“The potentially cancer-causing chemical GenX has been detected in untreated drinking water in a small town that lies across the Ohio River from a Chemours plant near Parkersburg, West Virginia.

GenX was not detected in tests done by Chemours after it passed through the Little Hocking Water Association’s activated carbon water filtration system and then distributed to about 12,000 customers.

But in a notification letter to the association’s customers this week, General Manager John Hanning wrote that ‘there is a serious question as to whether the kind of carbon filtration used at Little Hocking will effectively remove any GenX before it enters your drinking water’…

Little Hocking discovered high concentrations of C8 in its drinking water around 2002. DuPont responded by installing activated carbon filtration systems for Little Hocking and other nearby towns with contaminated water…

The discovery of GenX in public water in North Carolina caused outrage when it made the news last June. Afterward, the EPA became concerned that GenX had also contaminated water supplies in Ohio and West Virginia. GenX was found in tests on three monitoring wells and a well used for drinking at Chemours’ West Virginia plant late last year.

In response, the EPA in January asked Chemours to test for GenX in four public water supplies, including Little Hocking’s, and 10 private wells in West Virginia and Ohio.

The EPA could not be reached for comment Tuesday to comment on whether any of the test results other than Little Hocking’s were found to contain GenX. In Little Hocking, samples taken in February showed GenX in untreated drinking water at 32 parts per trillion, according to the letter to water customers…

Wilmington’s water supply is among those that had been contaminated with GenX. Unlike Little Hocking’s filtration system, Wilmington’s system could not keep GenX out of the city’s drinking water.

But the Little Hocking Water Association’s filtration system is also in doubt, according to the letter from its general manager to customers.”

Read the full article by Greg Barnes.