Read the full article from Lisa Sorg (NC Policy Watch)
“Julia Hughes was walking her dog near Shelby, in rural Cleveland County, last winter when she spotted mysterious foam in a culvert by the side of the road. “It was puffy and cloudy-looking, like if you touched it, it would stick to you,” she said. “I thought, ‘That’s odd. This isn’t right.’”
Hughes called the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, which tested the water and the foam, which had appeared not only in the culverts on both sides of the road, but also downstream in the stream that runs through her family’s backyard.
The stream feeds Sandy Creek, which in turn flows into the Broad River. The Broad River Water Authority provides drinking water to more than 6,600 people.
The results: High levels of toxic PFAS in the foam, with lesser, but still detectable concentrations in water in the culverts and the stream.
This is the first time the state has found PFAS, also known as perfluorinated and polyfluoroalkyl substances, in Cleveland County. Most of the previous detections have been in the Cape Fear River Basin, from Greensboro southeast to Wilmington. Chemours, which has a chemical plant in northern Bladen County, is a major source of PFAS in the Lower Cape Fear.”…