RALEIGH - Many lawmakers in the house call a bill they passed today a "good first step" to taking care of GenX and other chemicals in the North Carolina water supply.

It was a unanimous vote that includes buying a mass spectrometer, which they say will help find untargeted emerging chemical compounds in a way the Department of Environmental Quality has not had the ability to do before.

Though everyone voted in favor of the bill, some had concerns that it wasn't doing enough to address the issue.

“I’ve got a county where I’ve got three schools that have to take bottle water to school. I’ve got wells that are contaminated. I’ve got people who are scared to drink the water in Cumberland County and I know it’s all down the Cape Fear basin and we’re sitting here saying nows not the time to fix this? Folks, when is it time to fix it?" said Cumberland County Representative William Richardson.

Following the passing of the bill, Senate President Pro-Tem Phil Berger released the following statement:

“Senate Republicans have already shown we are serious about finding real solutions that will actually improve water quality in the Cape Fear River and hold violators accountable for dumping GenX into the region’s water supply. That’s why several months ago we passed legislation to immediately and directly address the problem of GenX contamination in the lower Cape Fear region. We provided funding to local public utilities to begin removing GenX from public water supplies. And we commissioned studies to quantify the amount of GenX in the Cape Fear River and determine the impact it could have on public health and safety. The first round of data is due this spring.

“What the House passed today unfortunately does nothing to prevent GenX from going into the water supply. It leaves North Carolina taxpayers holding the bag for expenditures that should be paid for by the company responsible for the pollution, fails to give DEQ authority to do anything they can’t already do, and authorizes the purchase of expensive equipment that the state can already access for free.

“We are waiting for the data we required in October so we can take meaningful action to address this problem in the short session.” 

The short session takes place in May.