Photo: Jeff Gentner / AP Contamination Continues And still, the water aquifer is expected to be contaminated with C8 for hundreds of years.īetween 19, the Dupont plant in Washington Works, West Virginia released more than 1.7 million pounds of C8 into the environment, according to a 2004 study by ChemRisk Inc., an industry risk assessor hired by DuPont. But according to the company’s public documents, cleanup has already cost millions. (Think of your home water filter, but on a huge scale.) Vienna Mayor Rapp says he has “no idea” how much cleanup is costing. In response to the EPA’s C8 advisory, Chemours is paying for installation, maintenance and monitoring of giant carbon filters. It created a spin-off company, Chemours, which inherited this environmental legacy. The thing that we need to do now is to be more solution-oriented.”ĭuPont isn’t in charge of those solutions. “A lot of people did things back a few years ago that were unethical, unhealthy. “It’s not fair to isolate DuPont,” Swisher said. Many people, like resident Charles Swisher, are quick to defend them. But for generations, the chemical company has been the biggest employer around Vienna. They’ve heard about C8 contamination by Dupont for years.
This problem isn’t new to the people we spoke with in line. It says C8 levels in his and other community’s drinking water are too high. Rapp was talking about a new health advisory issued by the Environmental Protection Agency this year. “Once they lowered the standard, then it became a problem.” “Up until the EPA lowered the standard, it really wasn’t an issue for us,” said Vienna mayor, Randy Rapp. But the federal government says C8 levels it once overlooked in the water are now considered unsafe.
The chemical company DuPont polluted water here over the course of decades. Their tap water had been deemed unsafe-laced with a chemical known as C8. People were picking up jugs and cases of bottled water. This summer, cars lined up in Vienna-a town of about 10,000 situated along the Ohio River. One community especially affected by this toxic legacy is Vienna, West Virginia. However, a growing body of science indicates that the EPA advisory level is not sufficiently protective of human health, and many researchers recommend far more restrictive thresholds for exposure.Ĭommunities across the country are dealing with levels of contamination well above the EPA’s new advisory level. The Environmental Protection Agency issued a health advisory this year for C8 levels in drinking water, and many of the water systems that detected C8 and related chemicals found them at levels lower than the EPA advisory. EPA, the Ohio Valley ReSource found 12 water systems in 10 counties in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia where these chemicals were detected in the water. Using water testing data available from the U.S. Now it’s made in China.īut because the chemical can persist in water, communities along the Ohio River-and around the U.S.-are still grappling with the environmental fallout of contamination from C8 and similar chemicals. DuPont and other companies phased out U.S. It was a remarkably useful compound-used in “Teflon” non-stick cookware, stain-resistant fabrics and even some food wrappers.īut over time, researchers have found that C8 is also toxic. One chemical they produced is PFOA, commonly known as C8. NOTE: This story was originally published October 28, 2016.įor more than half a century, the chemical company DuPont provided jobs for thousands of people along the Ohio River.
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