Read the full article by Morgan Watkins (Louisville Public Media)
“When a sample of untreated water headed for Louisville Water Co.’s Crescent Hill treatment facility showed a 15-fold spike last December in the amount of a forever chemical known as GenX, staff said a factory about 400 miles up the Ohio River was to blame.
For several years, the Chemours Co.’s notorious Washington Works facility has released higher-than-permitted amounts of HFPO-DA, a type of PFAS sometimes called GenX, into the Ohio River, according to a federal lawsuit by a group of West Virginia environmentalists. In a filing, Peter Goodmann, Louisville Water’s director of water quality and research, said his team matched the local GenX spike to Chemours’ pollution discharge data, although Chemours disputed that correlation.
Goodmann said the elevated levels of GenX could make it more challenging for utilities to comply with federal rules for safe drinking water, ‘presenting an adverse health risk’ for affected communities. The Crescent Hill Water Treatment Plant processes about 70% of the area’s drinking water.” …