The Cape Fear River is a known hot spot for pollution from “forever chemicals,” with the blame for the contamination of the waterway largely focused on Chemours and DuPont for their decades-long dumping of the manmade chemicals into the river from their Fayetteville Works plant.
But forever chemicals, a catchall phrase for certain synthetic compounds that don’t break down naturally or quickly in the environment or the human body, are used in a number of products and manufacturing settings, leading to numerous potential pollution sources.
The new study found that “forever chemicals” are in 98% of American surface waters, and that wastewater treatment plants are significant sources of the contamination. Water samples taken by local Waterkeeper groups, including Cape Fear River Watch, found elevated levels of toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at 95% of the sampled sites downstream of sewer plants, and 80% downstream from biosolids land application sites…