You Asked About Sen. Michael Lee's PFAS Ad

N.C. State Senator Michael Lee’s campaign pushed out this ad during the Olympic opening ceremony, claiming that he has “protected” us from harmful PFAS, held the polluters to account, and sponsored pioneering solutions to our water contamination crisis. We’ve had a lot of people curious about Lee’s claims.

So allow us to speak plainly and clearly: Senator Michael Lee is a powerful member of the GOP in the N.C. Legislature, his party has enjoyed a veto-proof SUPERMAJORITY for four of the past eight years. He could have easily sponsored and passed laws protecting his constituents from dangerous PFAS exposures, required the polluters to pay for cleanup and new water filtration facilities, and sponsored life-saving medical and health research.

At every turn, he refused to do so. We think the claims in his political advertisement…stink.

“Hold Polluters Accountable”?

We assume Michael Lee refers to the Water Safety Act of 2018 (SL-2018.5 pg.121), which gave symbolic power to Governor Cooper to shut down Chemours. The requirements were too narrow to produce effective action, and the law had an expiration date while explicitly allowing Chemours to countersue the state if the Governor shut down the Fayetteville Works facility. 

We have yet to see Michael Lee hold PFAS polluters accountable. All we’ve seen is political theater which smells like BS.

“Protect Us From Harmful Chemicals”?

The best way to protect his constituents from dangerous PFAS would have been to outlaw discharges of these forever chemicals into the air, water, and land. For three terms, Michael Lee has failed to pass a single law to:

  1. Stop PFAS at the source, 

  2. Ban PFAS in products, 

  3. Establish state-level PFAS water quality standards, or 

  4. Make PFAS polluters pay for clean-up and new filtration technology. 

Meanwhile, even “red states” like AZ, GA, FL, IA, KY, LA, and NH have passed laws banning PFAS. Vermont has even enacted bills to establish medical monitoring and hold PFAS polluters accountable for cleanup. 

How have the manufacturing and chemical lobbies prevented the N.C. Legislature from acting? Follow the stinkin’ money.

“Uniting Scientists And Engineers”?

This is a baseless claim. The scientific community has been united for over a decade, as evidenced by the Madrid Statement, when 250 scientists from 38 countries called on governments to ban PFAS in all but essential uses. 

For over four years, Clean Cape Fear has fought to gain access to large-scale human epidemiological studies in our region. Michael Lee has refused to support these and other efforts; instead choosing to use his political power to deflect attention and funding from critical areas that would benefit us the most. Lee has funneled $50M in PFAS funding to academic researchers – SIX times more funding than what he’s given to North Carolina’s environmental regulators–who are responsible for PFAS monitoring, source control, and law enforcement. 

We believe this deflection is intentional and a long-standing strategy influenced by the chemical industry. For more than ten years, the NCGOP has purposefully underfunded the state’s environmental and health agencies. In 2019, WFAE reported North Carolina had the fourth largest environmental funding cuts in the nation. Last year, Coastal Review reported NC’s Dept. of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) still struggled to fill critical regulatory vacancies due to lack of competitive pay. 

We believe Michael Lee is on the wrong side of history. Last year, at the request of Clean Cape Fear, the UN Human Rights Council began investigating business-related human rights abuses in our region related to Chemours and DuPont. In an almost unprecedented special procedures action, the UN officially called out N.C. PFAS manufacturers, and U.S. health and environmental regulators, especially in North Carolina, for failing to protect residents from these abuses.

Senator Michael Lee’s response? Stinkin’ silence.

“Clean Water Technologies”?

We believe Michael Lee is wasting taxpayer dollars on a “pet project” that offers no real benefit to our community. He’s using our money to develop a “fluorogel” filtration process some of which uses PFAS--allowing companies like Chemours to continue profiting at our expense. It’s important to note that our region has already invested over $150M+ installing GAC and RO filters, and fluorogel will not directly benefit us any time soon. Meanwhile, our water bills keep rising because lawmakers like Michael Lee failed to force Chemours to pay for the needed upgrades in our region. Other lawmakers in our area have fought hard for just such a “polluter pays” bill. But Michael Lee? Not so much. It appears he would rather make dishonest but beautiful political campaign ads rather than have the courage to fight the powerful manufacturing and chemical lobby groups that continue to threaten our basic human rights.

We think that really , really stinks.

Emily DonovanComment