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GenX not detected in treated water

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week posted the results of the testing for GenX in local sampled water supplies by Chemours.

The EPA earlier this year requested Chemours test the water at 10 private wells in Ohio and West Virginia and four public systems, including wells at the Washington Works, for GenX, also known as PFAS, a compound used to make Teflon at the Washington Works and the successor to C8.

C8 is believed to be linked to six diseases in people by a panel of scientists studying the health data from 70,000 residents of the Mid-Ohio Valley.

GenX and C8, or PFOA, are in the same family of perfluorinated compounds. Chemours operates the Washington Works and is the spinoff company from DuPont.

The sampling results are on the EPA website at: https://www.epa.gov/pfas/chemours-company-well-sampling-results.

“At this time, no GenX was found in treated drinking water that came from contaminated wells,” the EPA said in a statement. “The agency is continuing to work with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency on this issue.”

The sampling was requested in January by the acting director of the EPA Water Protection Division. GenX, produced at a Chemours facility in Fayetteville, N.C., has been found by the EPA and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality near the plant in the Cape Fear River, water supplies downstream of the plant and in groundwater wells around the facility.

The EPA was concerned wells around the Washington Works could also be contaminated. The company tested the water from 14 wells where granular activated carbon treatment systems were installed.

GenX was found in untreated water in nine of the wells in concentrations of from 16 parts per trillion to 81 ppt, the EPA said. A well at the plant supplying drinking water had the highest concentration of GenX, 81 ppt.

However, a concentration of GenX was not found at detectable levels in the water that was treated by the carbon filters, the agency said.

“At the time of sampling, the GAC appeared to be effective on GenX,” the EPA said.

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