ICYMI: Trump administration scraps EPA rule to limit toxic PFAS pollution, sparking concern in NC

Raleigh, N.C. — Last week, President Trump signed an executive order that clawed back a Biden-era plan to set limits on forever chemicals in North Carolina’s waterways. Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), also known as forever chemicals, are known to cause harm to humans. Recent reporting by WRAL’s Liz McLaughlin outlines the stakes of this decision for North Carolinians:

“The Trump administration has withdrawn a proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule that aimed to limit industrial discharges of toxic “forever chemicals,” a move that has sparked concern among North Carolina residents and environmental advocates.

The withdrawn proposal, which had not been finalized before the Biden administration left office, would have required PFAS manufacturers to monitor and reduce discharges into waterways under the Clean Water Act. The rule was developed to target industries like Chemours, a subsidiary of DuPont, which has been responsible for dumping PFAS chemicals, including GenX, into the Cape Fear River and surrounding groundwater for decades.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) withdrew the proposal on January 21, 2025, citing President Donald Trump’s executive order freezing new regulations. The withdrawal prevents the EPA from moving forward with the rule, which advocates say could have helped protect drinking water supplies by addressing pollution at its source.

Emily Donovan, a Wilmington resident turned clean water advocate after learning her community’s drinking water had been contaminated by Chemours, expressed frustration over the decision.

“This is going to cost Americans so much money,” Donovan said. “When companies discharge PFAS into bodies of water, the cost should be on them—they’re the polluter. It shouldn’t be the burden of communities like Wilmington, Brunswick County, and Pender County to clean that mess up out of the tap water.”

Trump’s executive order means that communities in North Carolina looking for safer drinking water are in limbo, while big corporations are able to carry on business as usual. You can read the full WRAL story here.

Impact of PFAS chemicals in North Carolina:

• GenX and other PFAS chemicals were discovered in drinking water from the Cape Fear River in 2017.
  • For more than 4 decades, a DuPont and Chemours facility dumped toxic PFAS into the Cape Fear River. The Cape Fear River Basin supplies drinking water to about one million North Carolina residents. 
  • In December 2017 GenX was detected in a North Carolina food product for the first time at a rate nearly 15 times higher than the standard set by state officials.
  • In June 2019, GenX and other PFAS compounds were found in leafy greens collected from Fayetteville farmers markets. 
  • PFAS chemicals have been linked to kidney and testicular cancer, hypertension, and other diseases and do not break down over time.
  • Low-income people of color face greater risks of exposure to PFAS chemicals because they are more likely to live near polluting facilities, eat meals that come in PFAS packaging, live in rental units with PFAS-laden carpeting, and drink from contaminated water supplies. 
• In 2017, Wilmington, North Carolina residents were found to have C8 (PFOA) in their blood at levels found in the rest of the country in 1999. 
• C8, aka PFOA, which has been linked to cancer, was also found in wells near the Chemours property in Fayetteville.
  • In April 2021, North Carolina environmental regulators fined Chemours almost $200,000 for failing to meet an order that required the company to construct and install measures to treat residual chemicals at the plant.
• Lab tests commissioned by the Environmental Working Group found that at 186 ppt, Brunswick County had the highest level of PFAS contamination out of sites tested in 2020. 

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