FEATURE - Grieving Mother Turns Into Superhero Fighting Water Contamination In North Carolina

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd April, 2021) Being 24-week pregnant with her son Samuel in October 2016, Beth Kline-Markesino from the city of Wilmington, located in the US state of North Carolina, felt a sharp pain in her stomach and she rushed to the hospital to find out what was happening to the child in her belly.

The doctors told her that she had very low amniotic fluid and she had to drink a lot of water to help keep her amniotic level up. When she visited a specialist at the Duke University the next week, she was told that she had placenta problems and her son Samuel had not developed his kidneys, bladder or bowel.

"The amniotic fluid was so low and Samuel was dying. They told me that if I went into delivery naturally, I could potentially bleed out because of the placenta problems," Kline-Markesino, 42, told Sputnik.

At 26-week pregnant, Kline-Markesino was forced to do a cesarean section to give birth to her son on October 19, 2016.

"He was not going to make it. Me and my husband and my family, we got to hold Samuel. We baptized him in the hospital. And he died," the young mother said, struggling to hold back her tears.

The family gathered to say goodbye to Samuel and buried him in the family's plot in the cemetery.

The tragic loss of her son took place about eight months before Kline-Markesino learned in the local newspaper in June 2017 that her town's water had been contaminated by GenX, a chemical compound produced by the Chemours Company at Fayetteville Works Plant located along the Cape Fear River about 100 miles upstream from Wilmington.

GenX belongs to a group of man-made chemicals known as the per-and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances (PFAS), which also included other chemicals such as PFOA and PFOS. PFAS are often used to make stain-resistant fabrics and carpets, water-repellent clothing, nonstick cookware and other common products.

According to a recent study released this week by the Consumer Reports, PFAS were found in 117 of the 120 samples tested from locations across the United States.

Although the health impact of PFAS has not been fully studied, Kline-Markesino believed that the presence of GenX in her local water supply could have played a role in her pregnancy problems that led to the loss of her son.

"What if this was something that could have caused the loss of my son? Now, our state and other states are doing lots of GenX studies. And it has come out that GenX does cause pregnancy loss and placenta problems. I'll never know 110 percent if that was what happened to Samuel. But I do know that I have these chemicals in my blood. Whatever is in the mother's system happens a lot in the child too," she said.

Kline-Markesino suspected GenX was the cause of her pregnancy problems because her first pregnancy was completely trouble-free when she gave birth to her daughter in 2012. Her family moved from Michigan to North Carolina in 2014.

"My daughter came out and she was totally healthy. No problems. That's why me and my husband were like: 'Okay, I had a totally healthy pregnancy. And I'm a marathon runner and I eat so healthy. None of my other family members had anything like this happen.' It make us think that this isn't genetic, this has to be [caused by] an environmental factor," she said.

Kline-Markesino described herself as being in "the best shape of my life" in 2016, because she completed two marathons a few months before she became pregnant with her son.

More than a year before the local publication StarNews broke the story about GenX contamination in Wilmington, Detlef Knappe, a professor at North Carolina State University, began to share the initial findings on possible local PFAS contamination with the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority in May 2016.

Professor Knappe published his findings on the PFAS contamination of the Cape Fear River, which was a key drinking water supply, in November 2016 and shared the results with government officials including those from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

However, local authorities in North Carolina only began to discuss efforts to investigate the presence of PFAS chemical compounds such as GenX in the water supply and study potential regulations in May 2017.

One week after the StarNews broke the story on GenX contamination in Wilmington, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and Department of Health and Human Services launched an investigation into the presence of GenX in the Cape Fear River on June 14, 2017.

Driven by the grief of losing her son, Kline-Markesino became an advocate trying to raise awareness of the dangers of GenX contamination among local residents in Wilmington. She started a Facebook group to discuss with other concerned local residents the potential health impact of GenX and possible solutions such as installing water filters. The group attracted as many as 11,000 members.

"My son is really a driving force behind my fight against this contamination. I also have a daughter who is almost nine. I don't want anything to happen to her. And I don't want anything to happen to our community members, because these chemicals stay in your blood and in your system for a long time wreaking havoc," she said.

TAKING ACTION AGAINST POLLUTERS

Kline-Markesino started a non-profit organization called North Carolina Stop GenX in our Water. Thanks to her active role in fighting the Flint water crisis in Michigan, Kline-Markesino received a $50,000 grant from Hydroviv, a company that produces water filters that can remove GenX. She used the money to provide Hydroviv water filters to 110 low-income families in Wilmington for free.

Studies from researchers at North Carolina State University said the efficiency of Hydroviv water filters in removing GenX was about 97-99 percent.

Kline-Markesino plans to raise more funds to help local residents deal with GenX condemnation, but she argued that polluters like Chemours should take more responsibility in addressing this ongoing crisis.

"People shouldn't have to pay for clean water, especially we have COVID-19 right now and people are losing their jobs. They [Chemours] profit off poisoning us. They don't care about our house and our wellbeing," she said.

According to the advocate, Chemours only offered water filters to residents living next to its plant, but not residents in Wilmington, which is about 100 miles downstream along the Cape Fear River.

Local residents like Kline-Markesino began to proactively monitor any possible signs of pollution from Chemours. In addition to setting up a billboard warning people about the dangers of GenX right in front of the Chemours plant, locals began to take pictures of emissions from the factory and other possible sources of contamination from the plant.

The North Carolina DEQ fined Chemours almost $200,000 for failing to meet its requirements and obligations to prevent PFAS from entering the Cape Fear River on Wednesday. Notably, $127,000 of the fine was for inadequately designing the treatment system at one of its facilities that became operational in September last year.

In response, Chemours said in a statement that it is reviewing the state's decision and reiterated the company's commitment to eliminating discharges of PFAS, noting that it had stopped 97 percent of such emissions.

Kline-Markesino simply laughed at the $200,000 fine against the Chemours as it was such a tiny amount for a company with net sales of $5 billion in 2020.

The environment advocate urged local authorities in North Carolina to take further action to regulate practices of Chemours.

"Our community is very upset and they should be. Our state officials aren't doing anything. We're waiting on the EPA [Environment Protection Agency] to do anything. Right now, the head of the EPA is Michael Regan. He used to be the secretary of DEQ [in North Carolina]," she said.

She expressed hopes that the new EPA chief under the Biden administration willintroduce new Federal regulations on PFAS such as GenX, because he is familiar with the struggles local residents in Wilmington are facing.

During a public meeting between Chemours executives and local residents in Wilmington last year, Kline-Markesino said she was escorted out of the meeting room by police officers after she challenged company officials' claims on the health impact of GenX contamination.

"I'm a good citizen. I've never been arrested or anything. I didn't get arrested, but they kicked me out of that meeting because they didn't like what I was doing. They wanted to control that meeting. When I got kicked out, everybody in the audience was cheering for me," she said.

Nevertheless, Kline-Markesino said she was not intimidated even if the companies tried to put pressure on her.

"I don't feel any danger, because Chemours and DuPont knew that they would eventually have to pay for this contamination. They knew that one day this would catch up to them. I say: 'Come at me, I'm not afraid of you!'" she said.

The advocate added that her activism in the local water contamination crisis turned her into a superhero in the eyes of her daughter.

"She's told her girls scout troops: 'My mom is a superhero. My mom is fighting the Chemours.' That's how she looks at me as this hero like 'I'm saving the water and I'm saving the planet.' I always have the biggest support from my daughter and my husband because we know firsthand the potential harm of these chemicals," she said.

Kline-Markesino moved to Wilmington for the beautiful natural sceneries in the area and easy access to the ocean. She never considered moving away because of the water contamination crisis. She said she wants to dedicate her efforts to clean up the environment so that her daughter's generation does not have to worry about it anymore.