The North Carolina Chamber of Commerce has privately leaned on the state’s powerful Environmental Management Commission to delay critical PFAS rules, emails obtained under state public records law show, including providing members with the résumé of a scientist who has downplayed the toxicity of the compounds.

At the same time, a crisis involving these “forever chemicals” emerged in rural Randolph County, where drinking water at an elementary school contained the compounds far above federal limits. The school’s groundwater is contaminated, among the issues the proposed rules are meant to address.

North Carolina became one of the nation’s hotspots for the compounds in 2017, when state regulators discovered chemical company Chemours had been discharging a type called GenX into the Cape Fear River, a major drinking water supply. 

More than 300 water systems in North Carolina, serving an estimated 3.4 million people—a third of the state’s population—provide drinking water that contains levels of PFAS above federal limits, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality. These include homes, schools, child care centers and mobile home parks.

Most of the public utilities source their drinking water from groundwater; the rest tap into lakes and rivers.

The drinking water for another 200,000 people who rely on private wells is also contaminated with PFAS at concentrations above the legal limit, DEQ figures show.

Alarmed by the toxicity and pervasiveness of the compounds, DEQ now wants to regulate eight PFAS compounds in surface water and groundwater in hopes of reducing levels before they flow from household taps.

Rulemaking requires several steps, including a public comment period and approval by the EMC before going into effect. The PFAS rules, introduced by DEQ in November, are stuck in an early phase of the process as they await votes from EMC committees.

Members of the public, including managers of downstream water treatment plants, have pleaded with the EMC to make progress. Some conservative EMC members have attributed delays to DEQ. They say the commission’s water quality and groundwater committees haven’t received a full analysis of the rules’ fiscal impacts.

DEQ has given more than a half-dozen presentations to the EMC about the proposal since last year. The agency provided the EMC with a 72-page draft of the fiscal impacts of surface water rules in May. But the final version wasn’t delivered until July and ran 214 pages.

“We want to get the regulatory impact analysis as right as we can before it goes to the full commission and the public,” EMC Chairman J.D. Solomon told Inside Climate News, “so we can get good, meaningful comments back from the public.”

On March 27, Solomon, appointed by GOP House Speaker Tim Moore, spoke to the chamber’s environmental committee. Solomon told Inside Climate News this week that he discussed the EMC’s accomplishments over the past year. The topic of PFAS did come up, Solomon said, but none of the attendees asked for a delay.

“My main message to everybody is, ‘This is coming,’” Solomon said. “‘You’re not going to get out of it. You’re not going to run and hide.’”

Three weeks later, on April 22, the chamber sent a letter to DEQ Secretary Elizabeth Biser: “It is important that we do not hastily pass regulations without fully accounting for both the positive benefits and potential negative impacts … on the state and its business community.”

Since then, the chamber has provided the EMC with links to talking points about the benefits of PFAS. “This chemical family is essential to mobility, communication, medical treatment, and more,” the chamber wrote on its website, which features the headline: “When it comes to North Carolina’s water, let’s let science dictate our action, not politics.”

In May, Jake Cashion, the chamber’s vice president of government affairs, sent members a résumé for scientist Michael Dourson, who has been retained by chemical companies for studies downplaying the toxicity of the compounds. 

Dourson was also former President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. Dourson withdrew his name from consideration after it became clear the U.S. Senate would not confirm him. 

Cashion did not respond to a request for comment from Inside Climate News. Asked via email if the chamber had hired Dourson, and if so, in what capacity, the organization’s spokesperson did not respond.

Solomon said it’s routine for the EMC to “consider different experts” but that he has “not seen anything come to the commission” directly from Dourson.

In June, Dourson wrote an article for the Carolina Journal, a publication of the conservative John Locke Foundation, in which he wrote that North Carolinians faced “little to no risk” from PFAS in their drinking water. 

That contradicts findings by the EPA, federal toxicologists and independent scientists, who have linked PFAS exposure to kidney, prostate, breast, pancreatic and testicular cancer; thyroid and liver disorders; decreased fertility and low birth weight; ulcerative colitis; and a depressed immune system.

The North Carolina Manufacturers Alliance, whose members include Chemours, also opposes the draft rules, which don’t prohibit PFAS manufacturing, but only require facilities to keep the chemicals out of water supplies.

“The NCMA would like the State of North Carolina to be consistent in regulating these substances with our neighboring states and the federal rules, so as to not place North Carolina manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage in cost of manufacturing our products and expanding our operations,” the alliance wrote to DEQ and the EMC.

However, no neighboring states have enacted groundwater rules, according to DEQ. Nineteen other states have some type of groundwater guidance in place. 

The EMC in July instructed DEQ to remove five of eight compounds from its proposed groundwater standards. The remaining three, GenX, PFOA and PFOS, will be considered in September.

Solomon said the proposed standards for the removed compounds were more lax than existing ones, which depend on the lowest level a laboratory can detect. Those are known as practical quantitation levels, and can vary among laboratories, whose sensitivities differ. That can create regulatory uncertainty for industries.

Michael Ellison, an environmental consultant and vice-chairman of the EMC’s Water Quality Committee, has downplayed concerns about PFAS contamination—both privately and publicly.

In private, according to the emails obtained under state records law, Ellison dismissed concerns about the delays, telling a concerned resident in late June that “PFAs have been around for several decades, so any potential cost from another month or two to get the regulations right are likely to be incalculably small.”

At an EMC meeting on July 10, Ellison questioned their toxicity. “There is some difference of opinion about safe levels,” Ellison said, reinforcing points made by Dourson. “For decades we’ve been making and discharging this stuff. How many people have died from PFAS poisoning?” 

Contacted by Inside Climate News, Ellison did not elaborate on his comments.

Ellison worked at DEQ under Republican Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration, when the agency weakened many environmental rules. He left the agency in 2017 after Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper was elected. 

GOP Senate leader Phil Berger appointed Ellison to the EMC in 2023.

The disagreement over PFAS rules escalated last month between Secretary Biser, appointed by Cooper, and conservative members of the EMC. Biser publicly criticized the group’s repeated delays, telling the media on a call: “Do they really need to count body bags before they take action?” 

Commissioner Charlie Carter, an air quality specialist and another Berger appointee, called for her resignation. “Biser’s conduct is absolutely OUTRAGEOUS … time for Biser to apologize or resign!” Carter wrote in an email to his fellow commissioners on July 14.

Advertisement

Chairman Solomon tried to rein Carter in.

“Charlie, This is over the top. No personal comments are needed on fellow Commissioners, DEQ staff, or DEQ Secretary. Stop it now,” Solomon wrote in an email to the full EMC.  “Everyone, Let’s make these emails stop. Focus on the technical and rulemaking process. We are getting this done—together.”

Biser responded to Carter’s email in a statement provided to Inside Climate News. “It’s my duty as Secretary to protect the health of North Carolina residents and these standards are critical to reducing PFAS in our surface water and groundwater and ensuring residents aren’t paying the entire cost of meeting drinking water standards,” Biser said. 

PFAS in an Elementary School’s Water

Farmer Elementary School near Asheboro, in Randolph County, serves 215 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, about half of them economically disadvantaged. The school sources its drinking water, used to quench the thirst of young children, cook school lunches and make staff coffee, from two wells drilled more than 30 years ago.

In June, DEQ tested the school’s drinking water as part of the agency’s routine assessment to help public water systems comply with EPA limits. The results were stunning. 

Of the 14 types of PFAS detected in Farmer Elementary’s drinking water, two of the most toxic—PFOS and PFOA—were detected at levels 144 and 233 times greater than federal limits, respectively. 

That was driven by contamination in one of the school’s wells, since disconnected. It contained  PFOS at 400 times the proposed state groundwater standards.

A second well on the property also contains several types of PFAS, but only one is above federal limits.

Both the school district and the Randolph County Health Department sent letters to parents and staff about the contamination. DEQ is working with the school on ensuring a new water supply is safe, an agency spokesman said; school starts Aug. 26.

DEQ is still investigating the source and the scope, according to an agency spokesperson. It’s unclear how long children and staff have been drinking contaminated water. 

A commercial site west of the school also had elevated levels of PFAS in its wells, but regulators have not pinpointed a source. Since the compounds linger in the environment for hundreds or even thousands of years, the source of the contamination could pre-date both the school and the business.

Therese Vick, research director with the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, told Inside Climate News that “the results were shocking and devastating.” 

The cost of providing clean water to North Carolinians whose drinking water supplies are contaminated—and determining who will pay for that treatment—lies at the heart of the fiscal analysis that the EMC committees are now considering.

The Office of State Budget and Management found the groundwater rules’ financial impact would yield net benefits of $604,000 to $3.3 million over 10 years.

An analysis of surface water standards released in July by the office shows that by the year 2060, industrial dischargers and publicly owned wastewater treatment plants would spend $9.6 billion to comply with the new rules.

But accounting for the savings—for water treatment plants and private well owners, health costs and property values—benefits would total $9.96 billion over the same time period. This represents a net surplus of $460,000.

Without the standards, according to DEQ, the health impacts across North Carolina through mid-century would equate to 44,925 cases of health harms. Of these cases, the agency estimated 10,279 could result in death. 

Marion Deerhake, a Cooper appointee, has been on the EMC for seven years, as the scope of contamination and dangers of PFAS in North Carolina have become clearer and more urgent.

“How many more meetings before we act?” Deerhake said at the July meeting. “It must be frustrating for people of the state who have suffered for years, having persistent toxic chemicals in their drinking water.”

North Carolina Medicaid recipients will now have access to over-the-counter (OTC) birth control pills at no cost, starting on Thursday.

In an effort to expand healthcare accessibility in the state, the oral contraceptive Opill will be available starting Thursday in over 300 local and retail pharmacies across the state without a prescription, at no cost for state Medicaid recipients, Democratic Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina announced on Wednesday in conjunction with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

“North Carolina is working to expand access to healthcare and that includes the freedom to make decisions about family planning,” Cooper said in a press release. “Making birth control easier to get is an important goal and I’m glad that NC Medicaid can take this step.”

The coverage initiative stems from a 2021 law allowing pharmacists to prescribe various contraceptives in accordance with state medical regulations.

According to the Associated Press, North Carolina Medicaid began enlisting pharmacists as providers in early 2024, with the state officially unveiling the Medicaid benefit two weeks ago.

Opill, the first OTC oral contraceptive approved by federal drug regulators, is expected to alleviate cost and access barriers through this initiative, particularly in rural areas where there are fewer healthcare providers, according to state Health and Human Services.

“This new coverage by NC Medicaid demonstrates our commitment to continue to remove barriers to contraception and ensure North Carolinians have access to the services they need to make the best decisions about their health and life,” State Health Director and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Elizabeth Cuervo Tilson said.

Newsweek has reached out to Cooper’s office and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services via email for comment.

In addition, under this initiative, Medicaid-enrolled pharmacies will be able to submit reimbursement claims for birth control pills.

This comes as the state’s Medicaid program serves nearly 3 million residents, with women comprising 56 percent of the enrollees, the AP reported.

“Our goal is to ensure everyone has access to the right contraception and reproductive services at the right time in their community,” NC Health and Human Services Secretary Kody H. Kinsley said in a press release. “This new coverage is part of our ongoing work to invest in child and family well-being by increasing access to health care and ultimately improving maternal and infant outcomes.”

In addition, earlier this month over 500,000 North Carolinians enrolled in the state’s Medicaid expansion program since the program began seven months ago, according to Copper’s office.

According to Cooper’s office, since December 1, 2023, new Medicaid enrollees have filled more than 1.9 million new prescriptions for conditions like heart health, diabetes, seizures and other illnesses.

Meanwhile, the state’s OTC birth control initiative comes after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022 escalated concerns over the security of other reproductive rights, including access to contraception.

Last month, the Right to Contraception Act, introduced in 2022 and aimed to enshrine into federal law the right to obtain and use contraceptives, was blocked by Senate Republicans in a 51-39 vote, arguing it was unnecessary and overly broad.

The bill needed 60 votes to defeat a filibuster and move forward in the chambers.

If later approved, the Right to Contraception Act would ensure individuals could access various forms of birth control, such as pills, patches, impacts, condoms, IUDs and sterilization procedures.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York warned last month of Republican efforts in some states to block access to contraception, saying it was “all the more reason to move to protect contraception at the federal level.”

“To those who think that federal action protecting access to birth control is unnecessary, just look at what’s happening in states like Virginia and Nevada and Arizona, where Republicans are openly blocking these very protections. I would hope that protecting access to birth control would be the definition of an easy, uncontroversial decision here in the Senate. But the vote will tell all,” Schumer said.

Meanwhile, on the Senate floor last month, Republican Senator Katie Britt of Alabama condemned the Democrats’ legislation efforts as a “summer of scare tactics.”

“This is continuing the campaign of fear-mongering we’ve already seen. Contraception is available in every state across the nation. The goal of my Democratic colleagues right now is to scare the American people, to scare women across our great nation. It’s not that they believe that there’s a problem they’re truly trying to solve. They’re prioritizing their own short-term partisan political interest,” Britt said.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s Republican-led House quickly overrode three of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes on Wednesday.

The House votes, largely along party lines, sent the overrides to the Senate, which does not meet this week. Veto overrides require supermajorities from both legislative chambers to become law. Since gaining supermajorities last year, GOP lawmakers have blocked all of Cooper’s vetoes.

The first bill allows the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles to issue title certificates for all-terrain and utility vehicles, and expands the types of roads accessible for modified utility vehicles to include all roads with speed limits of 55 mph or less. Cooper said in his veto statement that the law would endanger people on state highways because off-road vehicles don’t have as many safety features.

The second piece of legislation changes several laws involving tenancy, notaries and small claims court. What mostly prompted Cooper’s veto was a prohibition against local ordinances that aim to stop landlords from denying tenancy to people whose rent money comes mostly from federal housing assistance programs.

The last bill, among other things, blocks state agencies from taking payments in central bank digital currency, which is similar to cryptocurrencies, but with value determined by a country’s central bank. In the U.S., the Federal Reserve would be liable for the currency’s value, and the agency is still studying whether it can manage its risks to the cost and availability of credit, the safety and stability of the financial system, and the efficacy of monetary policy.

Cooper called the legislation “premature, vague and reactionary,” and urged the Legislature to wait to see how it works before passing laws to restrict it.

There are two more vetoes that still require action from both chambers. Lawmakers are scheduled to reconvene in early September.