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State and local officials asked the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday to take a stronger role in dealing with potentially harmful compounds such as GenX.

EPA officials say they are working to develop tools to deal with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that contaminate drinking water supplies such as the Cape Fear River. The agency held a forum on PFAS at the Crown Ballroom in Fayetteville. Hundreds of people attended.

LIFE IN THE PFAS LANE: EPA is holding another all-day PFAS engagement meeting this morning — this time in Fayetteville, N.C., where agency officials will hear about the state waterways suffering from contamination of GenX, a PFAS chemical similar to PFOA and PFOS. The chemical turned into a major issue in the state after it showed up in the Cape Fear River. Last December, both of North Carolina’s Republican senators helped sink the administration’s nominee to head EPA’s chemical safety office, in part because of the GenX crisis.

Andrew Brunson, the North Carolina Christian pastor imprisoned in Turkey for nearly two years on terrorism charges, is in much better spirits since being released on house arrest last week, said Sen. Thom Tillis, who spoke with Brunson on Friday.

“He was a very different person than anytime I’d spoken to him since he’d been in prison,” said Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who has visited Brunson in Turkey twice this spring. “I just continue to emphasize how much I appreciate they did that.”