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Good morning. It's Sunday, July 21.
Twenty-five years ago, an Ohio lawyer who specialized in defending chemical companies filed a federal suit against chemical giant DuPont. The case centered around cows on a farm in West Virginia owned by the Tennant family, who had been caring for cattle their entire lives.
The animals drinking from a creek on the property had been acting strangely, and were dying in high numbers - some had been found with with blood running from their eyes and noses, with "stringy tails, malformed hooves, giant lesions protruding from their hides and red, receded eyes; cows suffering constant diarrhea, slobbering white slime the consistency of toothpaste."
Two decades and dozens of lawsuits later, we know the Tennants' cattle were suffering from exposure to high levels of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, a type of perfluorinated alkylated substance (PFAS) invented by 3M in the late 1940s.
In the intervening decades, the chemicals — stable and water-repellent — have been found just about everywhere, from raincoats to implantable medical devices. They have also been found in high concentrations in our soil and water, including in schools and public water systems around the state.
This week, Emmett Gartner looks at how school officials around the state whose systems have tested high in PFAS are ridding themselves of these "forever chemicals." Some schools have paying for bottled water for more than a year as they wait for the installation of filtration systems, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars and require more in annual maintenance.
It's an in-depth look at the very real reckoning and costs of decades of unregulated hazardous chemicals in small communities around the country. I hope you'll give it a read.
— Kate |
