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Forever Chemicals In Most US Waterways.

Posted on 23rd October 2022

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Hot on the heels of my recent post (here) about the potential for wars over water comes this article on The Guardian, which reports on a study showing that over 80% of US waterways are polluted with PFAS (a class of "forever chemicals").

PFAS are called forever chemicals because they are not biodegradable (they last forever in the environment); they are also generally toxic.

You almost certainly have PFAS in your home, in the form of Teflon coating on non-stick pans and other cook-ware.

The fact that waterways are polluted with PFAS does not necessarily mean that drinking water is polluted, but other studies (see the links in The Guardian article) have shown that drinking water is indeed polluted in the majority of cases.

The other thing to bear in mind is the widespread culture of hunting and fishing (and even of eating roadkill) in the US, meaning that even if your drinking water is not polluted, what you eat may well be (wildlife drinks unfiltered water).

The problem is manifold, and includes:

  • Lax regulations on toxic discharges,
  • Outdated water supply infrastructure which doesn't remove everything that we are now concerned about,
  • People whose drinking water comes from unfiltered sources (springs and wells),
  • The fad for "raw water".

Maybe it is time for the USA to take environmental protection a little more seriously. Just because you have more wilderness per capita than Europe does not mean that that wilderness can't be polluted, if you don't look after it.