The substance, perfluoro-octanoic acid, or PFOA, has long been used in the manufacture of household products such as nonstick cookware, wall-to-wall carpeting and all-weather clothing.

"We don't feel there is a cause for immediate concern," said Barker Hamill, assistant director of water supply operations for the state Department of Environmental Protection. Hamill noted that the DEP recently tested the water supplies in 23 municipalities and found low levels of PFOA in 17 of them.

The DEP set a limit of .04 parts per billion as a "guidance level" or preliminary safety standard for PFOA when it released the results of its study in February. The highest level of PFOA found in the drinking water in this township was .004 parts per billion, well below the guidance level.

All three samples were taken in the Thorofare section, home of the Solvay Solexis chemical plant that the environmental coalition suspects is the source. A spokesman for the company, Charles Jones, said that the company discontinued use of PFOA "several years ago" and is working with both the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the industry as a whole to address any residual problems from PFOA or related chemicals.

"I'm not concerned about their call for an investigation," said Jones, the director of health, safety and environmental issues for Solvay, which manufactures substances used in paints, gaskets and the wire and cable industry.

Karen Hershey, a spokeswoman for the state DEP, said it was "too early to comment" on the environmental coalition's request for an investigation of the company.

The coalition, which includes the United Steelworkers as well as several environmental organizations, believes that PFOA constitutes an emerging issue -- "this decade's DDT," as Tracy Carluccio of the Delaware Riverkeeper network put it -- referring to the pesticide that was banned in the 1970s after decades of use.

While it is showing up only in small traces, Carluccio said, the substance is "very difficult for the human body to metabolize so it builds up."

DuPont, the only company that still makes PFOA, has agreed to end production by 2015.

Testing done by the coalition of the water supplies in Penns Grove and Pennsville, near DuPont's Chambers Works, found PFOA levels of .1 parts per billion, amounts in excess of the DEP's guidance level.

Hamill said the DEP is monitoring those wells, along with the local utilities, but had no intention of intervening at this point.

"There's a lot of work going on right now," he said, referring to studies under way at EPA and within DuPont as well as the DEP's own.

An advisory panel at the EPA concluded that PFOAs are a "likely" carcinogen, with three-quarters of the panel voting for that designation, while a quarter of the panel voted for the term "suggestive" to describe the evidence of PFOA being a cancer-causing agent.

Reach Richard Pearsall at (856) 486-2465 or rpearsall@courierpostonline.com
Published: May 12. 2007 3:10AM