A Teflon chemical that last year contaminated a North Carolina river that provides drinking water to a region of more than 200,000 people also has been detected at a well under a Chemours facility in West Virginia, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In an apparent effort to determine the extent of the chemical, called GenX, in the area’s water, Delaware-based Chemours this month is complying with an EPA request to collect and test drinking water samples in Ohio and West Virginia for signs of the unregulated chemical.

The tests are occurring within the same waterways that had been polluted during past decades by a carcinogenic GenX precursor chemical, called PFOA. Chemours and its former parent company, DuPont, last year reached a $671 million settlement with residents over the effects of the PFOA pollution on the area’s water and air.

In a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Chemours agreed to test for the chemical during its regularly scheduled water sampling analyses this month at four public drinking water systems and 10 private wells near its Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Read full story…