Groups sue to stop Robeson County, N.C, landfill’s PFAS pollution of drinking water system for 67,000 people

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—On behalf of St. Pauls Community Association for Progress, the Southern Environmental Law Center today filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina against Robeson County to stop the county landfill’s contamination of public drinking water with toxic PFAS pollution. A county-owned groundwater-based drinking water plant located less than a mile away from the Robeson County Landfill is distributing PFAS-contaminated water into the county’s public water system, which serves over 67,000 people across Robeson County. The Southern Environmental Law Center filed this suit against the county under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act for endangering the health and well-being of community members.

“The county’s contamination of its own residents’ drinking water with toxic PFAS needs to stop,” said Jamie Whitlock, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “The county’s decision not to address this problem—which they have known about for years—risks residents’ health and safety and leaves us no choice but to take it to court. People in Robeson County deserve to have safe, clean water when they turn on their taps.”

Testing shows that the water coming from the county-owned and operated Rocco Water Treatment Plant has the highest PFAS levels in finished water (the water entering the county’s distribution system) of any water treatment plant in North Carolina, and the highest concentration of GenX, a PFAS compound, of any groundwater-based water system in the United States. Tap water in more than a dozen homes connected to the Robeson County Water System within two miles of the Rocco Plant was tested. Every sample had PFOA and GenX levels far more than the levels that EPA has deemed safe for people’s health.

“We fear for the health and safety of our families and community and our repeated pleas for the county to stop its contamination have continued to fall on deaf ears,” said Sibyl Farr, executive director of St. Pauls Community Association for Progress. “For our families, schools, churches, and businesses to thrive and be safe, we need clean water when we turn on our faucets to get a drink of water, cook, and wash. Contaminated tap water is not acceptable.”

The Robeson County Landfill’s leachate—the wastewater landfills generate—and groundwater beneath the landfill contain extraordinarily high levels of toxic PFAS. The county’s Rocco Plant draws water from four public wells, all of which are located within 4,500 feet of the landfill. The Rocco Plant’s water treatment equipment is not designed to remove PFAS before the water is distributed into the Robeson County Water System.

The Rocco Plant is one of 12 water treatment plants used by Robeson County to supply drinking water to its residents and businesses. For months, St. Pauls Community Association for Progress has urged the Robeson County Board of Commissioners at their public meetings to stop sending contaminated water from the Rocco Plant into the county system or seek funding from the state for a treatment system that can eliminate PFAS, and to supply residents with a source of clean drinking water in the interim.  

The Robeson County Landfill, located in one of North Carolina’s most underserved, overburdened, and racially diverse counties, for years accepted waste from known PFAS manufacturers and users. Despite the landfill’s long history of failing to comply with its environmental permits and contaminating groundwater with other pollutants, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality has repeatedly permitted it to expand. The landfill now takes up 537 acres outside the Town of St. Pauls.