It was a front page that forever changed Wilmington: “Toxin Taints Tapwater,” splashed in fat, black font.
Little-known likely carcinogenic contaminants had been found in the drinking water of hundreds of thousands of people. The local utility knew about it, hadn’t alerted the public, and couldn’t filter the chemicals out.
Residents later learned Chemours, a spinoff of the chemical giant DuPont, had been dumping GenX into the Cape Fear River for decades.
Vaughn Hagerty, a former StarNews city editor then working as a freelancer, gave his old paper the story of a lifetime with his 2017 scoop on GenX. The story about how a type of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as forever chemicals, got into Wilmington’s water supply prompted hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure investments and several ongoing lawsuits.
Hagerty couldn’t have written that story as an overburdened staff reporter, he said at a 2022 conference. “It isn’t because I’m special,” he said. “It really is because I had time.”
The StarNews, the state’s oldest continuous daily newspaper, covered the complicated topic aggressively in the months that followed. But that vigor has since waned—for PFAS and a number of other serious issues facing the region.
Case in point: A Biden administration press conference held in Fayetteville on April 10 announced the nation’s first-ever limits on PFAS in public drinking water.
It was a momentous affair, live-streamed and sited just upstream from Chemours. The Raleigh News & Observer and the Fayetteville Observer each gave the historic announcement above-the-fold front-page treatment the next day.
But the StarNews didn’t print anything about it until two days later, when it re-ran the Fayetteville Observer’s story below the fold and only briefly featured it on its homepage online (below the leading story on a local Greek restaurant closure).
What’s happened in Wilmington isn’t unique—it’s taking place across the nation amid news’ painful digital transformation. Newspapers were slow to adapt to the internet, bought by out-of-town corporate parents as the industry consolidated, and battered as tech titans hoovered up advertising dollars. Local papers have been left with skeleton crews, giving readers fewer reasons to keep subscribing and fueling their struggles.
But the PFAS story has highlighted the way local coverage has changed at the StarNews, according to a number of former staffers. Johanna F. Still reports for The Dive on why.
The Fading Star
The nation’s biggest media behemoths have left Wilmington’s flagship newspaper a diminished version of its former self.
Scott Nunn, who worked at the paper for nearly 30 years, remembers the then-executive editor saying of the PFAS story, “‘We’re gonna cover this forever.’”
“And we didn’t,” said Nunn. “It faded out, too.”
Catch up on an audio conversation on last week’s edition of The Dive here, or contact us with story ideas and feedback at wilmington@theassemblync.com.
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Around the Region
Clerk Kerfuffle: After a judge allowed the reinstatement of Pender County’s Clerk of Court, three of her subordinates resigned, WHQR reports. The employees had just testified at a hearing related to their boss’s felony charges for using public money for personal items.
All Aboard: Consultants have put an $810 million price tag on a potential passenger train route between Wilmington and Raleigh, Port City Daily reports.
Costs to be Clean: The Wilmington region could serve as a template for utilities across the country that have to meet new drinking-water standards, WHQR reports. Cape Fear Public Utility Authority already meets the federal PFAS standards, with ratepayers footing the bill.
About Time: A Wilmington-shot film starring Russell Crowe just got a release date for this summer and a new name, the StarNews reports. The Exorcism is a horror film that shot under the name “The Georgetown Project” in 2019.
Around the State
N.C. State’s Invincible Chancellor
N.C. State’s Randy Woodson has served nearly three times as long as most college leaders. What’s his secret?
Dog Bites Man
In Wilkes County, a commissioner’s past dogfighting charges have helped bridge a partisan divide.
911 Call Raises Questions About Accident at Rep. Destin Hall’s Wedding Weekend
“You need to get the alcohol out of the car,” a man says after an accident involving likely future House speaker Destin Hall.
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