Gov. Cooper tours Pender Co. water treatment plant amid GenX concerns

PENDER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Gov. Roy Cooper toured Pender County’s Water Treatment Plant today one week after he came to Wilmington to discuss GenX.

Last week, Gov. Cooper held a meeting with local, state and federal officials in Wilmington to talk about GenX concerns and what to do moving forward.

The water treatment plant in Pender County serves about 7,000 people in the county. Pender County Commission Chair George Brown said their water situation is a little different than other areas.

“We just opened this facility about four, four and a half years ago, so we’ve only been drawing out of the Cape Fear River for about that time,” Brown said.

Brown said they might not have the same history as the rest of the region, but that does not change where they stand.

“Still we’ve been on the system for four to five years,” Brown said. “It’s important to us that the GenX issue is dealt with and we’re glad to see the governor come down.”

During Cooper’s tour, he discussed what they have been working on at the state level since his last visit. Cooper said he wants to make sure water across the state is protected.

“We just chartered the expanded science advisory committee today and we hope to put them to work soon not only looking at this issue of GenX, but other compounds that may be in the water,” Cooper said.

Cooper said they are working on the new permit for Chemours that would not allow them to discharge GenX into the water. He said they are also working on new laws to present to the general assembly.

“We’re also looking at potential changes in the law that we will suggest to the general assembly regarding more disclosure about the kinds of chemicals that are our there, maybe requiring companies to provide more information that they may have that they may consider now is protected information that government ought to have,” Cooper said.

In the meantime, Brown said they are still waiting for the water samples to disclose new GenX results.

“Well, we like to see it down to zero of course,” Brown said.

Chairman Brown said they are glad to see the levels of GenX are below the 140 parts per trillion threshold.

After Gov. Cooper toured the rest of the plant, he went to the Outer Banks to assess the power outage situation.