Groups will sue to stop Asheboro’s toxic pollution of drinking water supplies for 900,000 North Carolinians

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—On behalf Cape Fear River Watch and Haw River Assembly, the Southern Environmental Law Center today notified the city of Asheboro and its industrial customers, StarPet and Waste Management’s Great Oak Landfill, of its intent to sue for the failure to stop their toxic 1,4-dioxane pollution, a cancer-causing chemical, flowing into the drinking water supplies for about 900,000 North Carolinians.

“Asheboro and cities like it have the ability and responsibility to stop this illegal 1,4-dioxane pollution before it contaminates people’s drinking water,” said Jean Zhuang, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Emboldened by its fight to dismantle North Carolinian’s drinking water protections, Asheboro’s 1,4-dioxane pollution has skyrocketed in recent months. Asheboro’s industries don’t want to pay to treat their own chemical pollution, so the city is protecting their profits over the health and safety of North Carolinians downstream and making their untreated, toxic industrial waste a costly problem for communities who get their drinking water downstream.”

According to the notice letter from SELC, the city of Asheboro, North Carolina, and its industrial customers, are intentionally and unlawfully dumping toxic 1,4-dioxane into Haskett Creek which flows into the Deep River. Asheboro’s dumping occurs upstream of the drinking water supply for Sanford, Fayetteville, Wilmington, Brunswick County, and Pender County, as well as Pittsboro, Holly Springs, and Fuquay-Varina which have arranged to buy drinking water from Sanford. A map available here illustrates the communities downstream of the pollution. 

Following a recent administrative court decision in Asheboro’s challenge of state pollution limits, state testing showed that Asheboro’s harmful 1,4-dioxane pollution reached the highest level seen at a wastewater plant in North Carolina—160 times the level that is protective of downstream drinking water. These spikes in high 1,4-dioxane levels correspond to three separate times that the Asheboro told StarPet, a PET plastics manufacturer, that it could take its treatment system offline, allowing this industry to dump toxic pollution into downstream drinking water sources.

Asheboro’s 1,4-dioxane pollution comes from its industries, including StarPet and Waste Management, which owns Great Oak Landfill, who pay the city to accept their industrial waste. The Clean Water Act requires municipalities like Asheboro to control industrial pollution before it reaches the municipal wastewater plants, but the city is refusing to do so. Stopping pollution at the source so that industrial polluters pay is far more cost-effective than treating 1,4-dioxane and other dangerous pollution like PFAS at municipal wastewater treatment plants or at downstream drinking water utilities. It also avoids placing the burden of contaminated drinking water on the health and finances of nearby and downstream communities.

Asheboro and other 1,4-dioxane polluters, including Greensboro and Reidsville, have fought the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s ability to limit toxic 1,4-dioxane pollution and protect communities for 10 years, taking advantage of a polluter friendly state legislature and state administrative court system.

In August 2023, DEQ issued a permit to Asheboro that would have limited the amount of 1,4-dioxane the city could release into downstream drinking water sources. The cities of Asheboro, Greensboro, and Reidsville—three of the largest sources of 1,4-dioxane in North Carolina—collectively filed a lawsuit challenging Asheboro’s permit. In September 2024, North Carolina’s Chief Administrative Law Judge, Donald van der Vaart, sided with the cities and issued a ruling that dismantled the state’s ability to protect North Carolinians from 1,4-dioxane and other toxic chemicals. DEQ has appealed the decision to Wake County Superior Court. 1,4-dioxane is a manmade chemical that is harmful to people at extremely low levels and is linked to cancers and liver and kidney damage. 1,4-dioxane is not removed by conventional water treatment.