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Sarah Baumgardner, director of communications for Western Virginia Water Authority, shows the Spring Hollow Reservoir and dam at Spring Hollow Water Treatment Facility.
The granulated activated carbon filtration building at Spring Hollow Water Treatment Facility.
The granulated activated carbon filtration building at Spring Hollow Water Treatment Facility.
The view facing downstream at the Roanoke River pump house at Spring Hollow Water Treatment Facility.
The Spring Hollow Reservoir and dam, left, and the Mountain Valley Pipeline right of way, background at right, seen from Spring Hollow Water Treatment Facility.
The Spring Hollow Reservoir in western Roanoke County feeds water to the Spring Hollow Water Treatment Facility.
The source of a contaminant in the Roanoke River and Spring Hollow reservoir, which if left unchecked could remain there in perpetuity, remains a mystery.
Officials with the Western Virginia Water Authority, which operates the public water supply, and the state Department of Environmental Quality said last week that they are continuing to search for the source of GenX, a so-called “forever chemical” that has been detected in river and reservoir water.
Emails between the two agencies show that one potential trail led them from the Roanoke County reservoir upstream, all the way to the Blacksburg Industrial Park.
In an Aug. 31 email to DEQ, water authority executive director Michael McEvoy asked for a list of industries that have state permits to discharge treated waste into Cedar Run, a tributary of the North Fork of the Roanoke River.
He received a spreadsheet, which was included in a series of emails obtained through an open records request from The Roanoke Times, that shows four tenants of the industrial park, which is located in the headwaters of Cedar Run.
Armed with the list, Scott Shirley, the water authority’s chief operating officer for water quality, visited the park “to gain a better perspective of the manufacturers present,” he wrote in a Sept. 2 email.
The email states that Shirley saw several chemical tanks at Wolverine Advanced Materials, an automotive parts manufacturer, that indicated the use of Fluoroelastomer rubber coating and lining materials.
Shirley also viewed a groundwater extraction system at Federal-Mogul Powertrain, which makes engine and replacement bearings for commercial and light vehicles. Research indicated that the process at the plant includes the use of elastomer materials, he wrote.
While noting that additional investigation was needed, Shirley wrote at the time that “manufacturing of a fluoroelastomer should be a high priority site for further follow-up.”
The email stated that the water authority had identified a point on Cedar Run downstream from the industrial park for testing. Since then, a Sept. 12 test of the water showed no detectable traces of GenX. But the compound’s presence is believed to be intermittent, and additional testing is planned.
The water authority’s interest in Federal-Mogul and Wolverine was intended to narrow potential areas for investigation, according to Sarah Baumgardner, a spokesperson for the water authority.
“Subsequent research has indicated that these operations are not likely to generate HFPO-DA [hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid, which is commonly referred to by the trade name of GenX], but ongoing sampling will assist in confirming these findings,” Baumgardner wrote in an email Friday.
Later in the day, she wrote in a follow-up email that the companies in the industrial park “have been eliminated from the Water Authority’s businesses of interest in our investigation.”
GenX is used in the manufacture of fluoropolymers, a non-stick coating that is resistant to weather, temperatures and other chemicals. It is common in the automotive industry and in the manufacture of semiconductor chips.
A spokesman for Tennaco, the corporate owner of Federal-Mogul, said the company has not been contacted by DEQ or any other state or local agency concerning GenX. Efforts to reach Wolverine were unsuccessful.
DEQ currently has no information that implicates any of the tenants of the industrial park that have state-issued permits to discharge into Cedar Run, spokesman Aaron Proctor said.
The environmental agency has not contacted or visited any of the companies, “though we are still actively working to find the source of the pollutant within the watershed” of Spring Hollow, he wrote in an email last week.
Mark Barker, an executive assistant with the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League who has closely followed the GenX issue, questioned why DEQ is not using its authority to inspect permitted facilities.
“If they are not going on site at suspected facilities — and there can’t be that many that can feed into the Roanoke River before Spring Hollow — then why aren’t they?” Barker asked.
“This should be treated as a health emergency. The source needs to be found ASAP and stopped ASAP.”
At first glance, the numbers may not seem alarming.
Forever chemicals like GenX — which have an ab ility to repel both oil and water, making them attractive for a wide variety of uses in industry and the manufacture of consumer products — are measured in tiny amounts, usually parts per trillion.
In June, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a health advisory for GenX in drinking water, warning that long-term consumption of water with more than 10 parts per trillion could cause health problems for some people that include complications in the liver, kidney and immune system.
Tests of the water at Spring Hollow have shown levels as high as 62 parts per trillion in January 2020, although concentrations have been going down since then. At times, no GenX has been detected at all.
A more recent test of the Roanoke River, just upstream of where water is pumped into Spring Hollow, found 139 parts per trillion.
One part per trillion, if expressed as a unit in time, would be approximately one second in 32,000 years, according to the water authority. The EPA’s health advisory was based on a 70-year lifetime of drinking two liters of water per day.
While that may appear to pose only a minimal risk, it’s important to remember that forever chemicals are likely to be in far more products than the water we drink, according to Kang Xia, an environmental chemistry professor at Virginia Tech’s School of Plant and Environmental Sciences.
There are more than 6,000 different types of forever chemicals, which is the more commonly used name for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. They are named “forever” because their chemical composition does not easily break down, meaning they can remain in the soil, water and air for generations.
The man-made compounds are used to manufacture consumer products that need to resist heat, oils, stains, grease and water. That includes nonstick cook wear, waterproof clothing, fast food containers, upholstery, carpets, cosmetics and dental floss.
“We’re using so much PFAS in every aspect of our lives,” Xia said.
As an example, she pointed to research that shows that someone who applies lipstick containing a PFAS three times a day could potentially be facing a higher exposure than what is found in drinking water.
Many forever chemicals have been in use for decades, going as far back as the 1940s. But concerns about them have grown in recent years, as analytical instruments for testing and laboratories to process results have advanced to the point of being able to measure more minuscule amounts.
“If you don’t see it, you don’t know that it’s there,” Xia said. “And if you don’t know it’s there, you don’t know if there is a problem.”
Even the metal parts of the analytical instruments used to test for PFAS may be coated with substances that contain PFAS compounds, which could complicate the tests due to cross-contamination.
“Testing for PFAS is very, very tricky, because PFAS are everywhere,” Xia said. “It’s very easy to have false positive tests because of that kind of cross-contamination from other sources.”
Although the water authority has known since 2020 that GenX was in Spring Hollow, the EPA’s health advisory issued in June marked the first time that levels were above what is recommended for human consumption.
Since then, the authority has increased sampling of both the reservoir and the river, and stepped up its efforts to find the source.
“As the compound comes from a very specific manufacturing process, the authority has been collecting samples and doing research to refine our search and narrow the universe of potential sources,” Baumgardner wrote in an email.
Early on, the Mountain Valley Pipeline was considered and later ruled out. The unfinished pipeline, which will cross the Roanoke River upstream of Spring Hollow, is covered with an epoxy coating meant to safeguard the metal pipe from corrosion. Pipeline opponents have expressed concerns that the coating could degenerate and leach into groundwater, raising health concerns.
But no connection was found between the coating and GenX, Baumgardner said.
Another possible source that was checked out and crossed off the list was the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, and in particular an open burning ground where hazardous waste from the making of propellants is incinerated.
One theory was that toxins from that process could have been carried by wind to Spring Hollow before settling in the water. That was considered a remote possibility, and became even more so after air testing found low levels of GenX.
“We will continue to monitor atmospheric deposition; however, this pathway does not appear to be a significant contributing source,” an Oct. 4 update posted to the authority’s website stated.
A spokesperson for the arsenal said GenX is not in the waste that goes to the open burning ground.
Although some forever chemicals can be spread by other means — such as runoff from treated sludge used on farmlands as fertilizer, or from groundwater contaminated by a fire-fighting foam used in airplane crashes — an industry is still considered the most likely source for a chemical like GenX.
In July, the water authority began taking more samples, testing the river and reservoir weekly. Tests of treated water show a steady decline, from 34.4 parts per trillion in early July to more recent detections of 3.8 and 1 part per trillion, well below the EPA’s heath advisory for more than 10 parts per trillion.
The authority has stopped drawing water from the Roanoke River to fill Spring Hollow, which previously served about a third of its 69,000-some customers in the Roanoke Valley.
More water from Carvins Cove, which tested negative for forever chemicals, is being used. Water treated by a carbon filtering system at Spring Hollow, which has been largely successful in reducing GenX levels, currently makes up about 15% of the water distribution, Baumgardner said.
But the treatment is considered rudimentary, and the authority is planning a $2.5 million upgrade to the system.
Assuming a source for the contamination is found, an enforcement action from DEQ may not be possible. Currently, forever chemicals are not regulated in Virginia or at the federal level.
But as the authority stated on its website, “knowing the source of this compound and removing its discharge into the river will protect our customers and everyone in the Roanoke River watershed.”
In 2020, the General Assembly passed a law requiring the state Health Department to convene a work group to study forever chemicals and the possible development of guidelines to limit their use.
As part of a statewide review, testing of water was carried out at 43 public waterworks last year. Of a total of 63 samples taken, forever chemicals were found at 15 locations.
The highest concentration of about 10 compounds that were the focus of the testing was 57 parts per trillion of GenX at Spring Hollow.
No forever chemicals were found in the water of the New River Valley Regional Water Authority, which draws an average of 7.4 million gallons a day from the New River to serve customers in Montgomery County, the towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg, and Virginia Tech.
Water systems in the cities of Radford and Salem and Pulaski County also tested negative.
Another round of testing is being done this year. The work group will then consider new rules that would draw a line in terms of how much forever chemicals are allowed.
A report from the workgroup last year noted that nearly 1,000 public water systems, many of them serving less than 3,000 customers, remain untested. Also unknown is the level of pollution in private wells, which the Health Department does not test.
As the report stated, “the extent and level of PFAS contamination in drinking water … is still largely unknown.”
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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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Spring Hollow is the first and only facility operated by the Western Virginia Water Authority found to contain the hazardous substance.
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.
Tests have detected GenX, a so-called "forever chemical" at levels that exceed an EPA health advisory.
Sarah Baumgardner, director of communications for Western Virginia Water Authority, shows the Spring Hollow Reservoir and dam at Spring Hollow Water Treatment Facility.
The granulated activated carbon filtration building at Spring Hollow Water Treatment Facility.
The granulated activated carbon filtration building at Spring Hollow Water Treatment Facility.
The view facing downstream at the Roanoke River pump house at Spring Hollow Water Treatment Facility.
The Spring Hollow Reservoir and dam, left, and the Mountain Valley Pipeline right of way, background at right, seen from Spring Hollow Water Treatment Facility.
The Spring Hollow Reservoir in western Roanoke County feeds water to the Spring Hollow Water Treatment Facility.
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