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Cumberland County hires legal team to address GenX contamination

Cumberland County Commissioners are hiring legal counsel to possibly take action against a company that has been linked to contaminating the county's water supply.

Posted Updated

By
Gilbert Baez
, WRAL Fayetteville reporter
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Cumberland County Commissioners are hiring legal counsel to possibly take action against a company that has been linked to contaminating the county's water supply.

The chemical GenX polluted the Cape Fear River, in turn contaminating thousands of Cumberland County residents' water supply.

For decades, Chemours and its predecessor, DuPont, dumped the manmade chemicals into the river from the sprawling plant. The river is the primary drinking water source for an estimated 350,000 downstream residents, including the Wilmington area.

Residents in the southern part of the Cumberland County are having to use filtering devices and bottled water.

The chemicals the plant releases are not fully understood and may cause health problems. The chemicals aren't able to be removed from drinking water using traditional methods.

State regulators, environmental groups and Chemours announced a deal in August 2020 to keep GenX out of the state's drinking supply. The agreement requires the company to stop nearly all chemical runoffs and install an in-ground barrier at the plant.

Chemours is already facing a string of lawsuits over GenX and other chemical releases.

The county has been talking with Chemours for the past 18 months, but discussions recently came to a halt. Now, the county is consulting a legal team to see if they should file a lawsuit.

Officials with the county say they want to run a line of drinking water from the public works commissions down to the southern part of the county. But that project would cost $64 million.

"Our residents deserve clean water, not water contaminated by man-made chemicals," said Charles Evans, chair of county commissioners. "The developing a long-term financially sustainable water system that will address Gen X contamination is one of the boards top priorities. We need funding to build and operate that system. And we are hiring a legal team to help securing that funding."

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