Senate to call legislative hearing over handling of GenX, state responds

Raleigh, N.C. (WWAY/AP) — North Carolina Senate Republicans are planning a public hearing about the discharge of GenX into the Cape Fear River because they say Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration didn’t answer most of their questions.

Cooper’s health and environmental quality secretaries responded to several senators’ demand for information about discharges of the unregulated chemical from Chemours Fayetteville Works site at the Bladen County line.

DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen and the DEQ Secretary Michael Regan outlined their departments’ needs for an emergency appropriation to fund more scientists, medical experts, engineers and inspectors and for long-term testing to monitor for the presence of GenX and other emerging chemical compounds.

“We are ready to engage in a productive dialogue about these topics and are available to meet in person to share more information with you about our request for expedited funding and personnel,” Cohen and Regan’s letter states. “We are glad you are reviewing the effect of legislative budget cuts, both past and current.”

But the Republicans said Tuesday the secretaries didn’t address in their letter Monday what the senators consider inconsistencies in how the discharge has been handled.

The agency chiefs are seeking $2.6 million from legislators. They say it will directly help protect water quality in the state and cover water testing for GenX and other compounds.

Speaking on behalf of the group of senators who wrote the original letter, Sen. Michael Lee issued the following statement:

“Families in the lower Cape Fear region deserve to know that they have clean, safe drinking water, and that they can trust the state agencies responsible for keeping our water safe. We are disappointed in Gov. Cooper’s proposed response to this crisis because it does nothing to actually address the immediate problem of GenX in our drinking water.

What’s worse, when we asked the governor serious questions about how his proposal would truly improve water quality in the region and when his administration knew about the GenX discharge into the Cape Fear River, we were met with an evasive, dismissive and unserious response.

Gov. Cooper needs to work together with the legislature to get the honest answers to these questions that our constituents and the public expect. Then we must work together to develop a plan to address the immediate problem of GenX contamination in our water. In the coming days, we intend to exercise our legislative oversight responsibilities to move this process along.”

To read the letter Senators sent Gov. Cooper click here.

The legislature reconvenes later this month.