The Scourge of Forever Chemicals
Most of us have heard about the danger of lead in our drinking water and the serious health impacts associated with it. Fewer are aware of the growing concern about what have been dubbed “forever chemicals,” and specifically about their presence in water.
These chemicals are man-made. They are found in industry and consumer products around the world, and they do not degrade naturally, which is why they are known as “forever” chemicals. They present a significant health hazard. Depending on the dose, the duration of exposure, and an exposed individual’s body weight, they can trigger heightened risks of cancer and immune system suppression, as well as developmental issues in exposed children.
Many PFAS chemicals accumulate in the body over time, thereby increasing their adverse health risks with each subsequent exposure. There are more than 12,000 of these chemicals. Collectively they are known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances).
Where Are PFAS Found?
PFAS chemicals are present in many commonly used products, from non-stick cookware to the grease-resistant coverings found in pizza boxes, candy wrappers, and microwave popcorn bags; from water-repellant clothing to fire-extinguishing foam; from stain-resistant fabrics and carpets to fertilizer from wastewater treatment plants; and in many more everyday products, including some shampoos, dental floss, and mascara. You may recognize well-known brands that contain PFAS, such as Teflon and Gore-Tex.
PFAS exposure pathways include household dust and contaminated soil, water, air, and food, including PFAS-contaminated fish. That said, this overview focuses on exposure to PFAS in drinking water.
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How do these chemicals end up in water? Like many other substances, they migrate there, most often via stormwater, sewer overflows, and agricultural pesticide and fertilizer runoff, as well as plain old reckless litter. They can make their way into both surface and ground water, and from there into both public drinking water and private wells. Effective filters can reduce human exposure to PFAS through drinking water — important, because these harmful chemicals will accumulate in the body over time.
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PFAS In West Virginia
Interestingly, the impact of PFAS on drinking water first got national attention right here in West Virginia, in the early 2000s, when a plastics factory operated by DuPont in Parkersburg was found to have released into the environment over 1.7 million pounds of a forever chemical used to make Teflon and other household products. Hundreds of thousands of those pounds were dumped into the Ohio River and its watershed, hundreds of thousands more pounds released into the air via factory chimneys, and close to four hundred thousand pounds buried in unlined landfills. Thousands of West Virginians suffered life-altering, devastating health effects due to exposure to these chemicals. Between a subsequent class action lawsuit and EPA fines in 2004 and 2005, DuPont was forced to cough up $86.5 million to the plaintiffs and was required to install filtration plants in affected local water districts. In 2017, DuPont and its affiliate company Chemours shelled out $671 million more to make an additional roughly 3,500 pending lawsuits go away.
Due in part to Parkersburg’s tragic experience, West Virginia enacted state legislation to address PFAS in 2023. Among other provisions, the PFAS Protection Act, requires the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) to work with partners to develop Action Plans addressing PFAS contamination in communities where it has been detected. During 2025, DEP partnered with the nonprofit organization WV Rivers and with the public interest law firm Fair Shake, and together, they held public meetings in several of those communities, including in Berkeley Springs. Discussions revolved around the types of actions needed to address PFAS contamination and to prevent future such occurrences, including a focus on increased public education, the steps needed to address remediation, and how to prevent future exposure to PFAS. DEP plans to release Action Plans beginning in the first half of 2026.
With respect to Berkeley Springs, in December 2020, the US Geological Survey (USGS) identified PFAS in the groundwater at the subdivision known as Apple Orchard Acres, off Tabor Road. As the name indicates, this was the site of a former apple orchard. It’s not uncommon for pesticides containing PFAS to be used in orchards, and it’s likely they are the source of the PFAS found there. USGS followed up in November 2022 by sampling the public drinking water at Apple Orchard Acres, and results showed no detection above EPA’s drinking water human health advisory for any of the PFAS substances that were covered in that analysis. One of DEP’s forthcoming Action Plans will focus on this Morgan County site.
Testing Is Key
It’s important to note that so far only limited sampling has been conducted in Morgan County waters. The same holds true for the rest of the country. Folks whose drinking water comes from private wells, whether in Berkeley Springs or elsewhere, need to test on their own to know about their status. They can do so by contacting a lab that is certified to analyze for the presence of PFAS. Request a sampling kit to get started. Public water systems (PWS) are required to sample over time (by 2027) the water they provide to their customers for the presence of several regulated PFAS chemicals. They must also alert the public about the results of their sampling. By 2029, EPA’s regulations require PWS to take steps to reduce any detected regulated PFAS over the EPA’s Maximum Containment Level and to notify the public of those rule violations.
Given how ubiquitous PFAS chemicals are in our environment, more testing needs to be done to identify contaminated surface and ground water, let alone contaminated soil in watersheds. This includes the Warm Springs Run and its watershed. While the Warm Springs Watershed Association (WSWA) already does conduct regularly scheduled water sampling throughout the Run, it has not included the more specialized — and expensive — kind of rigorous sampling needed to detect PFAS. A prerequisite for such sampling is professional training. Moreover, once sampling is done, the samples must then be analyzed by a specially certified laboratory, and that analysis can get expensive. However, with the help of our members and additional funding to get us past those obstacles, WSWA may well choose to include some limited PFAS testing in the future.
As stated in a February 12, 2025 letter co-signed by the American Water Works Association, the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, the National Association of Water Companies, the National Rural Water Association, and the Water Environment Federation, “Removing harmful chemicals like PFAS from drinking water, wastewater and stormwater is central to the public health and environmental protection mission of our members.”
With appropriate training, necessary funding, and member participation, WSWA can do its part to support that vital mission.
Resources and Additional Information
WV map of community water systems where PFAS above health advisory levels were detected, plus other informative PFAS resources from WV Rivers:
PFAS updates and downloadable PFAS Toolkit from the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators:
Current federal government information about health effects:
https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/pfas/about/health-effects.html
EPA’s 2024 National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for six PFAS:
https://www.epa.gov/sdwa/and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas
EPA’s 2024 Strategic Roadmap:
https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2024-11/epas-pfas-strategic-roadmap-2024_508.pdf
Information about PFAS sampling in West Virginia and in Virginia:
Update on various European bans on PFAS: