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Stormy Bost grew up in northwest Georgia where life revolved around creeks and tap water, a routine that changed only after she learned the local supply contained PFAS—odorless, colorless industrial chemicals often called “forever chemicals” because they persist in people and the environment for decades or more. Her blood tests later showed PFAS levels higher than national health guidelines consider safe, and she was diagnosed with liver and thyroid conditions, ailments that research has linked to PFAS.
Bost said her family once used tap water to brew sweet tea, noting the convenience of drinking water that was “cheap” but came “from the faucet.” As a parent, she followed the same routine for her own children until she was told that the local tap water carried toxic chemicals used for decades by textile mills for stain resistance in popular carpet products. In the Calhoun area, the carpet industry has long dominated the economy, and the region’s waterways have become a pathway for chemicals discharged from mills into wastewater systems and then into rivers.
The investigation describes PFAS exposure as a known regional risk that developed over years, beginning with early scientific warnings and continuing as regulators reviewed additional information. It says scientists warned for more than two decades about health risks posed by the kinds of chemicals spreading from mills, and that the state’s approach did not include stronger public warnings during that period. The investigation also reports that Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division issued neither fish advisories nor do-not-drink orders even as concerns grew among scientists and federal regulators.
According to the investigation, University of Georgia testing in 2008 alerted the industry and state that the Conasauga River—an important source for drinking water—was polluted with PFAS. In the same year, the investigation says the state’s environmental director told carpet manufacturers that the agency would not take action on the chemicals. Georgia’s own testing, the investigation says, did not occur until later rounds in which results confirmed the university’s earlier findings, with federal tests still detecting PFAS in 2019.
The investigation describes PFAS moving beyond Georgia’s borders as water flows from the Dalton-area carpet region downstream toward Alabama. It reports that Eastern Alabama and northwest Georgia share a river system that originates in the Blue Ridge Mountains and runs toward Mobile Bay, passing through waters tied to the carpet mills and also feeding downstream drinking-water utilities serving hundreds of thousands of people. When Alabama drinking-water tests began showing PFAS in 2016, the investigation says Alabama’s environmental regulators alerted federal counterparts and asked Georgia’s EPD for help identifying the source.
The investigation says Georgia did not respond in a timely way to Alabama’s requests, citing interviews and internal government records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. A former EPA Water Protection Division director, Jim Giattina, described Georgia’s response as lacking commitment to additional monitoring, and the investigation reports that Alabama followed up with letters in 2017 and 2018 requesting data. Georgia’s EPD Deputy Director Anna Truszczynski, who joined the agency in 2016, said she found no record of Georgia’s response to Alabama, while Alabama’s Department of Environmental Management did not respond to requests for comment.
The investigation also describes Calhoun residents and environmental advocates taking their own steps when information about PFAS exposure was not met with the protections they sought. It recounts how a riverkeeper, Jesse Demonbreun-Chapman, tested water draining from a farm after observing rain conditions that could carry pollution into the river system feeding municipal drinking-water intakes. The investigation says the results alarmed him because the water running off the farm tested thousands of times higher than federal drinking-water standards at the time, and it reports that Calhoun later settled a lawsuit in 2024 requiring filtration measures and other actions related to PFAS risk, without admitting liability.
As the state faced mounting contamination concerns, the investigation says the question of responsibility and payment for cleanup and filtration increasingly moved into courtrooms. It describes lawsuits filed by cities in Alabama and northwest Georgia, including actions seeking funds for advanced filtration systems and later suits by towns and counties against carpet manufacturers and chemical suppliers. In the investigation’s reporting, some municipalities prevailed or settled, while residents and farmers alleged PFAS contamination devalued properties and threatened health and livelihoods.
Georgia officials provided reasons for their approach, the investigation says, including that the EPD looked to federal guidance and waited for scientists to better understand risks. In an interview, Truszczynski said EPD was considering rules to limit certain PFAS in public drinking water and was also considering federal standards expected to take effect in coming years. The investigation says an EPA spokesperson told communities the agency’s focus was working with Georgia, Alabama, affected communities, and water systems to identify PFAS, reduce exposure, and hold polluters accountable where the law supports it.
The investigation concludes with the account of how prolonged contamination can leave residents uncertain about what comes next. Bost said, “There’s a lot of us and we’re sick,” adding, “We don’t know what’s next.” The report’s findings describe an unfolding timeline in which early knowledge, state regulatory decisions, and cross-state water movement combined to delay broader public action while PFAS accumulated in the region’s waterways and, by extension, in residents’ bodies.