By admin 
Sabasitianna Addison stepped off the school bus and trudged to her house in the late summer heat, decompressing from a day at an elementary school with a nagging problem.
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Her school sits atop an old agricultural field that, years before she was born, had been fertilized with textile factory sludge. The sludge contained cancer causing chemicals, and last spring, the same toxins were found embedded in the dirt of the school playground.
“I definitely did not think we’d have to worry about this at the schoolhouse,’’ said Sabasitianna ’s mom, Ashley Cook, as she greeted her nine-year-old at the family’s mobile home in Darlington County.
The discovery of forever chemicals on the playgrounds of Black Creek Elementary School is just one chapter in a story of contamination and citizen frustration on the sandy plains of eastern South Carolina.
Cook and parents of school children, as well as farmers and their neighbors, are among hundreds of people dealing with environmental damage and health threats from a decision long ago to spread waste sludge on agricultural land to help crops grow in Darlington and nearby counties.
Forever chemicals, like those found in the textile sludge, have polluted farms, drinking water, crops, streams, and even the school playground, according to government and university documents reviewed by The State newspaper.
Many of the community’s residents, as well as consultants and environmental advocates, say they’re disappointed that government agencies charged with protecting the environment have not done more to clean up the mess.
State and federal environmental agencies have known for at least seven years that dangerous forever chemicals threaten the soil and drinking water of farming communities where waste textile sludge was dumped, records show – but efforts to help the public have been tedious, slow and, at times, lacking.
Among other things, government environmental departments:
- Failed for months to provide filters to remove two types of forever chemicals in some Darlington area wells, despite knowing the threat to drinking water. Agencies say the wells did not initially qualify for filters.
- Have not tested for forever chemical pollution in the soil of many, if not most, farm fields where toxic sludge was approved for disposal years ago. Soil testing can help determine if crops or groundwater are at risk of contamination. Federal and state agencies say their priority has been drinking water safety.
- Are not checking crops for contamination on fields where forever chemicals from sludge disposal have been found. A Yale researcher has discovered that forever chemicals have gotten into some crops, including collards and hay, but environmental agencies say testing plants is not their job.
- Are allowing the continued use of sludge to fertilize farm fields without requiring the waste material to be tested for forever chemicals. South Carolina officials have said they don’t have the authority to require testing, despite assertions by environmental advocates that they do.
- Have not pushed for additional soil testing on the playgrounds of Black Creek Elementary School where Sabasitianna Addison and other children spend time every weekday. The S.C. Department of Environmental Services hasn’t called for Yale to test at the school, but says it generally supports studies that advance knowledge.
In the latter case, the SC DES identified more than trace amounts of forever chemical pollution in the dirt this past spring, but the Darlington County School District refused to let Yale researcher Jake Thompson conduct additional tests to learn more about the threat to school children.
The SC Department of Environmental Services did not advocate for additional testing on the school grounds after saying levels it had found are not an immediate concern. Risk evaluations conducted by the SC DES and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency supported that conclusion, officials say. As a result, the school district said in August that it didn’t want the Yale scientist to disrupt school with additional sampling.
Efforts to gain comment this month from the Darlington County School District were not successful. It is unclear what actions the district has taken to protect children at Black Creek Elementary School.
At issue is the aftermath of using the old Galey and Lord factory’s waste sludge from the early 1990s to 2013 as a soil fertilizer, a practice once thought to be sustainable that was later found to be harmful. The sludge was given away by Galey and Lord to farmers, who saved on the expense of buying fertilizer. The plant, now abandoned, had spread the waste with the governments’ blessing.
“Scandalous’’ response
Environmental consultant Dave Hargett called the collective government response to the forever chemical threat in Darlington and nearby counties “scandalous.’’ Agencies have moved too slowly and have, at times, seemed to want the matter to go away, he said.
“It’s just wholly unprofessional and irresponsible,’’ said Hargett, who has done work for a Chesterfield County landowner worried about sludge contamination in the area. “They knew about this seven years ago.’’
He and others point out that the Department of Environmental Services has at times antagonized the community as people sought answers.
In March, the department threatened to sue outspoken farmer Robbie O’Neal for using the agency’s logo on signs he was circulating about an upcoming public meeting on sludge disposal.
Then in July, the department told a local septic tank installer that it would cost $2.4 million to process his open records request for information about contamination at Black Creek Elementary School.
After an outcry, the department said it would give the records to the man at no cost. Gov. Henry McMaster criticized the department’s Freedom of Information Act response as “ridiculous.’’
Kim Weatherford, among the first people to speak publicly about the contamination in her community five years ago, said state and federal agencies haven’t been aggressive enough in tackling and resolving the threat.
In 2021, government tests found high amounts of a forever chemical in her family’s well. Eventually, the federal government provided a backyard filter system for her family to cleanse the water. But Weatherford, whose home is now served by a public water system, said the investigation has been slow and some services have not been provided.
She wants one of the agencies to test people’s blood for forever chemicals. Such tests can be expensive, estimated to cost anywhere from $250 to $1,000, and not every medical facility provides them. Government tests would help inform her community on whether forever chemicals are building up in their blood, she and others say.
Her adult son suffers from significant fatigue and other health problems after drinking well water while growing up..
“I have trouble with them saying this is an emerging problem, when it shouldn’t still be an emerging problem – they should have a better handle on this moving forward,’’ said Weatherford, who has sued forever chemical manufacturers for supplying the toxins that Galey and Lord used.
Forever chemicals, also known as per and polyfluorolakyl substances, or PFAS, are a class of compounds that can cause thyroid problems, immune system deficiencies and cancer.
Kidney, breast and testicular cancer are among the ailments associated with forever chemical exposure. Some of the greatest exposure threats are from drinking tainted water or contaminated food, but people can also be exposed in other ways, including inhalation.
The chemicals are long-lasting and water-resistant compounds that were used widely in the textile industry to treat clothing, as well by other businesses to make firefighting foam. Manufactured since the 1940s, forever chemicals are widely found in the environment, and get the name because they linger in water and soil for years.. Dupont and 3M manufactured and distributed the material, and today face an avalanche of lawsuits nationally.
Galey and Lord was for decades a major employer in the upper Pee Dee region of South Carolina, promising up to 800 jobs after it opened to great fanfare in the mid 1960s. After the textile mill closed in 2016, PFAS was identified in waste sludge and on the land of the now rusting, overgrown industrial complex in Society Hill.
O’Neal, a plain-spoken 60-year-old whose family has farmed in Darlington County for generations, lost two uncles who had drunk from wells that later were found to be contaminated with forever chemicals.
No one is sure what caused their deaths, but one died in his early 50s of pneumonia possibly tied to an immune system deficiency, a symptom of PFAS exposure. The wells the O’Neal brothers used for decades were near land where Galey and Lord sludge had been spread.
O’Neal said government regulators don’t seem interested in the community’s troubles and appear to be going through the motions, rather than working smartly to help people. Only one official with the EPA has seemed truly interested in helping, but that person is not in a position to move the process along, he said.
“If they don’t have to do nothing with this, that’ll be fine with them,’’ O’Neal said. ”Sooner or later, all of us that give a damn are going to die out.’’
In addition to criticism of state and federal agencies, some people say they’ve gotten little help from politicians with the ability to tighten state or federal laws. The most vocal elected leader wanting to help those dealing with the PFAS issue has been Rep. Joseph Bustos, a Mount Pleasant Republican who doesn’t represent Darlington County.
Agencies: It’s not that easy
Officials with the Department of Environmental Services and the EPA said they’ve tried to protect the public from threats from the sludge that was spread on farmland for parts of two decades.
But the agencies are playing catch up, state officials have said. While the state’s environmental department approved the Galey and Lord sludge spreading from the early 1990s through 2013, it has learned since then about toxins contained in the sludge, officials have said.
“It’s not an excuse, but if we could turn back the wheels of time, I don’t think anybody would ever have allowed that to be land applied with PFAS,’’according to a March 20 story in The State, quoting SC DES water bureau chief Ann Clark.
In making her remarks at a public meeting in Darlington, Clark went on to say that “things evolved over time.’’
When sludge disposal was being allowed, “PFAS hadn’t been identified as one of those concerns,’’ Clark said. “It definitely is now.’’’
Efforts to attack the problem have included knocking on the doors of people that staff members could not reach to see if the government could test wells for forever chemicals, according to the Department of Environmental Services.
The Department of Environmental Services also provides free testing for PFAS in wells, officials said.
So far, 346 residential wells in the farming community near Galey and Lord have been tested for forever chemicals, according to the EPA. About 21 percent, or 73 wells, were found to exceed the federal drinking water limit of 4 parts per trillion for PFOA and PF0S, the two most widely known forever chemicals. Testing began in 2019, records show.
SC DES discovered the problem with forever chemicals at the Galey and Lord textile plant site in 2018. At about the same time, government officials also learned that plant sludge had been spread on up to 10,000 acres of agricultural land nearby, records show.
“From knocking on doors and holding community meetings to providing educational materials and performing free well water sampling and no cost filters, the agency will continue to engage this community and others as data is gathered and new information is available about PFAS,,’’ the SC DES said in a written statement.
The focus of government efforts has been getting people clean water, the EPA’s Dwayne Wingfield said in a recent email.
But the state and federal agencies are also working on other aspects of the forever chemical threat.
The state environmental department is now preparing to conduct a statewide study of forever chemicals in soil, as it previously has done for water, officials said. The idea is to help the agency learn more through an overall study, which would provide important information on how to attack problems across South Carolina.
Pollution from forever-chemicals in Darlington County has been the focus of attention, but sewer sludge from wastewater treatment plants has been spread on farmland in many parts of South Carolina, including the Upstate, The State reported in its 2023 series, “Toxic Deals.’’
“The agency is now in the planning stages of a statewide study to assess and better understand the background levels of PFAS in soil throughout South Carolina,’’ the department said in its statement.
The statement said the EPA is handling soil-testing responsibilities near the Galey and Lord plant. The EPA is trying to determine whether to include any of the farmland near Galey and Lord on a national priority list for cleanup.
The plant site, near the Darlington-Chesterfield county border about two hours east of Columbia, already is targeted for cleanup under the federal Superfund program. It is on a national cleanup priorities list, which shows that the government recognizes the threat. But the surrounding agricultural land has not been put on the Superfund priorities list. There is some expectation the farm fields will be added, an Oct. 2, 2024 EPA memo says.
Superfund is a federal program that makes taxpayer money available for pollution cleanups when those responsible for contamination can’t – or won’t – pay for the cleanup. The company that ran Galey and Lord filed for bankruptcy nearly a decade ago.
“Specifically related to the Galey & Lord site, EPA is continuing its testing of soil on fields that received sludge from the facility as part of its federal NPL Site investigation,’’ the state environmental agency said in a September email. The federal department has not made a final determination on whether the fields are polluted enough to include as part of the Galey and Lord Superfund site, the EPA’s Wingfield said.
“The farmland covers approximately 10,000 acres, which makes it a large and complex area to evaluate,’’ Wingfield’s email said, noting that the EPA is working on a method to sample the fields.
Superfund cleanups can take years to complete because of the amount of study that goes into the work, as well as figuring out the best ways to clean up the pollution and finding funds for the effort.
During a 2023 meeting in Darlington County, EPA officials said it could take 10 to 20 years to fully clean up the Galey and Lord site. At the time, the government said it had already spent $4 million on the effort at the textile plant site.
Filter delays
Even so, the collective response by the EPA and SC DES, as well as the school district, has some people in Darlington County dissatisfied – and part of their frustration centers on delays in providing relief to those with contaminated drinking water.
Some people whose wells exceeded the federal safe drinking water limit of 4 parts per trillion for two of the most common types of PFAS had to wait on the EPA to provide filters that neutralize the chemicals. There are different kinds of filters, but some are more complicated than simple tap filters that can be bought at a local store. They are treatment systems composed of multiple tanks housed in small sheds behind people’s homes.
From interviews and public records reviewed by The State, the delays in providing filters appeared to be anywhere from several months to several years.
At least 17 homes in small farming communities near Society Hill, Darlington and Hartsville fell into that category.
Why?
The 4 parts-per-trillion federal safe drinking water limit, known as an MCL, was not made final until April 2024, meaning an older, less restrictive standard was used to determine if people got filters, the EPA says. Both standards were for two types of forever chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, the most widely known types of PFAS. The older standard ranged from 40-70 parts per trillion for those chemicals, records show.
So some wells between the new standard and the old one did not get filters right away,, the EPA says. Levels of PFOA and PFOS exceeding the government’s eventual limit of 4 parts per trillion were discovered in area wells from 2019 to 2024, according to Department of Environmental Services data.
Records show the dangers of lower levels of PFAS in drinking water were becoming known before the standard of 4 parts per trillion was set. Some states already had set maximum contaminant levels before the federal standard was made final in 2024. Also, in 2022, the EPA set a lifetime health advisory limit for PFOA and PFOS of near zero.
An EPA official outlined the South Carolina threat in October 2024 after the new federal standard had been set. He pushed to provide filters to the 17 homes identified as not having received them, citing the health threat of PFAS.
“Continued response actions are immediately required to prevent, limit or mitigate an emergency due to exceedance of MCLs,’’ according to an Oct. 2, 2024 action memorandum from the agency’s Serdar Ertep to the department’s southern regional Superfund director Caroline Freeman.
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Couple waited for help
Hunter and Skylar Myers know about delays in getting clean drinking water.
An agricultural field that for years took Galey and Lord’s sludge was near their home. The field was found to have high levels of forever chemicals in the soil. And multiple wells in the area, including the one used by the Myers, showed the same kinds of forever chemicals in the water that had been found in the soil of the farm.
But the Myers said they didn’t receive a filter for months after moving into their mobile home about four years ago.
A state official, whose name they could not remember, told them the water was safe to drink, they said. As a result, they consumed unfiltered well water for months after they moved into their mobile home, the Myers said.
“’We were drinking it, using it to cook with and all kinds of stuff,’’ Hunter Myers, 26, said.
The couple eventually received a filter, and a few months later, the home was connected to a public water line, the Myers said.
Tests of their well, dating to 2021 when another person lived there, show PFOA ranged from 11 to 31 parts per trillion – all levels above the new standard of 4.
Both said they had multiple stomach illnesses during the time they were drinking the unfiltered well water, although it’s difficult to say what caused the ailments.
The last test showed the Myers’ well contained one type of forever chemical, known as PFOA, at levels of 25 parts per trillion, according to an EPA test result sheet from Jan. 18, 2023.
“It kind of worried me,’’ Hunter Myers said. “I don’t know exactly what those chemicals can do to you.’’
The Myers have since moved away from the mobile home into a house down the street that is served by a public water system.
Records show the government discovered PFOA in another well nearby through multiple tests on July 14, 2021.
Tests found levels of 20 parts per trillion and 34 parts per trillion for PFOA in the well used by Shirley Alford and her family, according to Department of Environmental Services records. Another test from Jan. 18, 2023 showed PFOA levels of 61 parts per trillion.
A filter system was provided at about the same time the government proposed the 4 parts per trillion drinking water limit in March 2023, according to DES records and a federal register notice.
Alford, who suffers from stomach cancer, thinks the government could have acted more quickly to make sure her drinking water was clean.
“We had to wait a little bit; we didn’t have no control over it,’’ said Alford’s daughter-in-law, Cecilia Williams, whose family shares a well with Alford. “Anything that comes to somebody’s health, I think they should have done more.’’
The EPA’s Wingfield said his agency was hamstrung by federal rules that prevented providing filters to the Myers and others sooner. The 4 parts per trillion standard was proposed in March 2023 and finalized in April 2024 for PFOA and PFOS..
“EPA, as a federal agency, can only act upon existing laws and regulations,’’ Wingfield said in an email. “Therefore, EPA had to wait for the new PFAS ruling to be finalized’’ on April 10, 2024.
Not everyone is persuaded that the EPA had to wait. Nothing should prevent the EPA from protecting public health, in this case with filters, when it knows of potential hazards, critics say.
“I’m sure they could have found authority to give out those extra filters,’’ said Jean Zhuang, who tracks forever chemical issues for the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Ivy League outperforms government
Meanwhile, neither the EPA nor the S.C. Department of Environmental Services is known to have tested for PFAS pollution on most of the 10,000 acres of farmland Galey and Lord had targeted for sludge disposal.
As many as 304 agricultural fields received sludge from the Galey and Lord plant. But The State newspaper could find no record that more than five agricultural fields have been examined for PFAS in the soil by either the EPA or the Department of Environmental Services.
More data could help determine whether the federal government should add the farmland near Galey and Lord to the Superfund site designation it has given the abandoned factory. That would assist in cleaning up the property and helping farmers and landowners affected by soil and water contamination that originated from Galey and Lord.
The EPA says it has made no decision on whether to expand the Superfund designation, although there are reports that it plans to add at least some of the agricultural fields.
Knowing more about the issue is of keen interest in Darlington, Chesterfield and Marlboro counties because additional testing could tell farmers whether they are growing crops in polluted soil. An EPA public meeting is being considered to discuss the agency’s work.
It also would help people seeking to buy or sell land know whether the property has contamination that could affect the value of the land.
The handful of tests that have been done by the government showed high forever chemical pollution in the dirt of three fields in Darlington County, records show.
The soil of those fields, which were believed to have received the highest amounts of textile plant sludge, showed one type of forever chemical, called PFOA, at levels of up to 10,000 parts per trillion. Another type of forever chemical, PFOS, registered at 21,000 parts per trillion.
There is no state soil standard in South Carolina to compare with those findings, but to get some idea of the scope of the contamination, the soil levels are 2,500 to 5,200 times higher than the federal drinking water standard of 4 parts per trillion that was approved by the government in 2024.
Groundwater samples in the area contained PFOA of up to 8,100 parts per trillion, some 2,000 times higher than what became the 4 parts per trillion safe drinking water limit, according to a Sept. 2021 EPA hazard ranking report. The samples were taken in 2019, the report said.
Wingfield’s email said the EPA is studying “remedial options’’ for forever chemicals in soil, although it says cleanup options are “limited, costly and intrusive.’’ The agency is working with a private company on how to destroy forever chemicals without disrupting farming, Wingfield said. He did not elaborate.
But as the EPA says it has future plans, Yale’s Thompson has already found contamination in the soil of at least 15 other agricultural fields. His discovery came on farmer O’Neal’s land, where he also discovered some PFAS in crops grown on O’Neal’s land.
Late last summer, Thompson expanded the probe to include land owned by other farmers. He checked soil and water for PFAS. He also is working on a project that, if successful, could make PFAS-tainted farmland usable.
So far, the Yale researcher’s soil tests at O’Neal’s farm identified PFOS levels comparable to the amount found by the EPA, with seven fields containing 17,000-30,000 parts per trillion for PFOS . Soil test results showed some of those levels exceeded a soil standard used by the state of Maine, according to Thompson’s analysis.
One field that Thompson did not test was the one containing Black Creek Elementary School.
Worried parents
Sabasitianna’s mom, Ashley Cook, said it was a mistake for the school district to prevent Thompson from conducting further testing.. The testing could, if nothing else, reassure parents that the threat was not immediate, as state regulators contend, Cook said.
“I don’t see why they wouldn’t let him test if they were thinking about the long term,’’ Cook, 37, said, noting that the health of Sabasitianna and other school children is important.
“In the long run, not in the next five years but when our kids are grown, is when this is going to affect them.’’
Cook said she would send Sabasitianna to another school if she could afford to. But that isn’t possible since the bus picks her up near their mobile home in Darlington on days when Cook is working 10 miles away at a food truck in Florence.
Joey Cope, 68, said his family was able to move his grandson to another area school because of concerns about pollution at Black Creek Elementary. Moving the boy out of Black Creek wasn’t something the family wanted because it was a new school, opening in the fall of 2025, he said.
“We didn’t know about this until I heard they had dumped some kind of chemicals over there,’’ Cope said. “Then we put two-and-two together.’’
Danah McPhail chose to homeschool two of her children this year, rather than send them to Black Creek. She also is dissatisfied with the government’s response, saying she had no choice in pulling them out of the school.
“I couldn’t send them there knowing that,’’ McPhail said. “My kids play in the dirt. They’re outside people. I couldn’t chance it.
Forever chemicals were found in the soil within six inches of the surface of a playground last spring. The department and the EPA said they conducted risk assessments that show there is no immediate threat to children, but did suggest that some type of ground cover might be warranted for the playground area..
Lack of crop and blood testing
The EPA did not respond to questions about whether it would check crops for PFAS and the SC DES says that is not its responsibility. The Department of Environmental Services referred questions about forever chemicals in food crops to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In an Oct. 14 email, the federal agency said it can provide technical assistance when states identify spots where food is grown in contaminated areas. The FDA’s work can include analyzing samples and checking the safety levels of contaminants in food, according to the email from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the FDA’s parent agency.
“We work with local and state partners, as well as other federal agencies, to determine the actions needed to address any food safety risks and, if necessary, prevent the food from entering the marketplace if FDA determines that it may be injurious to health,’’ the Human Services email said.
Plants grown for human consumption, as well as those for farm animals, don’t all soak up PFAS in the same levels. So far, research has shown that leafy vegetables, such as collards and lettuce, or hay eaten by cattle, are more susceptible to PFAS pollution. Conversely, PFAS is not seen to be as much of a threat in crops like corn.
The state Department of Agriculture has said it is not aware that any testing of crops for the presence of forever chemicals is occurring in South Carolina..
O’Neal has stopped using some of the hay he grows for cattle because it is tainted by forever chemicals. Yale’s Thompson found that hay O’Neal was feeding cows had measurable levels of forever chemicals. He now buys feed for the cattle.
One of the most important issues involving PFAS in a community is whether drinking water or eating food tainted by the chemicals is affecting people’s health.
That’s why Weatherford, Myers and O’Neal say the EPA, SC DES or some other agency needs to provide blood testing for those who may have been exposed to forever chemicals through their diets.
The cost, otherwise, can be expensive, running into hundreds of dollars.
“I’d be up for it and I’m sure my wife wouldn’t mind,’’ Myers said.
The DES indicated the agency won’t test people’s blood for PFAS.
“Our agency has no authority to perform medical testing of any kind,’’ a statement from S.C. DES said. The state health department also does not test for PFAS in blood, but it said several laboratories in South Carolina will test.
Among those who have had their blood tested is O’Neal. Tests show more than small amounts of PFAS in his blood. The amounts approach a recommended threshold to get medical help, he said.
O’Neal sought out a doctor to provide the tests, but the effort took some time because the physician had to figure out what kind of tests were needed to see if PFAS was in O’Neal’s blood. The tests cost several hundred dollars, but the costs were eventually picked up by insurance, O’Neal said.
Disputed authority
In addition to those questions, critics say the SC DES continues to allow sludge to be used as fertilizer on open land.
Chicken plant waste is routinely trucked into eastern South Carolina’s Pee Dee region and spread onto agricultural fields. Researchers hired by Chesterfield County landowner Brad Turley say they’ve found that about 80 percent of the sludge from chicken plants spread in part of the Pee Dee is coming from North Carolina and other states.
Relatively little information exists on PFAS in chicken processing plant sludge. In South Carolina, no one is sure what’s in the sludge because the state doesn’t require testing before the material is spread on land. The state has said it encourages testing and can require it, on a case-by-case basis..
Carl Brzorad, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the state’s response to the sludge question has been weak and ineffective. It’s a problem not confined only to Darlington County, he said.
South Carolina has authority to regulate forever chemicals in wastewater discharges under the federal Clean Water Act, but is not using that authority to safeguard the public, he said. Toxins that flow into wastewater plants often end up in sludge, if they are not discharged to rivers.
State officials often say they want more guidance from the EPA on how to interpret regulations, but that’s not necessary, Brzorad said.
Regulators at the SC DES “are the front line enforcers’’ of the Clean Water Act, he said. ”But just because EPA is sitting on its hands, does not mean that the state needs to let this stuff flow unregulated all over the place. That’s what they’ve done. It’s a total enforcement failure.’’
Ashley Cook, Sabasitianna’s mother, said the government effort leaves her concerned about Darlington County and Black Creek Elementary School.
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“There’s definitely more they can do,’’ she said. “They just ain’t doing it.’’