There are innumerable large concerns in the world that often make small — in this case microscopic — concerns go unnoticed. However, miniscule forever plastics found in everyday appliances and materials can cause substantial health issues. These forever plastics are not going under the radar for the Town of Chilhowie that is already ahead of the curve, putting the community’s safety first.
Forever plastics, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs), are now required to be monitored and reported by industrial users, according to a notice from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
Earlier this year, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed into law stricter legislation regarding the monitoring of PFAs.
PFAs are substances used in everyday items such as nonstick appliances and water-resistant materials. The name “forever plastics” is fitting — these plastics resist breakdown in both the natural environment and human bodies.
These forever plastics can be significantly harmful to humans and have been linked to a plethora of health issues, among them are cancer, liver and thyroid issues, hormone disruption and abnormal fetal development, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
In Chilhowie, the DEQ’s notice aims to address concerns about PFAs contaminating river water by alerting industries whose water is contaminated with the substances.
Under the new law, the Chilhowie Sewer Treatment Plant is responsible for alerting possible industry contributors if it detects contaminated water in their intake system. Once alerted, these industries are to take action and send the report back to the treatment plant, which would then send their report to the DEQ.
Ahead of the curve, the treatment plant has already been monitoring PFAs in its collection system — they even have a detailed plan of action on their whiteboard.
“We’ve already sampled [water for PFAs]… we had some hits in the parts of a trillion,” Tristan Preece, an operator at Chilhowie’s plant, said.
When sampling for something so small and ubiquitous, monitoring and reporting can be difficult.
“They're very quantified to very low levels,” Preece said. “Anywhere you sample is going to have PFAs, because it's in clothes and everything you use…it’s a very tricky substance to pin down where it's coming from and exactly what to do about it.”
Luke Lowe, a wastewater operator at Chilhowie’s treatment plant, said protecting the resources of the community is of the utmost importance and that they are treating PFAs as a serious issue because “it is serious.”
“We feed into the Middle and South Fork [Holston] River, which is where the Washington County Service Authority intakes their water,” Lowe said. “We’re working with the DEQ as closely as possible to protect all of our resources.”
While such substances can go under the radar, and many may not even know of their existence, Lowe acknowledged their risks and praised the DEQ for their efforts to protect citizens.
“The DEQ is doing a great job protecting the environment, and they’re definitely ahead of the curve,” Lowe said.
In addition to the treatment plant’s staff being proactive in detecting PFAs in their wastewater, they also recently shifted away from land-applying biosolids.
“We saw other states had already banned [land-applying biosolids], so we decided to opt to take it to a landfill instead so [PFAs] wouldn’t be distributed in our community,” Preece said.
Addressing concerns of river water safety levels, Preece reiterated that there is no immediate risk.
“The concentration [in the river water] is very low,” Preece said. “The DEQ is just trying to make sure it doesn’t get worse and to reduce the amount of risk that it's already associated with, which is very small in the amounts that everyday people are exposed to.”
However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warns that any exposure level to PFAs can be hazardous. The EPA currently has the maximum containment level of PFAs in drinking water set at 4.0 parts per trillion, which is equivalent to four drops of liquid in 20 Olympic sized swimming pools, according to Penn State Extension.
Brian Martin, Chilhowie’s Town Manager, has a passion for protecting the environment and citizens from PFAs and said that the treatment plant’s actions directly impact the health of individuals in the surrounding area.
“I think that at the levels that we have here in our community, I wouldn’t say that [PFAs] is a critical threat, but I'm very proud that the men and women on our staff are ahead of the curve and take them seriously so that it's not a problem in the future,” Martin said.
Further to ensure the protection of the community, Chilhowie’s drinking water has been sampled and monitored for PFAs. All results came back negative.
Martin emphasized his pride in the men and women who work for the town of Chilhowie.
“Chilhowie leads the pack in this region in so many ways, but them getting ahead of [PFAs] with the biosolids and paying attention to PFAS two years before anybody else had it on the radar, it's just another example why Chilhowie leads the pack,” Martin said. “It's not because of me, it's because of these men and women.”
Beyond additional responsibilities placed on town staff members, the new law is not carrying expenses for Chilhowie. According to Martin, the cost of the lab testing will be on the industries impacted.
The new regulation for PFAs in Virginia can be found in Chapter 710 of the 2026 Acts of the Assembly in the Code of Virginia.
Learn more about PFAs at these links:
Virginia Law:
https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/SB138/text/CHAP0710
NRDC info link:
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/forever-chemicals-called-pfas-show-your-food-clothes-and-home#health
EPA PFAs link:
https://www.epa.gov/sdwa/historical-pfoa-and-pfos-health-effects-science-documents
