Should DEQ limit chemicals in Sanford water before it starts to flow into Wake County?

Environmental advocates want regulators considering a permit for Sanford’s wastewater plant to add conditions that would keep spikes of dangerous chemicals out of the Cape Fear River basin.

Sanford is a rarity in North Carolina, with its Big Buffalo Wastewater Treatment Plant located on the Deep River about 17 miles upstream from its own drinking water intake on the Cape Fear River. That means the city actually has to treat many of the contaminants it is discharging, including those from industrial customers.

The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality is considering a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for the wastewater treatment plant. Watchdog groups are worried because draft permits do not include limits on how much 1,4-dioxane or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances the treatment plant can send to the Deep River.

Scientists have linked both so-called “emerging contaminants” with a host of serious human health effects. PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” are linked with decreased fertility, increased risk of kidney and testicular cancers and interference with hormones, among many other conditions. The EPA considers 1,4-dioxane, which is used as a solvent, to be a “likely human carcinogen.”

Those concerns become even more acute, said Geoff Gisler, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, when they’re tied to Sanford’s plan to expand its drinking water treatment plant from 12 million gallons a day to 30 million gallons per day. The $237 million project would see the Lee County city provide drinking water to Fuquay-Varina, Holly Springs, Pittsboro and parts of Chatham County.

“Sanford has plans to become a kind of regional water hub and so when you’re thinking about it from that perspective — of the people affected would not only be in Sanford but would also be distributed throughout central North Carolina — it becomes a bigger problem,” Gisler said.

While that expansion would include the installation of granular activated carbon that could help capture and remove PFAS, adding more of the chemicals upstream would mean more maintenance costs. And it is not immediately clear how the expansion would address 1,4-dioxane the city is discharging upstream.

A City of Sanford spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

Tests of wastewater going into Sanford’s plant in 2019 and 2020 found total PFAS levels as high as 4,026 parts per trillion, with levels above 1,000 ppt on two other occasions.In 2020, seven tests found between 62 and 400 parts per trillion of PFAS being discharged from the wastewater plant.

The EPA plans to study PFAS discharges to treatment plants owned by public agencies like Sanford as part of a regular review of water discharge rules.

Pittsboro concerned about chemicals in the Haw River

Residents in Pittsboro are worried about potential new exposures to 1,4-dioxane or PFAS, said Emily Sutton, the Haw River Assembly’s Haw riverkeeper. Pittsboro has spent about $3.5 million installing granular activated carbon to remove forever chemicals from the water the town draws from the Haw River.

“Knowing that there are industrial dischargers and the same problems that we see upstream in the Haw happening in Sanford’s drinking water, that’s a huge concern for them,” Sutton said.

Gisler expressed particular concern about Sanford’s pretreatment program, in which the city accepts wastewater that has already gone through some kind of treatment from industries operating nearby and discharges it into the Deep River. Sanford’s program includes 11 companies, with eight of those finishing metal and one processing timber.

By adding limits for PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, Gisler said, DEQ would effectively be requiring Sanford to make each of its existing industrial users test their wastewater streams to understand what they’re passing through the city’s system.

“Once you do that, then the possibilities really open up,” Gisler said. “Some of these sources are lower discharges, they may be able to isolate a single part of their manufacturing process that uses PFAS. Or they may be able to capture the wastewater and treat it or send it to someone who can treat it.”

DEQ is requiring wastewater treatment plant operators to make new industrial companies that want to discharge wastewater describe how they are using forever chemicals and whether they’d be found in solid waste, wastewater or sludge from the company.

VinFast, for instance, is seeking permission to send Sanford its wastewater and will need to complete such a questionnaire. The Vietnam-based company plans to build a huge electric vehicle manufacturing plant nearby

The draft permit does include a clause that would allow DEQ to reopen a permit if the state sets an enforceable limit for 1,4-dioxane, but the riverkeeper Sutton is wary of what that would mean in practice.

“We’ve seen reopener clauses put into permits before and they’ve never really been used,” Sutton said.

DEQ is holding a public meeting about the permit at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Earnest and Ruby McSwain Extension Education and Agricultural Center 2420 Tramway Road, Sanford.

The department will accept comments from the public through Wednesday. They can be submitted by emailing publiccomments@ncdenr.gov with “ BIG BUFFALO” in the subject line.

This story was produced with financial support from 1Earth Fund, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.