A North Georgia city with a long history as a flooring and carpet manufacturing hub is facing multiple lawsuits alleging sewage sludge from its wastewater treatment plant has polluted land and water in the area with toxic “forever chemicals.”
But the city of Calhoun is pushing back with claims of its own, arguing chemical manufacturers and the companies that used them should be held responsible for the contamination.
The lawsuits concern per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — better known by their acronym, PFAS — which are a class of manmade chemicals used for decades in nonstick pans, stain-resistant carpets, firefighting foams and certain food wrappers.
Dubbed forever chemicals for their resistance to breaking down in the environment, PFAS can accumulate in soil, water and even the human body. The chemicals have been linked to fertility problems, developmental delays and increased risk of certain cancers, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
At the center of each case is the Calhoun Water Pollution Control Plant, which receives wastewater from carpet and flooring companies, plus tracts of land nearby where the city has disposed of sewage sludge it removes during the treatment process. But Calhoun’s treatment plant is not equipped to extract PFAS from wastewater, a fact the city acknowledges.
Calhoun allegedly discharged PFAS-laden wastewater into the Coosawattee River and spread sludge loaded with forever chemicals on land near the river, according to one federal lawsuit. The suit was filed last week by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) on behalf of the Coosa River Basin Initiative (CRBI), a local water protection organization.
The discharges and resulting runoff from the sludge fields violate federal law, the lawsuit claims, and have contaminated some wells and the Coosawattee, one of Calhoun’s main water sources, with dangerous levels of PFAS. The city of Calhoun’s own water testing results show concentrations of two of the most common PFAS chemicals in its finished drinking water ranging from 10 to 60 parts per trillion. That’s well above the 4 parts per trillion limit the EPA has proposed — but not finalized — as a federal standard.
In a statement, the SELC’s Chris Bowers said he had hoped Calhoun would “do the right thing by stopping this PFAS contamination.”
”Given the urgency of this situation, we’re asking the court to step in and enforce our critical environmental laws, so that this PFAS contamination is adequately controlled and remedied,” he said.
Calhoun stopped spreading sludge on land in 2023, but because of the persistent nature of PFAS, the lawsuit says pollutants are still entering the watershed. The SELC and CRBI are seeking orders from the court against the city to halt the discharges and for the city to pay penalties of as much $66,712 per day for each violation of the federal Clean Water Act, among other remedies.
Another defendant is Moss Land Company, owner of 2,700 acres along the Coosawattee that has allowed the city to spread sludge.
But Moss and the owner of other properties nearby filed their own suit last month in Gordon County Superior Court against Calhoun, plus several major PFAS manufacturers and local flooring companies.
The landowners allege they had no idea the sludge that was dumped on their land contained PFAS. They want the city and the companies to pay damages and to clean up the properties.
In the Moss case, meanwhile, the city of Calhoun has fired back, arguing it is not liable for the pollution. Instead, the city says local carpet manufacturers and the chemical companies that supplied them are to blame.
Calhoun names flooring companies Mohawk Industries and Shaw, as well as chemical giants 3M, E.I. DuPont de Nemours, Chemours and several others. The city is seeking damages and attorneys fees from the companies, plus a court order to stop more PFAS from entering the river basin.
In a statement, a 3M spokesperson said the company has and “... will continue to deliver on our commitments — including remediating PFAS where appropriate, investing in water treatment, and collaborating with communities.”
“3M will address PFAS litigation by defending itself in court or through negotiated resolutions, all as appropriate,” the company said.
None of the other companies immediately responded to a request for comment. Some of the companies, including 3M, E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Chemours, are seeking to finalize billion dollar class action settlements as they face claims from water providers around the nation asserting the PFAS they produced fouled drinking water supplies.
The city of Calhoun expressed disappointment in the suit filed on behalf of CRBI, noting that it chose to sue the city and not the companies it says are at fault.
“CRBI has chosen to be adversarial to Calhoun, instead of working as a partner with Calhoun to hold those chemical and carpet manufacturers responsible,” the city said in a statement. “The city will defend itself against the claims of CRBI while pressing the claims in Superior Court against the industries responsible for creating the crisis.”
The CRBI contends Calhoun should require industrial customers to stop sending wastewater with PFAS to the public treatment plant.
“We remain hopeful that we can begin to work on solutions with the city, as opposed to efforts at shifting blame to others,” the CRBI’s executive director and riverkeeper Jesse Demonbreun-Chapman said in a statement.
The legal wrangling around Calhoun’s PFAS problems bears many resemblances to cases waged about 30 miles southwest in Rome.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Rome has battled chemical companies, flooring makers and the city of Dalton’s public utility over PFAS releases. The city said the contamination stemmed from a land application site used by Dalton to dispose of sewage sludge, which contaminated Rome’s drinking water 50 miles downstream.
Last year, Rome entered into a settlement agreement with the defendants — some of which are also named in the Moss Land case — and will receive at least $233 million to address the PFAS contamination, based on settlement terms released to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution so far.
Several of the attorneys who represented Rome are now on Calhoun’s legal team.
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