Takeaways from investigation showing Georgia officials knew carpet mills polluted local water
CALHOUN, Ga. (AP) — Textile mills in Northwest Georgia relied on chemicals known as PFAS to give stain resistance to the carpets they produced starting in the 1970s. Some of the nonstick chemicals were flushed with wastewater from the multibillion-dollar industry into local sewers and eventually into the region’s rivers.
Decades later, the odorless, colorless chemicals are now found throughout the region, including in some people’s blood. Scientists have warned of health risks to humans and wildlife.
While the federal government does not yet have enforceable limits on PFAS, states have the authority to protect public health and the environment. Instead, Georgia’s Department of Environmental Protection has done little to confront the problem, even though it has known about it for years. an investigation Found by Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS).
Here are the important takeaways from this ongoing investigation To the toxic legacy of the South’s carpet empire.
watch and wait
Everyone in Northwest Georgia seems to know someone whose health problems, including certain types of cancer, can be caused by PFAS. This crisis was predictable.
Tests by the University of Georgia in 2008 alerted the industry that the local Conasauga River, which provides the region’s drinking water, had “shockingly high” levels of PFAS; It stands for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are often known as persistent chemicals because they persist in humans and take decades or more to break down in the environment. The state’s own tests in 2012 and 2016 confirmed the university’s results. Federal testing was still detecting PFAS in 2019, when major carpet manufacturers said they had stopped using the chemicals.
PFASs end up in tap water because local utilities do not have the advanced and expensive technology to remove them from river water.
As concerns grow among scientists and federal regulators about the dangers of PFAS, Georgia’s Department of Environmental Protection has neither issued a fish advisory nor a no-drink order to the public. Today, Georgia still does not regulate PFAS, unlike other states that have invested tens of millions of dollars in cleanup and sued polluters to recoup the costs.
Georgia EPD Deputy Director Anna Truszczynski said her agency is looking to federal regulators for guidance and expects scientists to better understand the risks of PFAS. He said his agency has helped many cities combat pollution by providing testing support, connecting them to potential funding sources and advising on possible filtration technologies.
“We believe there can be a good balance between the environment and the economy,” Truszczynski said. “We don’t need to sacrifice one for the other.”
Jake Murphy, a spokesman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said in an email that the federal agency was working to offer technical and financial support in the area.
‘This is a good result’
In 2008, the leader of the Georgian EPD met privately with carpet company representatives and their trade association, the Carpet and Rug Institute, according to deposition records given during lawsuits against the companies.
Then-carpet institute director Werner Braun later informed the board of directors about his meeting with then-Director Carol Couch and stated that EPD “has no plans to take regulatory action” on PFAS, according to two court deposition transcripts. Braun told the board that Couch also indicated that EPD “will probably look at the issue again in five years.”
The meeting with Couch went so well that a carpet manager thanked the participants “for achieving this good outcome,” according to the minutes.
In a text message seeking comment, Couch said PFAS was only an “emerging concern” at the time and that the EPA had not established drinking water standards. The EPA’s first guidance on PFAS levels came in 2009.
“I did not offer the Carpet and Rug Institute an exemption from state regulations regarding PFAS,” Couch wrote to the AJC and AP. He added that the five-year time frame is typical for new water rules and that in 2008 the EPD “neither had sufficient science, expertise, or resources to undertake action independent of USEPA.”
A representative of the carpet institute declined to comment. Braun did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
The nation’s two largest carpet companies, Shaw Industries and Mohawk Industries Inc., both based in the region, blame the contamination on chemical suppliers who they say have been hiding the dangers of PFAS in their products for years. Carpet companies have stated that they are following guidance from regulatory authorities and that there are still no enforceable limits on chemicals.
In court filings, chemical suppliers 3M and DuPont said it was the carpet industry, not them, that introduced PFAS into northwest Georgia’s waters.
None of the four companies commented for this story.
Red alert in Alabama
When PFAS start Turns up in Alabama’s drinking water In 2016, local water authority officials looked to Georgia for answers.
Eastern Alabama and northwestern Georgia share a river system that originates in the Blue Ridge Mountains and flows through both states on its way to Mobile Bay. This basin feeds the carpet factories in the region, which use large amounts of water, especially in the dyeing process. It is also the source of drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people downriver.
After tests showed PFAS in the water at levels exceeding the EPA’s voluntary health guidelines at the time, Alabama’s environmental regulators alerted their federal counterparts and asked Georgia’s EPD for help identifying the source.
Georgia has known for years that water flowing 100 miles (160 kilometers) upriver from Dalton, the center of the state’s dominant carpet industry, contains high levels of PFAS.
Despite Alabama’s urgent request, Georgia’s environmental regulators did not respond in kind, according to interviews and internal government records.
“EPD was very defensive” at the time, said Jim Giattina, former director of the EPA Water Conservation Division, who organized a call for coordination between the two states. “They certainly didn’t have any commitment to do any further monitoring.”
EPD’s Truszczynski, who joined the agency in 2016, said he could not find any record of Georgia’s response.
“We are always happy to work with our friends in Alabama,” he said.
Alabama’s Department of Environmental Management did not respond to multiple requests for an interview or comment.
Other states took action
Across the United States, PFAS are produced and used in a variety of products, including nonstick cookware, waterproof sunscreen, firefighting foam, dental floss, and microwave popcorn bags.
With this ubiquity, pollution hotspots have emerged elsewhere as well.
Some other states are taking a much more aggressive approach than Georgia.
Wisconsin, Michigan and Maine have each allocated millions of dollars for cleanup. started robust testing programs and lawsuits were filed to hold polluters and manufacturers accountable.
A bipartisan group of Wisconsin lawmakers earlier this year Approved $133 million For PFAS cleanup. This vote marked the beginning of a long journey for Democratic state Assemblywoman Jill Billings. A town in its own district in 2019 discovered drinking water It was contaminated. Residents have been drinking government-supplied bottled water since 2021.
Billings said state-led action becomes more important as the federal government increases There is a step back from environmental regulationsIncluding PFAS. While the EPA still hasn’t set enforceable limits for forever chemicals, the agency’s proposed limits include the two most commonly used by carpet manufacturers. These limits are planned to come into force in 2031.
“I think it’s up to us to solve the problems of ordinary people because the federal government seems to be struggling,” Billings said in an interview. “No problem. We’re ready.”
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About collaboration
This story is part of an investigative collaboration with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, FRONTLINE (PBS), The Post and Courier and AL.com that includes the FRONTLINE documentary “Contaminated: The Carpet Industry’s Toxic Legacy.” Powered via AP’s Local Investigative Reporting Program And FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism InitiativeFunded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Watch the documentary
Watch the documentary “Contaminated: The Toxic Legacy of the Carpet Industry” On FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel And PBS AppOpen FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel or on PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel.
