CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Federal regulators and DuPont Co. have agreed to a slight tightening of the C8 limit that will require the company to provide alternative water supplies to more than a dozen residences in the Parkersburg area, officials said today.
Under the deal with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, DuPont will provide new water supplies or water treatment equipment if C8 concentrations exceed 0.4 parts per billion. The previous deal, reached in late 2006, set that trigger at 0.5 parts per billion of C8.
EPA officials said they worked out the new consent order with DuPont based on a C8 advisory set by the federal agency during the final weeks of the Bush administration.
"EPA expects the change will impact a limited number of residents," the agency said in a news release. "Based on current data, approximately 14 private residences may need a treatment system or connection to a public water system."
DuPont has used C8 since the 1950s at its Washington Works plant south of Parkersburg. C8 is a processing agent used to make Teflon and other nonstick products, oil-resistant paper packaging and stain-resistant textiles.
Around the world, researchers are finding that people have C8 and other perfluorochemicals, or PFCs, in their blood at low levels. People can be exposed by drinking contaminated products, eating tainted food, or through food packaging and stain-proof agents on furniture or carpet. Evidence is mounting about the chemical's dangerous effects, but regulators have yet to set a binding federal limit for emissions or human exposure.
EPA officials said that the C8 health advisory -- recommending residents reduce consumption of water with more than 0.4 parts per billion of the chemical -- was "meant as a rapid response to an urgent situation" after agency officials learned that C8-contaminated sewage sludge had been dumped onto farmland in Decatur, Ala.
Since announcing that advisory, EPA has conceded that the advisory level does not protect people who drink water with contaminated with C8 for longer periods of time. Generally, EPA's guidelines for short-term exposure advisories are meant to protect people who drink contaminated water for either just one day, or for up to 10 days.
A long-term exposure limit would likely be about 10 times more stringent, and similar to 0.04 level set by the state of New Jersey when Lisa Jackson -- President Barack Obama's new EPA administrator -- was the state's top environmental regulator.
An internal EPA memo indicates that agency staffers wanted a tougher limit than either 0.5 parts per billion or 0.4 parts per billion, and favored a deal with DuPont to require replacement water supplies of C8 exceeded 0.2 parts per billion.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Federal regulators and DuPont Co. have agreed to a slight tightening of the C8 limit that will require the company to provide alternative water supplies to more than a dozen residences in the Parkersburg area, officials said today.
Under the deal with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, DuPont will provide new water supplies or water treatment equipment if C8 concentrations exceed 0.4 parts per billion. The previous deal, reached in late 2006, set that trigger at 0.5 parts per billion of C8.
EPA officials said they worked out the new consent order with DuPont based on a C8 advisory set by the federal agency during the final weeks of the Bush administration.
"EPA expects the change will impact a limited number of residents," the agency said in a news release. "Based on current data, approximately 14 private residences may need a treatment system or connection to a public water system."
DuPont has used C8 since the 1950s at its Washington Works plant south of Parkersburg. C8 is a processing agent used to make Teflon and other nonstick products, oil-resistant paper packaging and stain-resistant textiles.
Around the world, researchers are finding that people have C8 and other perfluorochemicals, or PFCs, in their blood at low levels. People can be exposed by drinking contaminated products, eating tainted food, or through food packaging and stain-proof agents on furniture or carpet. Evidence is mounting about the chemical's dangerous effects, but regulators have yet to set a binding federal limit for emissions or human exposure.
EPA officials said that the C8 health advisory -- recommending residents reduce consumption of water with more than 0.4 parts per billion of the chemical -- was "meant as a rapid response to an urgent situation" after agency officials learned that C8-contaminated sewage sludge had been dumped onto farmland in Decatur, Ala.
Since announcing that advisory, EPA has conceded that the advisory level does not protect people who drink water with contaminated with C8 for longer periods of time. Generally, EPA's guidelines for short-term exposure advisories are meant to protect people who drink contaminated water for either just one day, or for up to 10 days.
A long-term exposure limit would likely be about 10 times more stringent, and similar to 0.04 level set by the state of New Jersey when Lisa Jackson -- President Barack Obama's new EPA administrator -- was the state's top environmental regulator.
An internal EPA memo indicates that agency staffers wanted a tougher limit than either 0.5 parts per billion or 0.4 parts per billion, and favored a deal with DuPont to require replacement water supplies of C8 exceeded 0.2 parts per billion.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.
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