Members of EPA Region 4 listen to public comments at Tuesday’s meeting.

ASHEBORO, N.C. (ACME NEWS) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is still taking public comments on its objection to North Carolina’s wastewater permit for Asheboro’s treatment plant, a dispute centered on how the city handles discharges of the toxic chemical 1,4-dioxane.

The comment period runs through October 31, 2025, following a public hearing held Tuesday night at Randolph Community College, where EPA officials outlined the next steps in the review. The agency must now decide whether to uphold, modify, or withdraw its objection to the permit.

The three-hour meeting drew residents, environmental advocates, attorneys, and city leaders to the JB and Claire Davis Corporate Training Center. EPA staff from the agency’s Atlanta regional office explained that the state’s permit lacked limits on 1,4-dioxane, a man-made solvent classified as a “likely human carcinogen.” Because the chemical is not removed during normal treatment, it passes through the city’s system and is discharged into Haskett Creek, reaching the Cape Fear River downstream, a source of drinking water for nearly 900,000 people.

The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) tried to include discharge limits for 1,4-dioxane in 2023, but Asheboro challenged those limits in court, arguing the agency lacked authority to set them. That case remains unresolved as the EPA considers its own objection.

Hannah Nelson – an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center [left], and Stephen Bell, attorney with Cranfill Sumner LLP (outside council for the City of Asheboro) [right], were among the first two speakers at the public meeting Tuesday

At Tuesday’s hearing, environmental groups and residents urged the EPA to stand by its objection, saying Asheboro should make local industries — including StarPet Inc and the Great Oak Landfill — clean up 1,4-dioxane before sending wastewater to the city’s treatment plant. City attorneys countered that any chemical limits should come through a formal state level rulemaking process, not direct federal action.

Written comments can be submitted by email to R4NPDESprogram@epa.gov or by mail to:

U.S. EPA Region 4, Water Division
61 Forsyth Street SW
Atlanta, GA 30303-8960

All public feedback will be reviewed before the EPA issues its final decision. If the objection stands and the state does not revise the permit, the agency could take over permitting authority from NC DEQ.

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