State fills science board to study GenX, new compounds

State officials say they've officially appointed members to an expert science panel to advise regulators and public health officials on everything from coal ash contaminants to GenX, more than three months after they originally announced the creation of the group.

Posted 2:25 p.m. Oct 19, 2017 — Updated 2:43 p.m. Oct 19, 2017

Tyler Dukes

RALEIGH, N.C. — State officials say they've officially appointed members to an expert science panel to advise regulators and public health officials on everything from coal ash contaminants to GenX – more than three months after they originally announced the creation of the group.

The 15 members announced Thursday include North Carolina State University professor Detlef Knappe, the lead researcher on the 2016 paper that revealed the presence of GenX in the Cape Fear River, along with other scientists in the fields of toxicology, engineering and public health. The Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Health and Human Services announced the chairman of the group last week.

Timeline: Tracking GenX contamination in NC

"We selected top talent from a robust pool of more than 50 candidates from across North Carolina," DEQ Secretary Michael Regan said in a statement. "The panel we’ve assembled will provide vital long-term scientific guidance on how to best protect public health and the environment from emerging chemical compounds."

The board's first meeting, which is open to the public, will take place Oct. 23 from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Ground Floor Hearing Room of the Archdale Building, at 512 N. Salisbury St. in Raleigh.

The advisory panel's recommendations may upend the state's requirements for the water filters Duke Energy must supply to homeowners living near its coal ash pits. They could also impact how DEQ will regulate largely unstudied compounds, such as GenX, found in the Cape Fear River.

"We share a goal to protect the safety and health of all North Carolinians," DHHS Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said in a statement. "We look forward to working closely with the panel and our partners at the Department of Environmental Quality."

More than three months have passed since the two agencies originally told the public they planned to reconstitute the advisory panel – a delay that has frustrated some.

Timeline: Years later, well owners near coal ash still grapple with safety concerns

Leaders of DEQ and DHHS announced the formation of the panel in a hastily called press conference July 12. In the days prior, multiple media outlets reported that the two agencies had clashed over public guidance for contaminants found in well water near coal ash ponds.

Secretaries of the two agencies signed an expanded charter for the board two weeks after the announcement, giving the group the responsibility to study the effects of contaminants and advise the Environmental Management Commission on the "necessary level of control" to protect health and the environment. That specifically included hexavalent chromium, an element known to cause cancer found in several drinking water wells around coal ash pits, and GenX, an unregulated and largely unstudied compound found in the Cape Fear River.

Panel includes range of experts

In addition to board chair Jamie Bartram, is a professor of environmental sciences and engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the founder of the university's Water Institute, the following 15 members will also serve on the Science Advisory Board:

Viney Aneja, a professor in N.C. State’s Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Aneja is an air contamination scientist and a highly-regarded expert with a long history of public service at the federal and state level.
Tom Augspurger, an ecologist/environmental contaminants specialist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Raleigh, an adjunct associate professor in the Toxicology Program at N.C. State and president of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (North America). He is widely published on the topics of fish and wildlife toxicology.
W. Greg Cope, department extension leader in Applied Ecology and coordinator of N.C. State’s Agromedicine Program. His research interests include aquatic toxicology, molluscan and fish biology and physiology.
Dr. David Dorman, an N.C. State professor of toxicology in the Department of Molecular Biosciences and a former associate dean for Research and Graduate Studies at N.C. State’s College of Veterinary Medicine. He has chaired or served on numerous National Research Council, or NRC, committees. He previously served on the Science Advisory Board.
Jaqueline MacDonald Gibson, an associate professor at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering with a multidisciplinary background in math, science and engineering. She has devoted much of her research to predicting population health impacts of alternative environmental policy decisions.
Richard T. Di Giulio, the Kleberg Professor of Environmental Toxicology at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. He serves as director of its Superfund Research Center and Integrated Toxicology and Environmental Health Program.
Elaina Kenyon, principle investigator in toxicology at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s research laboratory in Research Triangle Park. Her work focuses on a modeling technique that predicts the behavior of synthetic or natural chemical substances in humans and other animal species. She is an adviser to the World Health Organization and International Programme on Chemical Safety. She served on the former Science Advisory Board.
Gina Kimble, a laboratory supervisor at Charlotte Water and Catawba-Wateree Water Management Group team lead for the Water Supply Master Plan Phase 3 project. She has participated in Water Research Foundation projects related to water quality and analytical method development and serves as the Charlotte Water representative for the North Carolina Urban Water Consortium.
Detlef Knappe, a professor of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at N.C. State. In November 2016, Knappe and co-authors at the EPA and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte published research showing elevated levels of GenX in drinking water at a plant near Wilmington.
Thomas Starr, an expert in quantitative assessment of health and environmental risks from exposure to toxic substances who has published extensively on exposure assessment. He holds an academic appointment to the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Department of Environmental Science and Engineering. He served on the former Science Advisory Board since 1990, including eight years as chairman.
Dr. Woodhall Stopford, a physician at Duke Medical Center and past director of the university's Occupational and Environmental Medicine Toxicology Program. Author of more than 80 articles on occupational toxicology and risk assessment of contaminants in consumer products, he serves on several national committees that assess risks to human health. He served on former Science Advisory Board since 1990.
Dr. Michael Stoskopf, a professor of Wildlife and Aquatic Health at N.C. State’s College of Veterinary Medicine, with appointments to forestry, biomedical engineering and toxicology. He also is director of N.C. State's Environmental Medicine Consortium. His research focuses on population, ecosystem and landscape approaches to health management of wildlife species.
Phillip Tarte, the public health director of New Hanover County. He previously served as Union County public health director. He is a member of the board of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine.
Dr. Betsey Tilson, a pediatrician and preventive medicine physician serving as state health director and chief medical officer. She has focused on public health and prevention and cross-department initiatives, including clinical quality standards. She was the 2016 recipient of the American College of Preventive Medicine Distinguished Service Award.
John Vandenberg, director of the RTP Division of the EPA’s National Center for Environmental Assessment. He leads the EPA's Integrated Science Assessments for the criteria air pollutants and the Integrated Risk Information System for high-priority hazardous air pollutants. He also is an adjunct professor in the Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment.