03/28/2024
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The Department of Environmental Quality announced there was a spill at the Fayetteville Works facility located in Bladen County. The spill was reported on Tuesday, September 24.
The DEQ released a statement stating on Wednesday stating, “At this time, it appears an unknown quantity of plasticizer, a non-PFAS compound, was discharged into the Cape Fear River from Kuraray Americas, which shares the site with Chemours. All downstream drinking water facilities were notified Tuesday afternoon.
The spill was reported after DEQ staff discovered a sheen at Outfall 002 Tuesday, while conducting bi-weekly sampling. Chemours partially shut down the sluice gate to Outfall 002 to slow the flow and deployed absorbent booms.  Kuraray shut down operations Tuesday night to stop discharges while the source is being investigated.
Outfall 002 contains the discharge from the onsite wastewater treatment plant shared by the Kuraray, Chemours and Dupont facilities. Chemours is the permit holder. Under the Consent Order established by DEQ, Chemours is not permitted to discharge any process water into the Cape Fear River.
DEQ staff is onsite conducting further sampling and investigating the extent of the spill and will direct the facilities to take further corrective actions as warranted.”
Chemours released the following statement about the spill:
“On the afternoon of September 24, 2019, Chemours Fayetteville Works’ monitoring process discovered a non-PFAS substance that had entered the site’s water treatment system, and Chemours operators took immediate action to close the gates to the system outfall. Rapid testing was conducted and data determined that the substance was not a compound related to the Chemours manufacturing operations. Chemours immediately notified the appropriate authorities of the discovery.
Further investigation determined that the non-PFAS substance originated from Kuraray, a tenant located on the Fayetteville campus. Kuraray has shut down the associated process. Chemours has been in contact with Kuraray site management to ensure that the issue is corrected before the company resumes operations.
Chemours is committed to being a leading steward of the environment and operating to the highest standards for safety and emission control. We hold all site tenants and any contractors operating on our campus to the same high standard.”
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