Chemours told to cut fluorocarbon emissions

Abstract

Chemours is facing costly demands from North Carolina regulators to curb atmospheric releases of fluorinated chemicals from the company’s factory outside of Fayetteville. Chemours is installing emission controls to reduce its releases of hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA) and other poly- and perfluorinated compounds to air, the state says. HFPO-DA and other fluorochemicals, collectively called GenX by North Carolina regulators, have tainted groundwater near the Chemours plant and public drinking water drawn from the Cape Fear River in Wilmington, N.C., 110 km downstream of the facility. While information about the toxicity of these substances is incomplete, a growing body of research suggests that they are more toxic than a previous generation of hazardous and widespread industrial fluorochemical pollutants that includes perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). To protect drinking water drawn from the river and delivered to hundreds of thousands of people, North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Qu...