Read the full article by Laurence Hammack (The Roanoke Times)
“The Roanoke Valley’s primary supplier of public water took steps Thursday to curtail a contaminant found in the Spring Hollow reservoir and the nearby Roanoke River.
In a unanimous vote, the board of the Western Virginia Water Authority approved a $13.5 million package of improvements at Spring Hollow, including an upgrade to a carbon filtering system designed to lower levels of a so-called ‘forever chemical.’
Tests of the reservoir and river water have detected hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid, better known by its trade name of GenX, at concentrations that exceed what is recommended for long-term consumption by the Environmental Protection Agency.
An EPA health advisory calls for no more than 10 parts per trillion. The level at Spring Hollow has been as high as 62 parts per trillion, and more recent tests in the Roanoke River just upstream of the reservoir’s intake have shown more than twice that.” …