Environmental Commission member: DEQ secretary’s toxin concerns are ‘grandstanding’

Environmental Management Commission members hit back Wednesday at the Department of Environmental Quality whose rules they help set, saying a delay in the consideration of updated forever chemical limits is tied to a bureaucratic snafu rather than opposition to the rule.

Tim Baumgartner, the vice chair of the EMC’s Groundwater and Waste Management Committee, said the postponement of a vote on a rule that would regulate eight per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in groundwater is because DEQ hasn’t finalized a fiscal analysis describing costs associated with the proposal.

Baumgartner said that during a meeting with him and committee chair Joe Reardon on April 19, DEQ staff acknowledged that the fiscal analysis would not be ready in time for the committee meeting. After deciding to keep the PFAS item on the committee’s agenda as an informational item, Baumgartner said, he and Reardon had no further conversations with department leaders.

“DEQ chose to grandstand, issuing public statements rather than working through the issues with the EMC and this committee. The lack of respect by DEQ for this commission and its members is evidenced by the lack of communication and disregard for providing documents to the EMC for review in a timely manner. This commission deserves a right to review a full package,” Baumgartner said.

Last week, Biser sent the Environmental Management Commission a letter saying she was “deeply disappointed” the groundwater committee would hear a fourth presentation in six months on the standards rather than taking a vote that would move the proposal to the full commission.

After Wednesday morning’s meeting, DEQ spokeswoman Sharon Martin said the department would not immediately respond to Baumgartner, Reardon and other committee members. DEQ has submitted the draft fiscal note to the State Office of Budget and Management for review.

GOP appointees took control of the Environmental Management Commission late last year, after legislators gave Agricultural Commissioner Steve Troxler appointment power over two seats that had previously belonged to Gov. Roy Cooper. Reardon, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Agriculture, was one of Troxler’s appointees.

“I am disappointed that the secretary decided to make this a public issue without having any additional conversation with us, the chair or the vice chair, as it would relate to making this an action item. I do find this most disturbing and not in keeping with the character that I expect of those in a leadership position,” Reardon said Wednesday morning.

Reardon added that the goal of waiting to vote was to ensure that the committee would have all of the necessary materials, including the fiscal note, before making a decision.

Biser sent a separate letter to the NC Chamber arguing that the business advocacy group’s efforts to delay regulating PFAS in groundwater and surface water would make it more difficult for drinking water utilities to meet new EPA drinking water standards and cost ratepayers money.

Regulating PFAS in groundwater

Right now, DEQ is using the practical quantitative limit, or the lowest level at which modern analytical equipment can accurately measure a substance, to regulate the eight forever chemicals. The groundwater standard would actually increase for six of the eight forever chemicals DEQ is proposing to regulate, with the health-based limit higher than the lowest level at which the substance can be measured.

The only two PFAS for which the proposed groundwater standard is lower than the quantitative limit are PFOA and PFOS, so-called legacy compounds that were used economy wide for decades before largely being phased out by 2015.

Michael Scott, the director of DEQ’s Division of Waste Management, said that limit was used to issue a notice of violation to Chemours for groundwater contamination at the company’s Fayetteville Works plant but hasn’t been used elsewhere.

Asked why the measure is controversial if DEQ is actually proposing to increase limits for six of the eight chemicals, Scott said, “I think the interest is understanding the economics, the regulatory impact analysis.”

By updating the standards, DEQ says that a facility that has contaminated groundwater will save money. An analysis shown to the groundwater committee Wednesday found the proposed rule could save a facility contaminated with one of the eight PFAS could save between $604,975 and $3.32 million over the next decade.

“We’re hoping they provide some regulatory relief,” said Jessica Montie, a Division of Waste Management environmental program consultant.

DEQ hopes to bring the groundwater provision before the committee for a vote in July, to the full commission in September and then go out for public comment. The EMC would vote on a final rule next March.

No surface water presentation

The EMC’s Water Quality Committee was slated to hear a presentation on PFAS standards in surface water Wednesday afternoon. But Steve Keen, the committee’s chairman, decided to nix the presentation because the meeting had already run over two hours and, more importantly, the committee did not receive the 22-slide presentation until last Thursday.

Similar to their groundwater counterparts, the presentation would have been the fourth time the water quality committee has heard about surface water standards since November.

Keen said the committee must focus on either including 1,4-dioxane in the triennial review of surface water standards or removing it; regulating PFAS in surface water; and deciding how to address the state’s use of narrative standards when regulating groundwater.

The committee needs material at least two weeks before meetings to grasp it and ask detailed questions, Keen said.

“When we get questions on the street, we don’t want to get them from the Secretary about a letter she wrote to some commission chair. We don’t want to do that. I may be next after this meeting, but that’s our charge,” Keen said.

This story was produced with financial support from the Hartfield Foundation and Green South Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. If you would like to help support local journalism, please consider signing up for a digital subscription, which you can do here.