“On a cool spring morning last year, Jason Galloway lugged his father’s kayak up to the edge of the Ohio River and slid it into the calm water. This wasn’t a pleasure trip. Galloway, by his own admission, isn’t very skilled with an oar in his hands and, to make matters worse, can’t swim.
He had come to gather water samples at spots in the river downstream from the Chemours Co. plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. And what he says he found is adding to growing concerns over a new generation of chemicals — designed to be safer than the old ones — that Chemours and others make for products like Teflon cookware, waterproof fabrics and grease resistant food packaging.
Last month, a study detected one of the new chemicals, known as GenX, downstream from a different Chemours plant — some 400 miles away in Fayetteville, North Carolina. That news sent the company’s stock and bonds tumbling as protests erupted over the safety of the local drinking water.”