This week, Politico reported that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler will not consider federal limits on per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) chemicals that are fueling a water contamination crisis in hundreds of communities across the country, including in North Carolina.
According to the article, "EPA's decision means the chemicals will remain unregulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, according to sources familiar with a still-unreleased draft plan that acting administrator Andrew Wheeler signed off on in late December."
Wheeler also failed to answer questions from Democratic leadership about his plans for regulating the chemical, which is in the bloodstream of an estimated 98% of Americans, and is linked to thyroid and kidney damages, pregnancy complications, as well as cancer.
For 37 years, fluorochemical giant Chemours discharged GenX and other PFAS chemicals into the Cape Fear River, which serves as a water supply for 200,00 people downstream from the Chemours plant near Fayetteville. Residents look to EPA to take decisive action to end ongoing releases from the fluorochemical industry and investigating other source of PFAS contamination in the state. Instead the EPA has largely left the state to deal with the ongoing contamination.
On Tuesday, Feb. 5, the Senate Environment and Public Works committee will vote on Wheeler's nomination to officially head the EPA. PFAS's toxic legacy is too harmful to ignore. Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis must do what is best for North Carolina and reject Andrew Wheeler's nomination to head the EPA.
"As an Army veteran and longtime resident of North Carolina, I urge Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis to reject the nomination of Andrew Wheeler to head the EPA. His apparent indifference to and inaction on the PFAS pollution crisis will leave military families, communities across the state and our environment to suffer," said Sierra Club representative Mac Montgomery, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and Wilmington resident. "North Carolinians know too well the fear of turning on our taps and harming our children. We need someone who will stand on the side of people, not polluters. Andrew Wheeler is not the man to do that."