New Investigation Exposes Decades of PFAS Poisoning Ignored by Georgia Officials — As Trump’s EPA Strips Protections From Forever Chemicals
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Atlanta, GA – An extensive investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Associated Press, and FRONTLINE (PBS) revealed how Georgia families in northwest Georgia spent decades drinking water contaminated with toxic PFAS while state officials looked the other way to protect the region’s carpet industry. Now, as Georgia communities are still grappling with the consequences and fighting for safeguards for future generations, Trump’s EPA is rolling back the federal protections to hold corporate polluters accountable for contaminating drinking water.
The investigation found that Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division knew as early as 2008 that the Conasauga River — the region’s primary drinking water source — had “staggeringly high” PFAS levels and issued no warnings to the public. Data from 2023 and 2024 shows that 48 public water systems across Georgia are contaminated by PFAS, and at least four had PFAS levels above the very limits Trump’s EPA is now scrapping.
Instead of protecting Georgia families, Trump’s EPA is making the crisis worse. Since 2025, Trump’s EPA:
- pushed to roll back protections on four types of PFAS that contaminate our water supplies,
- asked a federal court to reverse its own rules regulating PFAS in drinking water,
- held up loans that were aimed at upgrading wastewater and drinking water treatment systems,
- withdrew a rule requiring PFAS manufacturers to monitor and reduce their pollution,
- announced it would reconsider wastewater standards for the oil and gas industry (which prevented the pollution of wastewater),
- and proposed scaling back requirements for chemical manufacturers to report their PFAS use.
“Georgia families have been living with the consequences of PFAS contamination for decades — getting sick, watching loved ones suffer, and never receiving real accountability from the corporate polluters who have poisoned their drinking water,” said Mark McLaurin, Georgia State Director at Climate Power. “This investigation makes clear that state officials failed them once. Now Trump’s EPA is failing them again. Trump is choosing to protect polluters over people, gutting accountability at the exact moment Georgians are demanding answers.”
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