EPA Emails Show PFOA Levels Five Times Higher than Previously Reported, Researchers Also Skeptical of Carpet Industry Claims

According to emails obtained by GPB through a Freedom of Information Act request, EPA researchers found PFOA levels in “water from Dalton” at levels of five parts per billion (ppb). The emails do not specify where the sample was gathered.

A previous study showed PFOA to be present in the Conasauga river that runs through Whitfield County at about 1 ppb.

The EPA classifies PFOA as a “likely carcinogen.” Studies have linked the chemical to cancer in lab animals, fish, and prostate cancer in humans.

Both levels found in the Conasauga are higher than what some other states with PFOA contamination allow.

The Conasauga eventually joins another river to form the Oostanaula, which is a source of drinking water for the cities of Calhoun and Rome.

PFOA comes from the manufacturing of carpet. Carpet executives have told GPB the compound is a manufacturing byproduct.

Yet, in the emails obtained by GPB, a PFOA expert at the EPA, is skeptical. In 2006, John Washington, who is based in Athens, wrote “While the industry has claimed that PFOA is an unintended impurity, I now suspect that it has been intended---or at least very onvenient---because it helps to stabilize the …particles.”

Meanwhile, sources working on a PFOA water monitoring project with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division say their work “is being held up.” Georgia EPD announced the plan to test for PFOA in drinking water sources earlier this year. However, these sources told GPB the sampling is being bogged down because there are questions of whether EPD has the testing standards in place to acquire accurate results.

The sampling is considered a first step in establishing the severity of PFOA contamination in the Conasauga.