There have been a few news reports about the UGA study, but most residents aren't aware of the contamination. One of the exceptions is Wes Forester. His livelihood depends on the river. He fishes and hunts along the banks of the Conasauga, taking his grandkids out on his river boat when they get home from school.
Forester says after a print reporter told him about the PFOA levels, he stopped eating the fish he caught.
"You're putting it into your system. If it's bad for you, you're putting it in there…there's just no way if it's toxic it can be good for you."
Aaron Fisk agrees.
"I'm not an alarmist about contaminants…I don't think anybody should be afraid of the Conasauga river. But we don't know a lot about these compounds, we know if you eat a fish with a lot of these chemicals, they're going to be in your body, and there is some toxicity associated with it."
PFOA sticks to itself in water, and the UGA study states there is a concern higher concentrations could be found downstream.
About twenty miles down river, where the Conasauga merges with another river to form the Oostanaula, there is a City of Calhoun drinking water intake. A Calhoun water official says the intake supplements the city's supply. He says he's never heard of PFOA.
The Georgia Environmental Protection Division will begin testing for PFOA this summer, according to a spokeswoman.
PFOA contamination has been suspected in the Conasauga for years because of the nearby carpet industry. Kristan Markey says testing should have started long ago.
"There is a huge liability question, and [local residents] should start to investigate why their community was not tested earlier. Why they were allowed to be exposed to these chemicals far after other communities where EPA and the industry knew they were being exposed to these chemicals, went in, provided water, cleaned it up."
The EPA has acted in other cases, most notably, in West Virginia. Residents there received coupons for bottled water after high PFOA levels were found in the watershed supplying drinking water.
EPA has not commented on the levels found in the Conasauga.
