J.D. Solomon, Chair
North Carolina Environmental Management Commission
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality
1617 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1617
Jd.solomonemc@deq.nc.gov

Dear Chair Solomon and Members of the Environmental Management Commission:

In November, state environmental regulators released a draft environmental impact statement for the Town of Fuquay Varina’s Interbasin Transfer request. The town wants to permanently divert 6.17 million gallons a day from the Cape Fear River which we believe would severely impact drinking water quality for residents in our region.

Over 500,000 residents in Brunswick, New Hanover, and Pender counties rely on the Cape Fear River as their primary source of drinking water. It’s well documented the Cape Fear River was used as a PFAS sacrifice zone for decades. State regulators and lawmakers have been unable, or in some cases unwilling, to establish meaningful restrictions on PFAS releases into our rivers, much less require PFAS polluters to fully clean up historic contamination impacting our water quality.

Downstream communities, like ours, have shouldered the personal costs of cleaning PFAS pollution from our public tap water. We were never provided immediate safer water alternatives when GenX was discovered in our tap water. Our water bills increased to cover the cost of expensive new filtration. Our public utilities have been in a near decades long legal battle with PFAS polluters. 

Over the years, we’ve noticed when the Cape Fear River flow is low, often due to drought cycles, PFAS concentrations increase at the intakes of our public water utilities. This is typically because as the river water evaporates the existing PFAS pollution within the river becomes more concentrated. A stable river flow means our region's public drinking water systems can more affordably remove toxicants like PFAS from the drinking water supply.

Our region is incredibly concerned with the Town of Fuquay Varina’s plans to permanently remove such a significant amount of water from the Cape Fear River. The state is offering three public hearings in December 2025 but none of them are anywhere near Wilmington, NC. The closest public hearing is a two hour drive one way for residents in Brunswick, Pender, and New Hanover counties. We are requesting state regulators hold a fourth public hearing in the Wilmington area. 

Sincerely,

Concerned Petitioners