The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources has released data from a preliminary study that found per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances present in soil, wastewater and biosolids, the nutrient-rich organic material that remains after wastewater has been treated. The study is the agency’s first investigation assessing PFAS concentrations in biosolids across the state.

PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals widely found in commercial, industrial and consumer products. PFAS are known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment and can build up in humans and animals. More information about PFAS can be found on DEQ’s website.

DWR staff began gathering samples in 2023 for the study, which evaluated PFAS concentrations in wastewater and biosolids from 37 municipal, industrial and domestic wastewater treatment facilities. Staff also tested soil collected from 19 fields that are regulated under non-discharge permits.

The study found PFAS compounds present in wastewater, biosolids and soil samples. Estimates found the majority of PFAS entering wastewater facilities on an annual basis is discharged into waterways, as compared with the amount entering the environment through land application of biosolids. An overview of the study, including background information and a summary of the results, is available online.

There are currently no federal or North Carolina state regulatory requirements for PFAS in biosolids. The study will inform future study design and identify opportunities for further data collection and analysis. Researching the movement of these chemicals in the environment was beyond the scope of the study.

The steady loss of workers who keep Waynesville’s water running and streets clean has town leaders on edge. 

At the Oct. 28 meeting, council heard grim numbers and took action, voting to fund a pay study meant to stop an exodus that’s led to tremendous turnover and left nine out of about 80 positions vacant. 

With wrinkly skin that comes in various shades of brown, eastern hellbenders aren’t easy to spot. These giant salamanders, which average 20 inches in length, spend most of their lives nearly invisible under rocks on the bottom of cool, fast-flowing streams.

Brian Byrd, Western Carolina University’s mosquito expert and professor in the environmental health sciences program, along with Scott Huffman, professor in WCU’s Department of Chemistry and Physics, have been approved for grant funding from NCInnovation to continue their work in developing tools that utilizes spectroscopy to analyze vibrational signals from mosquitoes. 

A recently completed study on microplastics in Western North Carolina has revealed that even remote headwater streams are impacted, as a large percentage of microplastics in waters tested came from atmospheric deposition. 

Barbed wire and hundreds of pounds of donuts are the key ingredients in a University of Tennessee Knoxville effort to complete the largest-scale black bear population study ever attempted. 

The 16 million-acre study area covers portions of Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina, but by far the biggest chunk — about 8 million acres — includes portions of 24 WNC counties. Researchers collected data from the other three states last year but are spending the second and last year of the study focused solely on counting bears in North Carolina. 

According to the National Phenology Network, Punxsutawny Phil had it all wrong when he emerged from his hole this month to declare six more weeks of winter — across the Southeastern U.S, the NPN’s data shows, spring 2017 is arriving three weeks earlier than the 1981-2010 average. 

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is looking for volunteers to help gather the data that will bring such generalizations down to a more local level. Phenology — the ways that plants and animals respond to seasonal changes — has been the subject of increasing interest as discussions about climate change have heated up, and the park is now four years into a volunteer program to collect data for the larger NPN project.

Cherokee will take a look at legalizing marijuana on the Qualla Boundary, Tribal Council decided in a unanimous vote last week.

Western North Carolina is no longer on State Geologist Ken Taylor’s schedule for this fall’s tour de hydrocarbons in North Carolina. Taylor had planned to come to WNC in September to collect rock samples from road rights-of-way to test their carbon content. That initial test would have determined whether there was any point in pursuing shale gas exploration in the region any further.

An ambitious yearlong exercise to create a collective economic vision for the mountains will decide whether a long-awaited $800 million highway through the rugged and remote far western end of the state is ever built. 

Carrying a consulting fee of $1.3 million, the visioning process is supposed to quantify the emotional and ancedotal arguments about the controversial highway known as Corridor K — and ultimately determine whether it lives or dies.