Background/Purpose of Request:
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act recently approved in the U.S. Senate and now under consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives presents a unique opportunity for Brunswick County and other utilities in North Carolina to mitigate the substantial, unanticipated costs for drinking water infrastructure upgrades due to the presence of PFAS in source waters. The Senate version of the bill earmarks a total of $4 billion to help communities of all sizes affected by per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) administered by the Environmental Protection Agency and the North Carolina Division of Water Infrastructure.
Representatives of 11 North Carolina public water systems are making efforts to focus the attention of North Carolina elected official’s regulatory agencies to provisions in the measure that may need additional consideration. PFAS is a national issue when it comes to drinking water, but this burden does not weigh equally on each state. In particular, North Carolina faces a grossly outsized challenge in dealing with PFAS contamination in the source water for many water utilities.
An apt snapshot of the impact on North Carolina may be found in the Cape Fear River Basin: PFAS contaminates the Cape Fear River, the drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of North Carolina residents and residents’ groundwater to an ever-expanding extent. Just to address the PFAS contamination in the Cape Fear River, signatory utilities are spending tens of millions of dollars to design and construct new infrastructure, with many millions more to come, a tremendous cost that will be passed onto customers should no outside funding sources be secured. Consideration should be given to the actual needs of each state based on their PFAS impacts.
Utilities have been forced to fund unanticipated infrastructure projects to address PFAS that has often resulted in significant rate increases to customers. Projects that are already in construction should not face any limitation to the amount of the funds appropriated for PFAS remediation.
Also, much of the focus of SRF funding for PFAS to this point has been specifically for two types of PFAS (PFOA and PFOS). However, in the Cape Fear River basin, other varieties of PFAS are more commonly found such as PFMOAA and GENX. Agencies that are tasked with grading SRF grant/loan applications should give equal value to infrastructure projects that address any type of PFAS contamination.
Staff will provide an update on the ongoing efforts to maximize funding to PFAS affected utilities in North Carolina. Staff will also provide information on ways that Commissioners may be instrumental in assisting with this effort. Staff also recommends that the chairman be granted authority to sign letters on behalf of the Board to various regulatory agencies and federal and state officials requesting their support of ongoing efforts to properly fund Utilities dealing with PFAS infrastructure needs. |