A group is sounding the alarm over high levels of forever chemicals in the Los Angeles River.
According to LA Waterkeeper, a member of Waterkeeper Alliance, samples taken from the L.A. River “showed that water both upstream and downstream of the outfall contained multiple types of PFAS.”
It comes as the Waterkeeper Alliance released a report on Thursday that found that PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, have contaminated 98% of tested U.S. waters.
“If you've got PFAs in, our surface waters - like in our rivers, our lakes, or streams, or oceans - that ultimately ends up becoming our drinking water,” Kelly Shannon McNeil with LA Waterkeeper told KNX News. “Eventually, it becomes rain, it rains back down. We capture that or it becomes snow melt, which is all what feeds our water supply.”
She added that there are additional concerns after the historic L.A. fires.
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“All of these homes that have burned down, and you've got batteries. You've got televisions. You've got your pans that are melting,” she said. “You have all of these different products that are melting and contributing all of these chemicals back into our waterways in our system.”
McNeil urged people to avoid non-stick pans and water-resistant clothing, furniture, and plastics. She also wants stricter laws in California over PFAS.
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