Clean Cape Fear holds meeting to update residents on PFAS concerns
OAK ISLAND, NC (WWAY) — More than 100 people gathered in Oak Island Wednesday afternoon for a meeting about continued PFAS contamination in Brunswick County’s drinking water.
Carla White lives in Bolivia and she’s very concerned about P-FAS, also known as forever chemicals in Brunswick County’s water.
“The public is still concerned, they want more answers,” White said. “They want it to be over with and move on with their lives and not have, for it to be an afterthought that their water is no longer contaminated. That they can drink the water, shower in it, give it to their children and not have to worry about it anymore.”
A group called Clean Cape Fear held an event Wednesday with several groups talking about PFAS, including representatives from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and the North Carolina Conservation Network.
The meeting was held on the same day as the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to roll back several Biden-era regulations on forever chemicals in drinking water.
Emily Donovan is the co-founder of Clean Cape Fear.
She said having access to clean water and holding polluters accountable is something that people across the political spectrum are looking to resolve.
“They don’t want PFAS in their tap water, they don’t want the exposures and they do want the polluter to pay,” Donovan said. “So this should be an easy decision of all the divisive things that are happening in the country right now, this is the one that we can probably all unite around.”
But drinking water isn’t the only place where P-FAS has been found.
NC State Research Assistant Professor Jeffery Enders said there’s evidence of forever chemicals in sea foam along the beach.
“Essentially why people should be concerned is that the concentrations in these foams was quite high, extremely high,” Enders said. “In fact some of the highest every recorded for water foam blooms, specifically for PFAS.”
As part of the study, 13 samples were collected from locations across the Cape Fear.
Enders said anyone walking on area beaches, especially with children or pets, should avoid contact with sea foam.
As for Emily Donovan, she said it’s time for elected officials to take action.
“The fact that we’ve been talking about this now for 8 years and can still bring over 100 people into a room that wants to know more information shows that justice has not fully been served and that we need to keep holding our elected leaders accountable to make sure that we get the solutions that we know we deserve.”
Currently, there are three bills in the North Carolina legislature related to P-FAS: House Bill 570, which would forbid the use of forever chemicals in firefighting foam; House Bill 569, which would hold PFAS polluters liable for the dumping of such chemicals; and Senate Bill 666, the 2025 Water Safety Act.
All 3 have received bipartisan support, with both House Bills having been passed and sent on to the Senate, having passed their first readings there as well.
