There’s something scary in the water at Cape Fear. For years, chemicals giant DuPont and the company Chemours, which it spun off in 2015, manufactured long-lasting synthetic chemicals—known as forever chemicals—that made their way into the environment in this corner of North Carolina, ultimately ending up in the Cape Fear River. This is one of America’s PFAS hot spots, though forever chemicals are also found in tap water in thousands of locations around the US. (DuPont has been involved in several class action lawsuits across the United States related to the chemicals since the early 2000s.)
Specifically, DuPont and Chemours had used PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, for making