The results are in: Wilmington water tests PFAS-free after $43 million CFPUA project

The water running from the taps in many Wilmington-area homes served by Cape Fear Public Utility Authority is now virtually free of the PFAS compounds, including GenX, officials from the utility authority said Tuesday.

Filtering PFAS from water entering Sweeney Water Treatment Plant has been a quest the utility authority started nearly three years ago. Since then, they’ve installed eight Granular Activated Carbon filters to remove PFAS compounds at a cost of $43 million.

More:NC officials knew some residents' water was tainted. Why'd they wait two years to tell them?

More:GenX Water Crisis: Public says no to Chemours' expansion plan, anger toward company grows

Unknown to most until 2017, chemical manufacturers Chemours polluted the Cape Fear River with harmful chemicals for more than 30 years. Since the 1980s, dangerously high levels of PFAS, including GenX, leaked uncontrollably into the river, which serves as the drinking water source to more than 300,000 people.

At a Tuesday news conference, Jennifer Adams, who chairs the utility authority’s board held up papers she said were the results of the latest tests of water samples from the plant. The water samples were taken in late September with the results coming back on Oct. 4.

“The results: no PFAS whatsoever in the tested water,” she said.

Many who spoke at the news conference reflected on the progress the utility authority had made since PFAS was identified five years ago. Carel Vandermeyden, the authority’s deputy executive director for treatment engineering, said the utility authority faced a real challenge in determining how to treat PFAS.

“Here we were faced with a contaminant in our source water that we couldn’t treat for, we couldn’t remove it,” he said. “We knew we could solve this problem, and we’re here today to tell you that we did.”

Following testing, the utility decided the Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) filters were the best option for removing PFAS compounds from the water, Vandermeyden said. Each contactor is 26 feet deep and contains a combined 3 million pounds of GAC.

The Sweeney Water Treatment Plant treats 44 million gallons of water per day and provides water to approximately 80% of CFPUA’s customers, according to the utility authority. The authority serves 200,000 people spread over 74,000 accounts, CFPUA executive director Kenneth Waldroup said.

To celebrate the announcement, those attending the news conference toasted ice-cold glasses of CFPUA water in cups printed with the utility authority’s logo. Several local officials in attendance took to the podium to express reactions to Tuesday’s announcement and underscore the importance of clean water.

“Today is a very important and historic day for this community and this plant,” said Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo. “Five years ago, when we heard that Chemours had contaminated our waterways, our river, this community was shaken.”

Rob Zapple, a member of New Hanover County’s Board of Commissioners, underscored the significance of PFAS-free water. “There is no more critical infrastructure than water, clean water,” he said.

Although all filters are up and running, CFPUA is still wrapping up work on the project with completion scheduled for later this year. Moving forward, the utility authority will continue monitoring for PFAS in raw and treated drinking water that flows into and out of the Sweeney plant. Testing results are available at CFPUA.org/Sweeney.

The system will cost $3.7 million to operate in 2023 and $5 million each coming year. To pay for the system’s initial and ongoing costs, CFPUA customers can expect to see rate increases, Waldroup said. CFPUA’s board has approved an 8.5% rate increase for the average customer. Approximately 70% of that rate increase can be attributed to Chemours, Waldroup added.

“We do expect that there will be future rate increases and that we’ll be able to attribute some of those costs, unfortunately, to our neighbor Chemours,” he said. “Clean water comes with a cost, and our neighbor Chemours should live up to their corporate values and be a good neighbor and step forward to cover those costs.”

CFPUA in conjunction with Brunswick County, Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer and the town of Wrightsville Beach are also suing Chemours and Dupont for the “extensive” damage done to their infrastructures, according to a lawsuit filed in May 2019.

“The work does not end here. We will hold the polluters accountable for what they have cost this community,” Saffo said.

Reporter Emma Dill can be reached at edill@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington water free of PFAS, GenX, local utility authority says