Nearby downtown Wilmington on Market Street, a Port City Java cafe with a drive-thru shares a parking lot with a church. Inside, espresso machines whir loudly as baristas take drink orders from new and regular customers.
These customers likely aren't thinking about how the water used to make their coffee had to be filtered to remove toxic chemicals known as PFAS. But CEO Steve Schnitzler thinks about it a lot.
"I don't understand, to be honest, why this is even considered a political issue. It's water," Schnitzler said.
Port City Java is a regional coffee chain with over a dozen locations throughout southeastern North Carolina. Schnitzler estimates just one cafe uses up to several hundred gallons of water a day.
"All of our cafes are on the public water system, wherever they’re located," Schnitzler said.
Using public water was never a problem, until 2017 when PFAS was discovered in the Cape Fear River, the primary drinking water source for Wilmington.
In 2018, Port City Java spent at least $7,000 installing whole house filtration systems at every cafe location. Schnitzler estimates he’s also spent over $8,000 on maintenance and upkeep. There weren’t any rules that required Schnitzler to do this, but he felt an obligation to protect the health of his customers.
"I was trained as a chef before I got into the coffee business, and you take sanitation and health very seriously," Schnitzler said. "You are giving somebody something that they're going to eat or drink. It's going into their body. And if it is contaminated, it is harmful."
Exposure to PFAS, also commonly known as 'forever chemicals,' is linked to several negative health impacts, like decreased fertility and increased risks of certain cancers.
In 2022, Wilmington's main public utility finished installing granular activated carbon filters at its largest water treatment plant, reducing PFAS to safe levels in its treated drinking water. The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority and other public utilities are actively suing chemical company Chemours and its predecessor company DuPont for polluting the Cape Fear River with these toxic chemicals.
So far, legislative and regulatory efforts to stop PFAS pollution at the source have mostly been unsuccessful. Powerful lobbying groups like the NC Chamber have opposed these efforts.
In April, Republican Representative Ted Davis of Wilmington introduced for a third time a so-called PFAS polluter liability bill.
As previously WUNC reported, Davis has tried to pass similar legislation at least twice before. Both times, the bill stalled in the committee process.
Speaking to WUNC, Davis said under this new proposed legislation, companies have to meet three specific requirements in order to be responsible for clean up.
"Number one, you have to make PFAS from scratch. Number two, it would have to go into a water source. And number three, that water would have to go into a public utility authority," said Davis.
The previous two times this bill was introduced, the NC Chamber opposed it. The group's opposition is outlined in publications from the Chamber, including their 2021-2022 biennium review and 2023 legislative session review. Both documents describe Davis' proposed bill as "sidelined by NC Chamber opposition."
"(This bill) would expand the scope of company liability retroactively, harm North Carolina’s business liability and regulatory predictability climate, and open the door for expansive cost increases on manufacturers and job creators," the 2022 document reads.
The Chamber opposes this year's newest proposal, too. The organization declined several interview requests from WUNC. In a statement, the Chamber said, "the bill discourages businesses from coming to and expanding in North Carolina because of the omnipresence of PFAS in consumer and commercial goods."
Dana Sargent, executive director of Cape Fear River Watch, criticizes the organization for its stance.
"The Chamber is bragging about sidelining bills that would hold polluters accountable. It’s not that I have to glorify their opposition," said Sargent. "They are doing that themselves. They're proud of their opposition to these bills."
Sargent also points to the Chamber’s influence at the Environmental Management Commission, the state’s environmental regulatory authority.
Last year, the Chamber sent a letter to state environmental officials asking them to delay action on adopting PFAS regulations. The letter argued "businesses in our state, including those in manufacturing, have a proven track record of supporting North Carolina’s economic vitality and doing so responsibly."
Sargent argues that’s a gross mischaracterization.
"It's so appalling to claim that the manufacturing community has a proven track record of being responsible when we're looking at Chemours, who has done nothing except what has been required by a court order," Sargent said, referring to a 2019 consent order requiring Chemours to address PFAS contamination.
Port City Java CEO Schnitzler agrees. He accuses the Chamber of protecting Chemours over protecting small businesses.
"What about my businesses? Why are you not representing my business's interests in this? What about all the businesses here? Why are we worrying about one in Fayetteville that is poisoning us?," Schnitzler said, referring to Chemours' Fayetteville Works facility.
In a statement, the Chamber said they want to ensure that regulatory standards are clear, understandable and follow the science.
"The NC Chamber supports regulating to the highest safe dose, with a reasonable margin of error. The level matters: the lower the level, the higher the cost of compliance. Unlike politicians and activists, business does not have the luxury of boiling this down to a pithy comment," stated the Chamber.
But Jonathan Bridges, executive director of the Cape Fear Business Alliance, said the level of PFAS matters to small businesses, too. The more PFAS in the water, the higher the cost of mitigation.
"It’s been a really big cost for business owners here, especially those service industry businesses that serve food (and) beverages," Bridges said.
Sargent, with Cape Fear River Watch, is currently conducting an online survey asking business owners about the impact of PFAS on their operations. As of May 7, 126 people had responded. Approximately 55% said PFAS has impacted their business.
One question asks: "Do you think the NC Chamber of Commerce and its local chapters should support efforts to regulate PFAS so that large companies need to limit their release of it?" 96% of respondents said yes.
Yet while the politics play out, small businesses are, in part, still stuck paying for PFAS cleanup. Schnitzler plans to continue speaking out.
"I may not ever make a whole lot of impact and I might not fix anything,” Schnitzler said. “But I'm gonna try."
NC Newsroom Editor/Reporter Adam Wagner contributed to this report.
