Gary Ridley, 77, used to eat fresh fish caught in a lake behind his property in Murray County.
But after water testing found contamination from chemicals known as PFAS totaling more than 8,000 parts per trillion, or 2,000 times the federal government’s limit for the chemicals in drinking water, he doesn’t want to do that anymore, Ridley said.
“I didn’t ask for this,” Ridley, 77, said in an interview. “My property is going to be devalued. It’s been in my family. It was passed down to me by my parents. I want to pass it down to my kids, my grandkids, my great-grandkids. But I won’t be able to do this now, with this contamination — unless it’s cleaned up.”
On Thursday evening, members of a legal team investigating PFAS contamination in Northwest Georgia unveiled the results of hundreds of tests they have conducted over the past year. Bob Bowcock, a water resource manager working with the group, has used the word “catastrophic” to describe the level of pollution in that part of the state.