"How a SC riverkeeper’s detective work reveals a deeper tale about the carpet industry's PFAS legacy"
"One day in May 2022, Bill Stangler eased his green canoe into the cool current of the Lower Saluda River, a ribbon of water that springs from the depths of Lake Murray and is so cold that rainbow trout swim here even in Columbia’s sweatbox summers.
Stangler is the Congaree Riverkeeper, a watchdog for South Carolina’s largest Midland rivers, including the Lower Saluda. He carried water sample kits that day and made sure not to wear sunscreen and clothes that might contain PFAS chemicals.
At the time, Stangler only had a vague idea about PFAS. He knew they were called “forever chemicals” because they took decades or longer to naturally break down. He knew they were linked to serious health conditions, even in minuscule amounts. And he knew they were in everything from cosmetics to firefighting foam to nonstick cooking pans. But that was about it.
Then he’d gone to a conference where he’d learned that North Carolina’s Cape Fear River was a PFAS hotspot from factories that made the stuff. He told an expert at the conference: Good thing I don’t have any PFAS sources in my watershed."
Tony Bartelme reports for the Charleston Post and Courier January 21, 2026.
SEE ALSO:
"Takeaways From The AP’s Reporting On PFAS Contamination Of Private Drinking Water Wells" (AP)
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