ASHEBORO, N.C.—Boxy, gunmetal gray buildings loom over a labyrinth of ducts and tubes and catwalks, beyond which 100 train cars loll on their tracks. Smokestacks wait to exhale.
This is StarPet, a mammoth factory in north Asheboro that manufactures PET polymers, derived from fossil fuels and used in polyester fibers and plastic bottles.
The facility lies a little more than two miles from the Asheboro wastewater treatment plant, a destination for StarPet’s discharge that contains 1,4-dioxane, a chemical designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a likely carcinogen…