Environment

Simple, but toxic: A chemical model of 1,4 dioxane, an emerging contaminant and likely carcinogen.

The City of Greensboro didn’t immediately report an alarming spike in levels of 1,4-Dioxane in its wastewater to state officials because there was no requirement that it do so, a top utility official said today.

A likely human carcinogen, 1,4-Dioxane was released from Greensboro’s TZ Osborne wastewater treatment plant on Aug. 7. The levels were high enough that it contaminated Pittsboro’s drinking water more than 4o miles downstream. There, concentrations reached 114 ppb, and likely contaminated the water supply for about a week. Although the EPA does not regulate 1,4-Dioxane, it has set a recommended health goal of 0.35 ppb.

Nonetheless, Greensboro officials didn’t disclose the increase until Sept. 27, when its monthly discharge report was due to the NC Department of Environmental Quality.

“Whether the levels were high or low, there was no trigger level” set by DEQ at which Greensboro was required to promptly alert state officials, Mike Borchers, assistant director of Greensboro’s Division of Water Resources, told Policy Watch.

North Carolina Health News first reported the discharge and spike in the 1,4-Dioxane levels in drinking water.

Greensboro has been reporting 1,4-Dioxane concentrations in its wastewater discharge each month since December 2017; as part of a targeted three-month monitoring plan, DEQ had required additional sampling this summer. The sampling and reporting are required as a condition of its federal discharge permit — an NPDES — that is administered by state environmental regulators.

At the end of August, levels of 1,4-Dioxane in the wastewater had decreased to 17.5 ppb, In September, the levels dropped further to 5.98 ppb, but rebounded again on Oct. 15, to 12.5 ppb, Borchers said.

While the decrease is notable, the concentrations are still far above the EPA’s health goal.

Greensboro is now required to submit weekly samples to DEQ. An agency spokeswoman said DEQ’s lab is still analyzing the first set of samples, which were received last week.

The discharge originated at Shamrock Environmental in Browns Summit. The facility contracts with other industries throughout the Southeast for oil recycling, hazardous and non-hazardous waste hauling and storage, and decontamination and vacuum services for trucks. In a press release, Shamrock Environmental said its facility, which is located in an industrial park across from the NC Soccer Complex, discharged 15,825 gallons of “non-hazardous wastewater” originating from a customer that did not report the material contained 1,4-Dioxane.

Shamrock Environmental last week declined to name the customer to Policy Watch.

“They won’t tell us, either,” Borchers said, adding that the company has been “supportive in trying to come up with a management strategy, and how we make the screening process better.”

The sources of the contaminant are industries and wastewater treatment plants upstream. Burlington, Greensboro, Asheboro and Reidsville receive the contaminated discharge, and since 1,4-Dioxane can’t be removed from either water or wastewater using traditional treatment methods, the plants  in turn, send that contaminated effluent into the Haw River, its tributaries and through the taps of Pittsboro water customers.

The upstream pollution sources have not always been cooperative in taking responsibility. According to a timeline posted on the Town of Pittsboro website, in early 2017, well after NC State University scientist Detlef Knappe had released his findings, Kevin Eason, then with Reidsville’s Public Works Director, called Knappe “an outlier” during a phone call to Pittsboro officials.

Easton then reportedly said that Reidsville Mayor Jay Donecker “was a scientist.” Donecker is a veterinarian.

Easton also blamed fracking in Stokes County for the contamination downstream. However, no fracking occurred in Stokes County; the NC Geological Survey contracted with a firm to only drill test holes.

As a result of the contamination, the Town of Pittsboro has been struggling to cap levels of 1,4-Dioxane in its drinking water since at least 2014, when  Knappe began studying the presence of the compound in the Haw River. Pittsboro has been using granulated activated charcoal to reduce the contamination in its drinking water, but the town is still searching for a long-term solution.

In late August of this year, CDM Smith, a consulting firm, presented town officials with cost estimates for various advanced treatments — reverse osmosis, ion exchange, granulated activated charcoal and ultra-violet light/advanced oxidation.

Costs ranged from $9 million to $27 million for treatment alone, plus an estimated $20 million to $69 million to expand the plant or seek other water supplies in order to meet projected increases in the number of customers.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Thursday rejected Democrats’ attempt to overturn a controversial Trump administration power plant regulation.

Democrats forced a Senate floor vote on a resolution to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s power plant rule, which was seen as a weaker replacement for an Obama-era regulation to clamp down on power plants’ greenhouse gas emissions.

The effort was seen as largely symbolic, given that Democrats hold 45 seats in the chamber (two independent senators also caucus with the Democrats). The resolution required only a majority to pass, but it fell short by a vote of 41-53.

Both North Carolina Senators Thom Tillis and Richard Burr voted against the measure.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who’s facing a tough re-election bid next year, was the only Republican who broke ranks to support the effort. Three Democrats — Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Doug Jones of Alabama Joe Manchin of West Virginia — sided with most of the GOP in voting against the resolution.

A Sinema spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“In Maine, our economy is inextricably linked to the environment. Our state, which is situated at the end of the nation’s air pollution tailpipe, has made substantial progress in reducing harmful emissions by increasing energy efficiency, adopting clean energy technologies, and improving air quality and public health,” Collins said in a statement. “While I am pleased by the progress our country has already made in reducing air pollutants, the Administration’s rule to repeal and rewrite the Clean Power Plan is a step in the wrong direction.”

Senate Democrats sought to force their Republican colleagues to go on the record backing a Trump rule that critics say falls short of what’s needed to combat climate change.

“The Trump administration’s Dirty Power Scam comes at a time when Americans are demanding we take bold action to confront the climate crisis and it must be reversed,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said last week when he announced the vote.

Senate Republicans control the voting schedule in the chamber, but Democrats were able to force a vote using the Congressional Review Act. The law allows Congress to overturn federal agencies’ regulations within 60 days after a rule is finalized. A CRA vote can be placed on the Senate calendar by securing the signatures of 30 members.

The Trump EPA regulation, dubbed the “Affordable Clean Energy” rule, was put forward as a replacement for President Barack Obama’s “Clean Power Plan.” The Obama measure was a centerpiece of the administration’s efforts to fight climate change and would have set national emission limits for coal-fired power plants. The Trump EPA argued that Obama’s approach was illegal, and gives states far more flexibility over cutting emissions, The New York Times reported in June when the rule was finalized.

“The EPA has a congressionally mandated duty to protect the human health and the environment,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who authored the resolution. “The EPA has abdicated its responsibility in promulgating this deeply flawed rule.”

Shamrock Environmental in Browns Summit is across from the NC Soccer Complex. Nearly half the 7,100 residents in the census tract are from communities of color. There are more than two dozen permitted pollution sources in the area. (Map: DEQ Community Mapping System)

People who rely on the town of Pittsboro for their drinking water were likely exposed to high levels of 1,4-Dioxane for about a week in August, after the City of Greensboro discharged the compound, a likely carcinogen, into a tributary of the Haw River.

Levels of 1,4-Dioxane spiked to 114 parts per billion in the town’s drinking water in August, shortly after the discharge. Although the EPA doesn’t regulate 1,4-Dioxane, it has established a lifetime health goal of 0.35 ppb. At the drinking water forum sponsored by the Haw River Assembly in Pittsboro last night, NC State University scientist Detlef Knappe called the concentrations “very alarming.”

He estimated people were exposed to these levels for about six days before the contaminated water traveled through the town’s system.

North Carolina Health News first reported the discharge and spike in the 1,4-Dioxane levels in drinking water.

But many questions remain about who knew what and when — and the answers have not been forthcoming.

The discharge originated at Shamrock Environmental in Browns Summit. The facility contracts with other industries throughout the Southeast for oil recycling, hazardous and non-hazardous waste hauling and storage, and decontamination and vacuum services for trucks. In a press release, Shamrock Environmental said its facility, located in an industrial park, discharged 15,825 gallons of “non-hazardous wastewater” originating from a customer that did not report the material contained 1,4-Dioxane, a likely human carcinogen. The discharge occurred on Aug. 7.

Monty Hagler, spokesman for Shamrock Environmental declined to name the customer to Policy Watch.

The wastewater then entered the TZ Osborne Wastewater Treatment Plant in Greensboro, which in turn discharged it into South Buffalo Creek, a tributary of the Haw River. 1,4-Dioxane then contaminated the Haw River, the drinking water supplies for thousands of people living downstream.

However, the City of Greensboro did not inform state environmental officials of the discharge until Sept. 27. That’s when the city submitted its monthly discharge report for August, and mentioned it to DEQ staff.  DEQ did not announce the discharge until mid-October. Neither DEQ nor Greensboro would name Shamrock as the source of the contamination until North Carolina Health News reported their refusal.

City officials reportedly told DEQ that they were unclear when or if they needed to report the discharge because 1,4 dioxane is an emerging contaminant and does not have a specific permit condition.

It’s unclear why Greensboro officials were unaware of the reporting requirements; a city spokeswoman could not be reached by phone or email for clarification.

In fact, a press release from the city says that since 2015 Greensboro “has been proactive in working with NCDEQ and the industry” to reduce the discharge of 1,4-Dioxane “to the maximum extent practicable” — about 80 percent. The city also noted that it had identified Shamrock Environmental in Browns Summit as a “significant source” of the compound as early as 2015.

And, according to DEQ documents online, the TZ Osborne plant had been monitoring its 1,4-Dioxane discharge since December 2017. DEQ also sampled sites in the Cape Fear River Basin in 2018 and posted the results online.

Then in April of this year DEQ sent letters to treatment plants and industrial dischargers throughout the Cape Fear River Basin about a three-month investigative monitoring program to begin in July. The letter specifically mentioned 1,4-Dioxane.

On July 22, 2019, DEQ requested the plant provide a plan to reduce the amount of the compound leaving the plant. That plan was due Sept. 23.

According to online records, Shamrock Environmental has not been cited for violations in North Carolina, although the database is not comprehensive. But the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency did issue a Notice of Violation to the company in March 2016 for failing to obtain a proper hazardous waste manifest.

1,4-Dioxane has long been a contaminant of concern in the entire Cape Fear River Basin. In 2014, DEQ began a monitoring program from Reidsville to Wilmington, including the Haw River, the Cape Fear and several tributaries.

That monitoring showed levels as high as 1,030 ppb near Reidsville and 543 ppb near McLeansville.

Previous monitoring of Pittsboro’s drinking water showed varying levels of 1,4-Dioxane:

• 15.6 ppb in 2014
• 17.1 ppb in 2015
• 7.5 ppb in 2016

A second monitoring period ran over 18 months from 2017 to 2018. That sampling showed levels of 1,4-Dioxane at 35 ppb in the Haw River near Pittsboro on May 9, 2018.

On June 13, 2018, the compound was found at 11 ppb in the upper arm of Jordan Lake, where the Haw enters the reservoir. Jordan Lake is the drinking water supply for hundreds of thousands of people, including those living in Chatham and Wake counties.

Julie Grzyb, a permit writer in the Division of Water Resources, told attendees at a public forum in Pittsboro last night that the state could pursue enforcement action against the city. Even though Shamrock was the discharger, Greensboro is held responsible because it holds the discharge permit. DEQ could also enter into a Special Order by Consent with Greensboro, a legal document that lays out requirements for facilities that are “unable to consistently comply with the terms, conditions, or limitations” in their discharge permits.