Western Ky. city grapples with widespread pollution from Teflon recycler

By Ryan Van Velzer and Tom Scheck | APM Reports | November 8, 2021

Read the full article from Ryan Van Velzer and Tom Scheck (APM Reports)

"Back in May of 2020, a food producer was looking at the city of Henderson for a $100 million investment in a city-owned industrial site near the Ohio River.

For a city in a rural part of western Kentucky, the business was an opportunity to bring tax revenue and an estimated 90 full-time jobs to the community. The company stressed the importance of one thing: clean groundwater.

But late last year, the company quietly walked away when it learned something officials had been reluctant to share with residents.

High levels of forever chemicals have seeped into the shallow aquifer beneath the city and are creeping toward the Ohio River.

A WFPL News investigation has found three of Shamrock Technologies’ decades-old facilities have polluted Henderson with PFAS chemicals, impacting thousands of people who work, learn and live in the area. The facilities are near neighborhoods, houses of worship, schools, health care centers, grocery stores and wetlands home to endangered species. City and state officials haven’t disclosed the extent of the pollution to residents."