An environmental chemistry laboratory at Duke University has solved a longstanding mystery of the origin of high levels of PFAS—so-called "forever chemicals"—contaminating water sources in the Piedmont region of North Carolina.
By sampling and analyzing sewage in and around Burlington, NC, the researchers traced the chemicals to a local textile manufacturing plant. The source remained hidden for years because the facility was not releasing chemical forms of PFAS that are regulated and monitored. The culprit was instead solid nanoparticle PFAS "precursors" that degrade into the chemicals that current tests are designed to detect
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With this information in hand, the town of Burlington worked with that textile manufacturer to change their process and bring down the concentrations of these nanoparticles using its pretreatment authority outlined in the Clean Water Act. Ever since, the amount of PFAS precursors coming into Burlington's wastewater treatment facility has been orders of magnitudes lower.
"Every system downstream of that facility is also now seeing a significant drop in the amount of PFAS in their drinking water," Ferguson said.
Quite a good outcome. Monitoring detected the pollution. A law introduced regulation on water pollution, and gave towns authority to crack down on polluters. And the town enforced it.
Of course it could be improved, so it doesn't take years to locate and stop polluters the next time around.
cm0002 in publichealth
Researchers uncover the source of widespread 'forever chemical' contamination in North Carolina
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-uncover-source-widespread-chemical-contamination.htmlQuite a good outcome. Monitoring detected the pollution. A law introduced regulation on water pollution, and gave towns authority to crack down on polluters. And the town enforced it.
Of course it could be improved, so it doesn't take years to locate and stop polluters the next time around.