Brooks Pierce partner George House was quoted by the Wilmington Star News in an article on actions taken by North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper following the June discovery of potentially harmful levels of chemical GenX in the Cape Fear River. Brooks Pierce represents the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA), which provides public water sourced from the Cape Fear River.
Cooper has requested the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set a maximum contaminant level for GenX. However, several experts have said that the state can establish its own guidelines regarding the appropriate levels of GenX outside of the role of the EPA. Many people are encouraging the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to set its own parameters for the levels of GenX in the Cape Fear River and other local water systems.
“If there is no established numerical standard for a particular pollutant, then DEQ has an independent obligation to determine whether such a pollutant can be safely discharged and to establish technology-based and water-quality-based effluent limitations,” House is quoted as saying. “DEQ regulates many substances for which there is no federal or state numerical standard.”
The full article is available here.
