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Scott Shirley, the chief operating officer for water quality for the Western Virginia Water Authority, briefs the Board of Supervisors of Roanoke County on per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, or PFAS, at the Roanoke County Administration building on Tuesday.
A chart showing the levels of the PFAS found in Spring Hollow from January 2020 to July presented Tuesday by Scott Shirley, the chief operating officer for water quality for the Western Virginia Water Authority to the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors/
A 2014 file photo of the five wet wells that pump Roanoke River water up through the pump house and then upward to Spring Hollow Reservoir. The Western Virginia Water Authority has stopped drawing water from the river while the source of the GenX “forever chemical” is determined.
Plans are underway to upgrade a carbon filtering system at Spring Hollow reservoir to reduce concentrations of a hazardous chemical found in its water before it reaches customers.
The goal is to limit the spread of GenX, a so-called “forever chemical” that has been detected in both the reservoir and the nearby Roanoke River, while officials with the Western Virginia Water Authority continue to search for the compound’s source.
An existing granular activated carbon filter system in the water treatment facility at Spring Hollow needs to be optimized to better handle GenX, Scott Shirley, the authority’s chief operating officer for water quality, told the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
Tests of the water at the reservoir, and more recently in the river, have revealed levels of GenX that exceed what is recommended for long-term consumption by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Shirley told the supervisors that the water authority is working with the state’s Health Department and the Department of Environmental Quality to find the origin of GenX, which could be an industry upstream of where the reservoir takes water from the Roanoke River.
“The universe for potential sources for this is relatively small,” he said.
The water authority has stopped drawing water from the river to fill Spring Hollow while additional testing and investigation continues. Other water bodies that tested negative for GenX, such as Carvins Cove, are being used more to serve the authority’s 69,000-some customers in the Roanoke Valley.
A carbon filtering system that was installed when Spring Hollow was built in the 1990s appears to be working to some degree. A recent test of the treated water showed no detectable traces of GenX.
“Once we get it fully optimized, we hope that will be a consistent result,” Shirley said.
The water authority hopes to receive federal funding for the infrastructure improvements needed to fully reconfigure the system, which could cost as much as $2.5 million.
In his briefing to the board of supervisors, Shirley said GenX, the trade name for hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid, was first found at Spring Hollow in 2020. Its presence was intermittent, and in concentrations that seemed to be declining.
More recent events made the situation more urgent: Two tests by the Virginia Department of Health last year found a higher level — 51 and 57 parts per trillion — than earlier detected, and the EPA issued a health advisory in June that recommended no more than 10 parts per trillion.
The health advisory is based on a lifetime of drinking two liters of water per day. It is not enforceable, and EPA opted not to recommend the use of bottled water.
Exposure to GenX could cause liver and kidney complications for some people, according to the EPA.
The chemical is not an end product, but instead is used in the making of fluoropolymers, which in turn are part of the manufacture of non-stick plastics, semiconductor chips, automotive parts and other products.
More than 6,000 manufactured compounds — officially called PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, but better known as forever chemicals because they can last for generations — are believed to the present worldwide in air, water, soil and living organisms.
Able to repel both oils and water, forever chemicals are widely used in industry and in common consumer products that need to resist heat, oil, stains, grease and water — including nonstick cook wear, waterproof clothing, fast food containers, upholstery and carpets.
Their long lifespans and concerns about their toxicity have recently drawn more attention from the EPA and other agencies. However, there are currently no federal or Virginia regulations that deal with forever chemicals.
Paul Mahoney, chairman of the board of supervisors, asked Shirley about whether GenX might also be found in local wells. That is a concern, he was told.
And as supervisor Martha Hooker pointed out, the chemical could possibly be inside the plastic bottles that contain drinking water.
“They are highly present in the environment,” Shirley said. While most Americans have probably ingested some type of forever chemical, the question is whether the amount is harmful.
“This is a very, very small portion of any water body when you’re talking about parts per trillion,” Shirley said.
Western Virginia Water Authority Chief Operating Officer Scott Shirley briefs Roanoke County supervisors on "forever chemicals" in local water supply during a board meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, in Roanoke.
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Laurence Hammack covers environmental issues, including the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and business and enterprise stories. He has been a reporter for The Roanoke Times for more than three decades.
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Tests have detected GenX, a so-called "forever chemical" at levels that exceed an EPA health advisory.
A hazardous substance used in the manufacture of no-stick plastic was detected in the river near the Spring Hollow reservoir in Roanoke County. Salem draws its drinking water some 10 miles downstream and so far has not detected the chemical in its water supply.
Spring Hollow is the first and only facility operated by the Western Virginia Water Authority found to contain the hazardous substance.
Scott Shirley, the chief operating officer for water quality for the Western Virginia Water Authority, briefs the Board of Supervisors of Roanoke County on per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, or PFAS, at the Roanoke County Administration building on Tuesday.
A chart showing the levels of the PFAS found in Spring Hollow from January 2020 to July presented Tuesday by Scott Shirley, the chief operating officer for water quality for the Western Virginia Water Authority to the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors/
A 2014 file photo of the five wet wells that pump Roanoke River water up through the pump house and then upward to Spring Hollow Reservoir. The Western Virginia Water Authority has stopped drawing water from the river while the source of the GenX “forever chemical” is determined.
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