Public health

North Carolina sues company accused of polluting Cape Fear River

Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration is suing a manufacturer accused of dumping pollutants into the river that serves as the main source of drinking water for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians. The state initiated the lawsuit Tuesday, just a few days after the N.C. General Assembly voted to spend $435,000 to start looking into the alleged pollution. It came to light in June but has allegedly been going on for decades.

The plant in question is now owned by Chemours, a spin-off of DuPont, which previously owned the plant. State lawmakers and others have accused both companies of secretly dumping pollutants into the Cape Fear River from the plant, located south of Fayetteville, for nearly 40 years. The lawsuit filed Tuesday against Chemours by Cooper’s environmental department seeks “to address environmental contamination caused by Chemours’ release of certain chemical manufacturing byproducts” into the Cape Fear River from its Fayetteville Works plant, the state’s lawyers wrote. The Cape Fear River runs for 202 miles from Chatham County to the Atlantic Ocean near Wilmington. Many of the cities near its path in southeastern North Carolina get their drinking water from the river, including Fayetteville and Wilmington. Several chemicals are being […]

Recent Posts

LA River restoration connects us back to ‘the life force of our city’

Los Angeles residents at a section of the Los Angeles River cleanup in Los Angeles,…

2 days ago

LAist: New study raises questions about heavy metals in fire retardants

Over the past decade, about 67 million gallons of fire retardant have been dropped on…

2 days ago

Meadow and watershed restoration in the Golden Trout Wilderness

Photo: Golden Trout Wilderness Seeking blue, seeing gold The Kern Plateau features a chain of…

3 days ago

First sighting of salmon in 100 years marks key milestone for California dam removal

For the first time in more than a century, a salmon was observed swimming through Klamath…

1 week ago

Developing state water roadmaps is essential

New turnout facility from the California Aqueduct on Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. Officials say the…

2 weeks ago

Migration Matters: Breaking Down Barriers to Migration

Over the past century, humans have constructed major transportation infrastructure like highways, bridges, railroads, and…

3 weeks ago