City of Greensboro addresses water contaminants after new EPA guidelines released

New guidelines from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have prompted Greensboro officials to release a video explaining what the city is doing — and will do — about PFAS-related contaminants in its water. Greensboro's Water Resources Department is among the agencies that may be affected by Wednesday's announcement from the EPA, the city says. The EPA updated its guidance on two chemicals related to PFAS, setting the risk thresholds to near zero levels. 

The chemicals are found in products including cardboard packaging, carpets, and firefighting foam.

In a video released by the city, Mike Borchers, director of Greensboro's water resources, emphasizes that the city's water is safe.

“It meets or exceeds all state and federal regulatory limits and parameters for water quality,” he says. “What the water supply division within Water Resources takes a lot of pride in [is] safeguarding and upholding the quality of the water that we send to all of our customers. And I stand behind the water that we provide each and every day.”

Borchers says the city is currently conducting a pilot program at the Mitchell treatment facility to determine the best technology to reduce the level of the contaminants to where they'd be almost undetectable.