Officials with Greensboro's Division of Water Resources are monitoring a water facility in the city.The Mitchell Water Treatment Plant is showing relatively high levels of the industrial chemical perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS.
The chemical compound is on the Environmental Protection Agency’s watch list for unregulated contaminants. It is believed to cause health problems if too much is consumed over a long period of time.
Greensboro’s Water Resources Director Steve Drew said there's no reason to be alarmed.
“We're taking all of the precautions and doing all of our due diligence to find out where the source of the PFOS is even though we're not required to,” Drew said. “We know, and I know, that these substances should not be in our source water.”
Drew says to see any negative health effects from PFOS, a person would need to drink a liter of the contaminated water per day for decades.
There have been no reported cases of illness in Guilford County.