburg West Virginia decades ago

Why did they wait until they were forced by a

court order to install it here in Fayetteville North Carolina

They were saving money at our expense

The new barrier wall is under construction

The company was also required to build a barrier wall

to contain the pollution seeping out below the plant

And it's just a joke because it's already in there

This wall isn't going to save us

In June 2023 Kors completed the barrier wall after missing

the state imposed deadline twice in 2022 Kors announced plans

to expand production in Fayetteville after paying more than $300,000

in fines to the state for environmental violations

So you know all of us around the plant already

realize that expansion it's going to happen

It doesn't matter how hard we scream

Kors says the expansion won't increase PFAS emissions

I don't really see many answers that talk about the

science in detail or that really show the degree of

empathy that should be shown

Says I'm the big sister my daughter never got to

wear it

Scientist Jamie Dewitt who has met Beth Klein Marchesin through

her research said she's doing the work for babies like

Samuel Beth I think experienced a life changing event through

the loss of her child

She lives in an area where we know PFAS contamination

has existed at high levels for many years maybe even

decades

And I'm doing the best job that I can do

as a scientist to try to get more information on

the scientific level to help decision makers move forward

So that what happened to you doesn't happen to anybody

else

I don't want the loss of my son to go

like

for him to just you know die in vain

And because I know there's just so many other people

that are they're hurting and don't know why