{"id":21410,"date":"2024-03-26T10:42:57","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T14:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?page_id=19320"},"modified":"2024-08-06T13:33:37","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T17:33:37","slug":"mystery-in-the-cape-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/mystery-in-the-cape-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Emerging Contaminants: Mystery in the Cape Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

PFAS are a hot topic. These man-made chemicals resist heat, stains, grease, oil, and water, which is in large part why companies use them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early 2000s, scientists voiced their concern over the potential detrimental effects of PFAS. These \u201cforever chemicals,\u201d in some forms, can persist in the environment for centuries. Human health effects of PFAS include a reduced immune response, interference with natural hormones, decreased female fertility, and increased risk of prostate, kidney, and testicular cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PFAS in the Cape Fear River<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In June 2017, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Health and Human Services began to investigate the presence of GenX in the Cape Fear River. The state was able to stop the release of GenX and two other PFAS into the Cape Fear River by tracing the substances back to a Chemours facility in Fayetteville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October 2023, residents, who have been relying on bottled water to avoid their GenX-contaminated wells, expressed shock when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved a Chemours request to import up to 4 million pounds of GenX. In addition to frequent resident-organized protests, Cumberland County is suing Chemours, Corteva, and New DuPont for the mismanagement of PFAS contamination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Devil We Don\u2019t Know<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains a CompTox Chemicals Dashboard PFAS Master List, which has over 14,000 entries. This list is not all-inclusive, however, as manufacturers are constantly developing new compounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditional testing methods only target a select group of \u201clegacy PFAS,\u201d that first round of PFAS that raised scientists\u2019 concerns in the early 2000s. With this test, we need to know the chemical structure of the substance to determine if it is present, which limits our understanding of how prevalent PFAS are in the environment to the narrow list of substances that manufacturers report to the EPA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Do You Test for Something You Don\u2019t Know Exists?<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

North Carolina Sea Grant partially funded the work of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and NC State University researchers who have developed \u201cion mobility spectrometry\u201d (IMS). This approach examines individual ions to understand molecular structure, rather than only looking for a match to a known structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, the research team sampled water downstream of a chemical manufacturing plant along the Cape Fear River. Using the new IMS approach, the researchers discovered 47 PFAS in the river. Eight were previously unrecorded, and the researchers confirmed that three suspected PFAS also were present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf industries create molecules that they don\u2019t tell the public about, and we only test for the molecules they do tell us about, we could be missing things,\u201d says Erin Baker, in a news story from UNC Research. Baker heads the UNC lab that developed IMS. \u201cWe need to use nontargeted testing to have more information on what our communities are being exposed to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With many different \u201cforever chemicals\u201d in the Cape Fear River, knowing what\u2019s out there is integral as we move forward to identify solutions for PFAS contamination and its impacts on human health, wildlife, and the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n

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More<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n