NC officials investigating foam containing chemicals found in Gray’s Creek

By Kayla Strayer | Cumberland County News | September 1, 2020

Read the full article by Kayla Strayer (Cumberland County News)

“GRAY’S CREEK, N.C. (WNCN) — People living in the Gray’s Creek area of Cumberland County say they’re not surprised to hear about more water problems near their homes.

‘It’s been going on for awhile now,’ said Ray Roberts, who has lived in the area for 28 years.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is investigating foam found to contain chemicals floating in Gray’s Creek.

‘It’s kind of scary,’ Roberts said.

The DEQ says the surface water sample below the foam did not reflect it, but preliminary test results of the foam found significant PFOS chemicals, which can cause reproductive and developmental, liver and kidney, and immunological effects in laboratory animals.

‘We bathe and take showers in the water, but we don’t drink the water,’ Roberts said.

Roberts says he uses bottled water because his well water is contaminated by chemicals produced at the nearby Chemours plant.

‘People talk about how they got cancer down the street and stuff all around us, guess we will keep drinking bottled water,’ he said.

The EPA says PFOS are the most studied type of PFAS chemicals.

Although they’ve been voluntarily phased out by industries, they are still persistent in the environment and are known to cause health problems…”

This content provided by the PFAS Project.