North Carolina’s finalized budget includes more than $61 million to address substances commonly known as forever chemicals.
While many are celebrating resources to address a problem that has plagued the state for decades, some critics say the polluters — not the taxpayers — should be footing the bill.
PFAS, an acronym for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — the toxic forever chemicals — have been seeping into the Cape Fear River for decades, contaminating the drinking water supply for 1.5 million people. Many of those chemicals were dumped from a Chemours Co. plant in Fayetteville, formerly owned by DuPont.
“The scale of contamination is a lot more widespread than I think people realize,” said Melanie Benesh, who provides provides legislative and regulatory analysis for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Environmental Working Group. “We are slowly learning about the full scale of contamination in drinking water.”