While Seaboard has leached 1,4-Dioxane through the groundwater into Randleman Lake, the drinking water supply for Greensboro and many Guilford County municipalities, the connection between the old chemical plant and the High Point wastewater treatment plant is less clear. High Point’s East Side wastewater treatment plant is across Riverdale Drive from the old Seaboard site. “It’s a water supply so the discharge should meet the standard of a water supply.” “I’d say we don’t, replied Julie Grzyb, deputy director of the Division of Water Resources. Solomon, an appointee of House Speaker Tim Moore, often advocates for less stringent regulations. Solomon of an agency official about permit limits. “We want to protect people, but what if we have too much margin of error?” asked EMC member J.D. (Scroll down to see the full list.)Ī few facilities have permit limits on the amount of 1,4-Dioxane they can discharge into waterways. To get a fuller understanding of the extent of 1,4-Dioxane contamination, DEQ is requiring 18 facilities, such as wastewater treatment plants and industrial facilities to monitor for the compound another five permits are pending or being reassessed, according to a presentation last week to the EMC. Of the 262 results, a third - 81 - had some level of 1,4-Dioxane. In 2021, DEQ sampled surface water in 28 places within the Cape Fear River Basin. The former Seaboard Chemical Corporation site in Jamestown and the pine trees that make up the “1,4-Dioxane Forest,” as many local residents call it. The town sources its drinking water from the Haw River in the Upper Cape Fear River Basin, which has been polluted by cities and industries upstream. Pittsboro, for example, has borne the brunt of 1,4-Dioxane contamination in the Upper Cape Fear River Basin. Since traditional treatment technologies can’t remove 1,4-Dioxane, it persists in the plants’ wastewater that in turn enters rivers, lakes and streams.įrom there, it can contaminate the drinking water. But the Rules Review Commission nullified the EMC’s action, concluding its fiscal analysis was insufficient and needed to be redone.)ġ,4-Dioxane enters the drinking water when industry discharges the compound in its wastewater into municipal treatment plants. (The EMC did just that, last year, setting a target based on the existing goals set by DEQ. That would require rulemaking by the EMC. If it becomes law as written, DEQ couldn’t limit the amount of 1,4-Dioxane and other toxic chemical discharges unless they can be measured by a number. Hovering over the agency’s latest presentation last week was House Bill 600. State regulators have established an unenforceable health advisory goal of 0.35 parts per billion in drinking water supplies.Īs part of a settlement agreement with the Haw River Assembly, DEQ provides updates on 1,4-Dioxane - discharges, spikes, monitoring and other data - twice a year to the Environmental Management Commission. Neither the EPA nor the NC Department of Environmental Quality have established legally enforceable limits on 1,4-Dioxane, even though it’s a known carcinogen. While in a different chemical family than PFAS, 1,4-Dioxane shares another characteristic besides toxicity: It’s a forever chemical that lingers in the environment for decades, if not hundreds of years. Though not as well known as PFAS, 1,4-Dioxane is likewise what federal regulators call an “emerging compound” - relatively unknown chemicals that are being detected more often and more widely, in the air, dirt and drinking water supplies. The groundwater beneath the former Seaboard site is highly contaminated with 1,4-Dioxane, a known carcinogen. Now the fallow property on Riverdale Drive lies behind a locked gate and a thicket of pine trees, what some local residents called the “1,4-Dioxane forest.” Until 1989, when the company declared bankruptcy, Seaboard Chemical Corporation in Jamestown, in Guilford County, dealt in the dirty business of solvents and fuels.
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