WILMINGTON, N.C. -- The bill for how much it’s costing to keep GenX out of the water is mounting.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority officials say the bill has already reached $1.7 million.

The majority of the money is going toward private scientific testing, removing 50 million gallons of GenX tainted water from a company owned aquifer, and legal fees.

All things the utility believes their customers shouldn’t be on the hook for.  

"This is something that the companies that are polluting the river should pay to clean up. And if it’s discharged by them to the river and it's causing a problem, in my opinion that shouldn't be ours to fix,” says Executive Director of CFPUA Jim Flechtner.

UNC Wilmington scientists are already working on using the $250,000 allotted by the NC General Assembly in early December, after state leaders granted CFPUA and UNCW money for further research.

“You know, after a couple weeks of learning what was going on and realizing that simple methods for getting this chemical out of the drinking water were not going to work, I thought “okay” this is going to get big real fast,” says UNCW Professor Larry Cahoon.

This all stems from the Fayetteville plant, Chemours, which released the chemical GenX into the Cape Fear River.

Meanwhile, utility officials say there’s no rate increase on the table to offset the expenses.