Starting in the 1970s, the textile mills of northwest Georgia relied on chemicals known as PFAS to add stain resistance to the carpets they manufactured. Some
of the chemicals that didn’t stick were flushed with the multibillion-dollar industry’s wastewater into local sewer pipes and, eventually, the region’s rivers.
Decades later, the odorless, colorless chemicals are now found everywhere in the area, including in the blood of some people. Scientists have warned of health risks to humans and wildlife.
While the federal government doesn’t yet have enforceable limits on PFAS, states have the authority to protect public health and the environment. Ins
tead, Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division did little to confront the problem despite knowing about it for years, an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, T
he Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS) has found.
Here are key takeaways from this ongoing investigation into 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, could be caused by PFAS. This crisis was predictable.
Testing by the University of Georgia in 2008 alerted the industry and state that the local Conasauga River that supplies the region’s drinking water had “staggeringly
high” levels of PFAS — an abbreviation for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances commonly known as forever chemicals because they persist in people an
d take decades or more to break down in the environment. The state’s own testing in 2012 and 2016 confirmed the university’s results. Federal tests still detected PFAS in
2019, the year major carpet manufacturers said they stopped using the chemicals.
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PFAS end up in tap water because local utilities don’t have the advanced and costly technology that can remove them from river water.
Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division issued neither fish advisories nor do-not-drink orders to the public even as concerns grew among scientists and f
ederal regulators about the dangers of PFAS. Today, Georgia is still not regulating PFAS, in contrast to oth
er states that have invested tens of millions of dollars in cleanups and sued polluters to recoup costs.
Deputy Director of Georgia’s EPD Anna Truszczynski said her agency looked to federal regulators for guidance and waited for scientists to better understand th
e risks of PFAS. She said her agency helped several cities struggling with contamination by providing
testing support, connecting them to potential funding sources and advising them on possible filtration technologies.
“We believe that there can be a good balance between environment and economy,” Truszczynski said. “We don’t have to sacrifice one for the other.”
At the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, spokesperson Jake Murphy emailed that the federal agency is working to offer technical and financial support in the region.
‘This Good Outcome’
In 2008, the leader of Georgia’s EPD met privately with carpet company representatives a
nd their trade association, the Carpet and Rug Institute, according to records of testimony given during lawsuits against the companies.
Werner Braun, then the carpet institute’s director, later informed his board about the meeting wit
h then-Director Carol Couch, noting EPD “has no plans to initiate regulatory action” on PFAS, according to two court deposition transcript
s. Braun told his board that Couch also indicated EPD “would probably look at the issue again in five years.”
