Star News: Brunswick resident discusses GenX, PFAS on Capitol Hill
Emily Donovan, a resident of Brunswick County, NC traveled to Washington DC to plead with our government to study and regulate the chemicals that are being released into the drinking water of her town. Citing family and friends that have all become ill including her own husband, she passionately demanded that lawmakers do something to help the people of Eastern NC. Will our lawmakers listen?
As Emily Donovan listed her friends and family members who have been diagnosed with cancer or tumors, her voice momentarily broke.
“We need to get these nasty toxins out of our drinking water now so no one else suffers the way we are in North Carolina,” Donovan testified in front of members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Environment.
The Brunswick County resident and co-founder of advocacy group Clean Cape Fear was tabbed to tell the story of how North Carolina has been impacted by GenX and other per- and polyfluorinated compounds (PFAS). Donovan used the platform to ask Representatives to take several steps, including requiring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conduct rodent toxicology studies on all known PFAS compounds, requiring public utilities to test for PFAS and setting the maximum contaminant level for all PFAS to 1 part per trillion.
