Residents for Rome, Georgia are asking courts to halt dumping of upstream carpet dye wastewaters that cannot be treated by most traditional municipal sewage systems. Dalton Georgia produces ~90% of the US’ carpet, which is made out of synthetic fibers that are dyed with many “emerging contaminant” and difficult-to-treat chemicals. This water flows downstream to Rome after being semi-treated by plants that were never designed for these ultra-small contaminants. One such chemical is PFAS, thought to be a carcinogen, and which is very difficult to separate from wastewater due to its small size. Even when separated, this “forever chemical” can only be destroyed via an incinerator at ~1,800F. Some of these carpet companies have already settled with the plaintiffs, agreeing to send their water to a hazardous waste facility (see second article), presumably at much higher cost. EcoVAP’s ability to reduce this wastewater volume by >90% could dramatically reduce this cost.
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