Brockovich says forever chemical problem expanding across Georgia

Erin Brockovich speaking with a crowd of citizens at the Need to Feed Restaurant in Whitfield County about forever chemicals.

WHITFIELD COUNTY, Ga. (WDEF)- The push to contain forever chemicals in North Georgia continued Tuesday.

Famed activist Erin Brockovich along with PFAS Georgia held a town hall at the Need to Feed Restaurant in Whitfield County.

She says every time she goes to a different town hall in the state, she learns of something new that shocks her.

Brockovich said, “(PFAS) is very silent. It doesn’t really have a smell. It doesn’t have a color, people have no idea that it is in their water or soil.”

Concerns continue to rise across North Georgia as more test results show the EPA’s limit on PFAS in water and soil being obliterated.

PFAS is a chemical that was used by carpet companies according to PFAS Georgia, as they say the chemicals were improperly dumped into local waterways, leading to numerous lawsuits.

Some of the highest samples recorded by PFAS Georgia are over 2.4 million parts per trillion of the chemical, which can lead to a series of health problems including various cancers and birth defects.

Dr. Bob Bowcock, the water resources manager for the organization, stated that multiple samples that were tested were so high they were unable to be measured.

The EPA’s limit is only four parts per trillion, meaning residents across the region are being exposed to a dangerous amount of a chemical that cannot be erased at a rate of thousands of times above the safe, legal limit.

One resident, a mother from Summerville in Chattooga County, described how due to the PFAS contamination of her water source, the city of Summerville gives her 15 gallons of water a month, which she says is not near enough to truly avoid using the contaminated water.

She said that she fears the damage is already done saying, “Any three year-old will drink water out of the bathtub, that’s what they do. Not to mention our skin is our largest organ. Why did we put our skin in it? It’s not even really safe for washing your clothes.”

Brockovich says their results have shown that while the Dalton area is the epicenter of the issue due to the legacy of carpet manufacturing, the problem is spreading across the state.

One woman from Rabun County, Georgia in the northeastern corner of the state said that testing there had shown presence of the chemical due to the presence of textile mills, and attorney Nick Jackson, who is working on many of the lawsuits related to forever chemicals in Georgia, said they’ve begun to receive multiple inquires from South Georgia, most notably representing Dougherty County which is the home of Albany, Georgia.

She said, “It’s gonna (effect) the entire state of Georgia. You know it started down here in Dalton, and we were in Rome this morning. It’s in the landfills. It’s in the rivers. in the soil. It’s in the farmland. It’s in the food chain. It’s daunting.”

This follows a town hall Monday evening in Dalton where both Congressional candidates for District 14, Clay Fuller and Shawn Harris, showed up to show their support for the action on this issue.

A big theme of both meetings was urging residents to contact state representatives to oppose legislation that could limit the ability of towns and residents to sue carpet companies, which has not passed.

Brian Strickland, a Republican state senator from McDonough, Georgia, said that he opposed any legislation that would remove the right from cities or residents from suing companies over this issue, stating, “The state Attorney General can bring those suits right now, and if you pass a bill like that you would limit individual cities in their ability to go out and clean up what happened in their cities. I am opposed to that.”

As more become aware of the forever chemical issue along with the numerous lawsuits ongoing across the state, Brockovich believes this is an issue that transcends party lines.

PFAS Georgia says they’re are going to continue to expand their testing as they say it will take many years to fully measure the scale of the forever chemicals crisis in North Georgia.

Brockovich said, “This is our environment, our water, our land. Whether you’re right or left this could affect your child. This could affect you. This could affect your grandchild. This is your legacy.”