Wissenschaftler haben das seit langem bestehende Rätsel um die Herkunft der „ewigen Chemikalien“ PFAS gelöst, die das Wasser einer örtlichen Textilfabrik in North Carolina verunreinigen. Vorläuferstoffe wurden in Konzentrationen in die Kanalisation freigesetzt, die etwa drei Millionen Mal über dem Trinkwassergrenzwert der EPA lagen.

I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.5c01014

From the linked article:

Uncovering the Source of Widespread ‘Forever Chemical’ Contamination in North Carolina

Story behind the discovery in North Carolina’s Haw River watershed offers insights and raises concerns for other communities dealing with high levels of PFAS

An environmental chemistry laboratory at Duke University has **solved a longstanding mystery of the origin of high levels of PFAS—so-called “forever chemicals”—contaminating water sources in the Piedmont region of North Carolina**.

By sampling and analyzing sewage in and around Burlington, NC, the researchers traced the chemicals to a local textile manufacturing plant. The source remained hidden for years because the facility was not releasing chemical forms of PFAS that are routinely monitored. The culprit was instead solid nanoparticle PFAS “precursors” that degrade into the chemicals that current tests are designed to detect.

Incredibly, these **precursors were being released into the sewer system at concentrations up to 12 million parts-per-trillion—approximately 3 million times greater than the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently-enacted drinking water regulatory limit for certain types of PFAS**.