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FAYETTEVILLE — Although top national environmental regulators confirmed GenX and related chemical compounds are used to produce solar panel components, they say their research does not prioritize what risks that might pose to the environment and human health.

Peter Grevatt, national director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water in Washington, D.C., recently told Carolina Journal the GenX solar concern “is one that’s in a much broader set of challenges.”

Waiting is no longer an option, two public utilities in the Cape Fear region have decided. No matter what happens next with GenX and related compounds that are in the river, it’s time to end their customers’ exposure to the toxic chemical soup that’s flowing through the river. The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority is moving toward installing a granulated activated carbon filtration system on the water-treatment plant serving the Wilmington area to remove GenX and other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from its customers’ water.

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.