“LITTLE HOCKING — Little Hocking Water Association notified its customers on Monday that the unregulated compound known as GenX was detected in its pretreated water, said association General Manager Jon T. Hanning.

Pretreated water is the water from the wellfield before it enters the granular-activated carbon treatment beds.

The testing did not detect GenX in the finished water that Little Hocking customers use and drink, Hanning said…

Hanning said Little Hocking is taking immediate steps to verify the Chemours sampling results and the protocols and procedures used. He urged customers to share the information with others who use the water and may not have received the notice directly (for example, apartment and nursing home residents, schools and businesses) by posting or distributing the notice.

Hanning said customers should check for updates at littlehockingwater.org.

GenX is the chemical that DuPont and its spinoff, Chemours, have been using to replace C8, also known as PFOA, Hanning said. C8 was used to make Teflon at Chemours’ Washington Works plant in Wood County until it was replaced by GenX…

After GenX was detected in three on-site production wells and one on-site drinking water well at Washington Works, U.S. EPA asked Chemours to test local water supplies, including Little Hocking’s, Hanning said.

Chemours conducted the sampling on Feb. 19 and Little Hocking received the results in March. GenX was present in Little Hocking’s pretreated water at 32 parts per trillion (ppt), said Hanning. GenX was not detected in Little Hocking’s water between and after running through its carbon beds for treatment, he said…

GenX is in the same class of chemicals as C8, known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. GenX shares some of C8’s chemical properties, Hanning said.

‘Even though GenX was not detected in our finished water when this single test was taken, there are scientific concerns about the effectiveness of carbon treatment at removing GenX,’ Hanning said.

In 2002, Little Hocking learned that its wellfield had been contaminated by C8. DuPont provided bottled water and eventually carbon treatment to remove the C8 from Little Hocking’s drinking water, Hanning noted.”

Read the full article in The Parkersburg News & Sentinel.