Water expert Bob Bowcock will only drink from a groundwater well in Northwest Georgia if it’s tested for forever chemicals, a persistent group of compounds linked to ailments like cancer.
And even then, he said, the results might only be good for a day.
“In Northwest Georgia, there’s no half pregnant,” said Bowcock, who is part of a group, PFAS Georgia, suing several large chemical and flooring manufacturers. “You’ve either got it and you got it bad, or you’re currently safe.”
While residents on private wells generally face more uncertainty, public drinking water systems in the United States could soon have a deadline of 2031 to comply with federally-set limits on PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.