RCRA WATCHDOG -- ARTICLE 1

THE DUPONT CAPE FEAR, NORTH

CAROLINA, EPA HAZARDOUS WASTE SITE

PART 1 of an 8 - PART SERIES

Overview of The DuPont EPA Superfund Property
1968 to 2023 and Beyond

By Don Gordon, September 14, 2022 (updated November 15, 2022)

Scribd URL: https://www.scribd.com/document/665133634/RCRA-WATCHDOG-

DuPont-Cape-Fear-Part-1?secret_password=5wTOQixgF8ZQ7zKOHLMi
Tiny URL: https://tinyurl.com/2p8vkk9d
There are now (September 8, 2023) eight articles in this series culminating in a August
7, 2023 RCRA Recommendation for Action to Elizabeth S. Biser, Secretary of the North
Carolina Department of Environmental Control (NCDEQ). Go here for URLS for all
articles and best use of Scribd:
https://www.scribd.com/document/665800151/RCRA-Watchdog-DuPont-vs-RCRA-
Overview
This document is also available on the NCDEQ Public Laserfiche Database:
“The Story behind the Neighboring DuPont Hazardous Waste Site”

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The neighboring DAK Americas/DuPont Cape Fear Facility, shown in the above photo,
was dismantled in 2013 after 45 years of manufacturing Dacron™, PET, and similar
material. That created 527,000 tons of polluted hazardous waste.1 Much of the waste
remains on the 2,250-acre site still owned by DuPont.

As an adjacent neighborhood resident, I wanted to understand the impact, if any, on our

community. The DuPont property shares a boundary with The Bluffs from our entrance
off Dogwood Road all the way to the area near the boat launch. One Solid Waste
Management Unit (SWMU) five acres in size and among a total of 69, is located within
250 feet of the lots planned on River Park Way near the boat launch. Please see the
footnote for a detailed description of an SWMU.2

This article is an extensively expanded version of an earlier Bluffs’ Residents News

Letter article objected by the real estate office. No information has been deleted.

For clarification, the Leland DuPont plant, also known as the Cape Fear Facility, is not
involved in the Gen-X/PFAS contamination of the Cape Fear River. That hazardous
waste disaster is chiefly the creation of the Fayetteville DuPont Plant popularized by the
local news media.

During my research, this is what I found using government information, maps, test
results, satellite photography, reports from experts, and responses to Requests for

1
Polluter data obtained from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Toxic Release
Inventory Program.
2
The EPA document, UNDERSTANDING THE RCRA CORRECTIVE ACTION PROGRAM
TERMS ‘SWMU’ & ‘AOC’, 2005, https://p2infohouse.org/ref/03/02363.pdf

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Information (RFI) from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)
and FOIA from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). DEQ was fully
cooperative and is the principal permit compliance enforcer for the DuPont site.

To understand the impact on our community, first let’s understand the situation.

The EPA consistently and colloquially refers to sites with large amounts of dangerous
hazardous waste as Superfund Sites. The correct terms are RCRA sites and CERCLA
sites -- The 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA sites) and the 1980
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA
sites). Superfund is quick-speak for sites so bad that they are usually assigned to a
National (remediation) Priorities List (NPL). Unfortunately, the colloquialism has
become embedded in government lingo and documents. We want to focus on RCRA
which specifies requirements for the DuPont Cape Fear facility.

As sites are remediated from very bad to under control, most still require permitting,
constant inspection, testing, and reporting. Those sites are frequently referred to in
EPA documents as “Archived Superfund
Sites.” I have seen DuPont Cape Fear
reported as archived. However, archived
is not a synonym for safe. Archived means
it remains safe if under control, inspected,
tested, reported, and compliant with
permits. DuPont Cape Fear permitted by DEQ in1989 and archived Dec 23, 1996.

RCRA was implemented for waste treatment facilities that currently exist. By
contrast CERCLA focuses on the hazardous waste removal and management of non-
operating waste management facilities. In this respect, DuPont, next door, though the
factory is long gone, the hazardous waste currently exists and will for a very long time.
DuPont is monitored in accordance with RCRA. It is close to fully compliant. That is a
good thing.

The RCRA requires DuPont-Cape Fear to continue to conduct corrective action

activities at the facility. In 2019 the EPA authorized North Carolina DEQ to administer
that authority. North Carolina determined that DAK/DuPont’s proposed activities, as
identified in the permit application, also comply with the full intent of the “North Carolina
Hazardous Waste Management Rules and Solid Waste Management Act.” That’s also
a good thing.

The current (2019) renewal permit constitutes a complete permit under the RCRA. This
action was conducted in conjunction with a required public meeting held by DEQ in
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Leland, NC, on April 24, 2019. The meeting was widely announced with a 45-day
notice. Attendees were requested to provide any comments, considerations, new
information, or questions in writing. Despite The Bluffs’ building close to a very large
hazardous waste site, according to the meeting records, no one representing The Bluffs
on the Cape Fear management team attended the meeting.
Apparently, there was no
discussion about the impact
on The Bluffs on the Cape
Fear residential
development adjacent to the
DuPont property. DuPont
has sixty-nine Solid Waste
Management Units (SWMU).
One SWMU, mound 54, is
about five acres, 49-feet
(AMSL) high, hazardous ash
waste containment mound,
the oldest SWMU on the
site, over 50 years old, and
not lined which is the current
EPA requirement for ash.
There is also a 27-million-gallon (when full) water retention pond near SWMU 54. Both
are adjacent to “River Park Way,” the Bay Branch natural water course and its beaver
dam that drains much of The Bluffs property and adjacent swamp lands (under the
bridges and now through culverts, where bridges might be better) to the Cape Fear
River. I found no consideration of that new (2019) relationship in the inspection criteria.
Permeable land is decreasing at The Bluffs due to increased construction and paving.
Our community needs more (not less) unobstructed natural water flow to the Cape Fear
River. Immense rainfall from recent hurricanes (Florence, 2018) makes that point
clearly.
DuPont built and operated the original plant in 1968 and enlarged it in 1973 – both
actions before the Superfund laws were enacted (1976 and 1980) but nevertheless now
require full compliance with cleanup and containment of all hazwaste. The Cape Fear
facility became the largest manufacturer in the world of Dacron™, a polyester fiber.

DuPont is used collectively throughout this article to include all 26 corporate

components discussed in the research of the DuPont Cape Fear site. DAK Americas is
a Mexican affiliate owned by the Alfa S.A.B. de C.V., one of Mexico’s largest
corporations.

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DAK Americas (Mexico) purchased and operated the plant and equipment from DuPont
beginning in 2001. DuPont, however, retained ownership of the 2,250-acre property
then and now. The plant was closed in 2013 because it was too expensive to
modernize, cope with new hazardous waste requirements, and compete with labor
costs. Buildings, ancillary structures, and storage tanks were stripped to their
foundations and with permits waste material buried or burned on site or salvaged. The
manufacturing equipment was shipped to Mexico.

DuPont received EPA and some OSHA permits for all waste remaining on site, created
and released to the air, but mostly stored on site, including large amounts of hazardous
waste. According to the EPA Toxic Release Inventory Program, DAK Americas and
DuPont between 1968 and 2013 created 527,000 tons of toxic waste.3 It is amazing
how much hazardous waste is created manufacturing Dacron™ polyester, Rayon™
(regenerated cellulose), PET (plastic bottles) and Teflon™.

DAK Americas – Dupont Facility Cape Fear Circa 2014 650-Acre Factory Site After
Machinery and Facilities Removed and Waste Buried
Google Maps 2021 Photo

Currently, the DuPont Leland property includes sixty-nine buried, capped, or mounded
sites, former landfills now called Solid Waste Management Units (SWMU), six Areas of
Concern (FMA, ADA, A,B,C, and 1B) mostly buried hazardous stuff, eight industrial
holding ponds and four former retention ponds, most within the 650-acre main factory
area, but some located throughout much of the total 2,250 acres.

3 Polluter data obtained from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Toxic Release
Inventory Program.

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 The hazardous waste is located, identified, tested, under
control and monitored. Independent experts (chiefly DuPont
contracted laboratories approved by NCDEQ) believe the
waste is safely contained at this time. While the site is safe, it
does require and is predicated upon all safety protocols
maintained, including strict no trespassing policies.
Importantly, the test assessments specify that the former
manufacturing area is currently protective of human
health and the environment. However, that assessment is
predicated upon only trained staff entering the contaminated
factory area and other SWMU areas. Another concern
occurs when DEQ and contracted staff enter the property and the manufacturing area
and hear firearms shooting on the DuPont property. This occurs even when it is not
hunting season. It may also suspend inspection activities.

Reporting to date, DuPont Cape Fear has been compliant with all requests from the
DEQ Hazardous Waste Section (HWS). As part of their compliance, DuPont Cape
Fear has addressed or corrected all HWS concerns and questions. There is ongoing
monitoring of specific solid waste management units (former landfills). Site-wide
monitoring will be proposed during the corrective action phase of the project.

The facility was last inspected by DEQ/HWS on December 16, 2021. The next
inspection is scheduled for late 2022 or very early 2023. Inspections are annually and
as needed.

DuPont continues to own and be responsible for the Leland property and hazardous
waste.

Importantly, the DuPont property adjacent to Strawberry Hill Drive from Dogwood Road
to the Cape Fear River is within a 1,337-acre perpetual conservation easement (within
the 2,250 total acres). DuPont was required to provide this easement to the North
Carolina Coastal Land Trust. The conservation easement may not be developed and
includes other easements for public utilities and the railroad track. Some SWMU are
located within the conservation easement including SWMU 54 (about five acres) and
within 250 feet of The Bluffs property. Also note that the rail ties along the length of
most of that boundary were removed due to contamination from creosote and long-time
application of very toxic, long lasting vegetation herbicide chemicals. DuPont does not
allow public use of that property. The factory portion, about 650 acres of the property, is
for sale but only for industrial use, not residential. As of this date some interest, no
buyers.

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Polluter data used in this article was obtained from the EPA Toxic Release Inventory
Program. The goal of the Toxic Release Inventory Program is to provide communities
with information about toxic chemical releases and waste management activities and to
support informed decision making at all levels by industry, government, non-
governmental organizations, real estate developers, and the public.

A special thank you to the Division of Waste Management (DWM), North Carolina
Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), for timely and professionally providing
requested reports, maps, and laboratory and test data. No request was refused.

Are we happy living at The Bluffs, almost four years? Yes we are. But, feel potential
property owners should be “proactively” informed about the neighboring DuPont
hazardous waste site.

End Part One, Overview of the DuPont Property

Parts Two and Three. If there is sufficient interest, Parts Two and Three (planned for
October and November) will complete the series and also be distributed by email. They
will show the specific location of all 69 SWMU, retention mounds, areas of concern
(AOC), seven retention ponds, the specific chemicals contained in each, their danger,
DEQ monitoring test results, flood zones, waterflow, and water courses from and to The
Bluffs’ property. Special reporting on SWMU 54 and a fresh water retention pond
located within approximately 250 feet of River Park Way, near the boat launch and
proposed picnic area and, according to some property plans, about ten immediately
adjacent house lots. SWMU 54 is an approximate 5-acre, 49-foot (AMSL) high furnace
ash retention mound.4 It is the oldest (about 50 years) SWMU. Also, it is not lined which
is the current EPA requirement for ash. Though EPA consistently changes its
qualification of ash, especially bituminous ash, as to whether a hazardous or a
dangerous material when located a few hundred feet of a major river (The Cape Fear),
that much ash is a potential problem. (Editor note, there was interest, the series
continues to five articles through August 2023 and a Request to the Secretary NCDEQ
to demolish and remove SWMU 54 on August 7, 2023. A reply is awaited.

Investigate the question: Is there a hazardous waste impact to Bluffs’ residents and
property owners from the neighboring DuPont site? END

4
The top of the mound is 49 feet. Consider the ash is buried in the ground to an unknown depth
created in 1968 and that the mean above sea level is 10 feet.

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