‘Forever chemicals’ found at dangerous levels in water in Cabarrus County
CONCORD, N.C. (WBTV) — An analysis of a new EPA report shows dangerously high levels of “forever chemicals” in some local water systems in Concord and Harrisburg. The chemicals have been linked to long term health problems from cancer to birth defects.
The Hillgrove Water Treatment plant in Concord is one of the places that report say is pouring out water laced with those “forever chemicals.” But the city says it is taking steps to eliminate them.
On Thursday construction at the plant is mostly on pause. But trails of machinery tracks remain imprinted in the mud, just feet away from an activated carbon facility that will change the way the facility treats its water. The new technology will help filter PFAS also known as “forever chemicals” out of water going to Concord residents.
Elizabeth Jensen is the research director for the Center for Planetary Health at Atrium Health. She says “forever chemicals” carry some serious risks.
“There is some evidence to support that some of these may be carcinogenic, but they also have cardiometabolic effects in terms of increasing blood pressure, lipids. They also may have some effects on immune system,” Jensen said.
A recent EPA report, analyzed by USA Today, shows more than 120,000 Concord water customers are receiving water laced with “forever chemicals” more than two times the EPA limit. It’s a problem Concord Water Resources Director, Jeff Corley says it has spent several years trying to solve.
“We’ve been collecting this data for several years. We needed enough data to understand what the solution to the exact strains of PFAs we were dealing with,” Corley said.
Through water rates, the city has invested $18 million to clean up its water, that also supplies the city of Harrisburg, to be in compliance with EPA PFAS requirements by 2031. This is just phase one.
“We’re in a really accelerated regulatory time frame where we have a short piece of data we’ve got a short time to implement these new things to respond to new regulations and we are way ahead of a lot of people in the state, in the country, ”Corley said. “We actually have some infrastructure coming out of the ground now , coming on line shortly.”
Jensen says research is still being done on the chemicals, but avoiding them when possible is the best line of defense.
“I don’t know that we can safely say what a safe level is. Right now, we don’t believe that any level is completely safe, but we need to continue to do more research and gather more evidence,” said Jensen.
The construction at Hillgrove is expected to be done in June. Treated water could start going out to the public sometime in the Fall.
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