Stormwater Solutions
David C. Richardson
April 14, 2023
A new substance found in residue from an experiment on refrigerants caught the attention of Dupont chemists nearly 100 years ago. They thought it had some interesting properties. It was resistant to water, grease, heat and decay. Soon it would be used to keep pots clean, to waterproof convertible car tops and to put out fires.
Taking on such household names as Teflon and Scotchgard, and deployed for varied uses as firefighting, and the manufacture of extruded plastics, it would eventually be applied to the glamorous world of cosmetics, and, in such workaday products as grease resistant fast-food wrappers and microwave popcorn bags.
These chemicals don’t exist in nature but can now be found, literally, everywhere and they do not break down in the environment, earning them the nickname “forever chemicals.” That amounts to a mess nearly a century in the making. Their technical name is Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Sophie Greene, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s PFAS Coordinator said it is a large family of chemicals including 5,000 to 20,000 members.
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