LeRoy and Amber Fletcher used to think of their home of 14 years in Dalton as a dream come true. They ate eggs from their own chickens, grew their own backyard vegetables and watched their six children play in the creek on their property.

Then they tested the water.

Speaking to state lawmakers Tuesday, Amber Fletcher said results from chemical testing of their creek showed huge amounts of “forever chemicals” called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Federal regulators have set the safe level of PFAS at 4 parts per trillion.

The Fletchers say their creek tests showed more than 7,600 parts per trillion.

And the soil where they’ve gardened and fed their kids: more than 32,000 parts per trillion.

“What used to be a beautiful family memory brings anxiety and fear,” Amber Fletcher told lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee. “We go to bed at night thinking of our children’s potential health issues and our medical bills and what’s going to happen to our property value.”

The Fletchers have traced the pollution to a storage pond downstream from their creek used by one of the state’s biggest carpet-making companies, which has been sued over accusations of contaminating local soils and water systems with so-called forever chemicals.

Now, state lawmakers representing Northwest Georgia are pushing legislation aimed at shielding those carpet companies from legal liability related to PFAS pollution in a move supporters say protects local manufacturers from crippling litigation — but which critics have called a get-out-of-jail-free card for corporate polluters.

“This is an issue that if not dealt with would be devastating to our Georgia manufacturers in the state of Georgia,” said Rep. Kasey Carpenter, R-Dalton. “Millions in litigation expenses will not help with cancer and will not help with cleanup.”

House Bill 211, sponsored by Carpenter, drew stiff debate from Dalton residents, including the Fletchers, environmental groups and two carpet companies — Shaw Industries and Mohawk Industries — that claim they were duped by the chemical companies that supplied them with PFAS products.

“They used these products as directed and now face endless litigation,” Carpenter told the committee Tuesday. “We are now in the posture that we’re all going to be suing each other, and when that happens, no one wins.”

PFAS have been used for decades in a wide variety of products, from agricultural fertilizers and waterproof cosmetics to nonstick cookware, firefighting retardants, aircraft door sealants and packaging.

Georgia legislation on forever chemicals comes as Wisconsin officials weigh spending $145 million in state funds to clean up PFAS contamination on local farms. It also follows Georgia lawmakers’ passage last year of new rules to keep farmlands free of chicken-based fertilizers.

Carpet makers and PFAS

In Georgia, court records show local carpet makers have used PFAS treatments since the 1970s to cure flooring products for water, oil and dirt stain resistance. It has paid off: Dalton, known as the “Carpet Capital of the World,” has seen manufacturers generate billions of dollars annually in sales and taxes.

But the forever chemicals used on carpets are taking a health toll. Studies show PFAS take years to break down and bioaccumulate in animals, water and soil — all while being linked to increased risk for cancer, birth defects and fertility issues.

Martha Bradford, 60, also lives in Dalton. She told lawmakers at Tuesday’s hearing that as a child she played in creeks and streams that ran from Mohawk Industries plants near her neighborhood. From an early age, Bradford said, she suffered from urinary tract, bladder and kidney infections and blood clots.

In her early 20s, Bradford said, she had a hysterectomy after being diagnosed with uterine cancer. Then she lost her right kidney to cancer. Recently, the bottoms of her feet have begun to “burst open,” filling her shoes with blood.

Doctors at Emory University have said they are “at a complete loss” as to what has caused her ailments, Bradford told lawmakers.

“I’m unable to work now,” she said. “Most days I can’t even stand up and walk. I can’t even get out of the bed.

“I don’t support this [bill] whatsoever because of a lifetime of what my family has had to endure and the expenses we’ve had to endure,” Bradford added. “We need to get this cleaned up.”

Another Dalton resident, Ronnie Anderson, said Tuesday he worked at the carpet company Shaw for 45 years in the “dye house.” He testified to seeing hundreds of gallons of polluted water dumped regularly from the plant into a nearby stream.

Anderson told lawmakers that most of his co-workers at Shaw have died from cancer over the years.

“They can’t say they didn’t know it was bad,” Anderson said. 

Committee members did not vote on the bill Tuesday. They have until a Thursday deadline to send the bill to the full House for passage or it will likely be shelved this year.

If passed, HB 211 would upend a sprawl of legal battles that have pitted the lucrative carpet-making companies against not only environmental groups but also their host city.

In December, Dalton’s wastewater utility sued Mohawk and the international manufacturer 3M for allegedly polluting the city’s wastewater treatment facilities with decades of PFAS, costing the city hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up.

For their part, Dalton’s carpet makers have pointed the finger at 3M, DuPont Inc. and other PFAS-product suppliers, arguing in their recent lawsuits that they were unaware the stainer-proofing contained such harmful materials.

Representatives for Mohawk and Shaw again blamed the big chemical companies on Tuesday. They framed the liability protections in the bill as a way to safeguard Georgia’s manufacturing injury from the damaging fallout caused by freewheeling chemical conglomerates.

Threat of job losses

Mark Rogers, the deputy general counsel for Mohawk, told lawmakers the carpet maker employs more than 7,000 people in the Dalton area and around 30,000 workers worldwide. Without the bill’s passage, a landslide of litigation could sink the company and bring job losses, Rogers said.

“These lawsuits are a risk for the company — that’s why we’re here,” Rogers said. “This is trying to help protect the people who are trying to deal with what the chemical companies have given to us.”

The bill’s backers said carpeting is not the only industry at existential risk from forever-chemical lawsuits, given the vast range of products that use PFAS, including Georgia’s lucrative paper mills.

Brittney Hull, vice president of governmental affairs for the Georgia Association of Manufacturers, told lawmakers that local manufacturers employ nearly 500,000 people and last year generated more than $77 billion in revenues — nearly 10% of the state’s total economic output. PFAS-related litigation could shrink that output, Hull said.

“Unfortunately, many of my members are being drawn into lawsuits over something they had no control over,” Hull said. “They were told products with PFAS were legal and met [federal] rules and regulations. … House Bill 211 would protect [our] member companies from frivolous lawsuits.”

Lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee did not indicate Tuesday whether they would take up the bill again during this legislative session.

Have questions, comments or tips? Contact Beau Evans at beau@stateaffairs.com or on X @beauvans.

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