There is a direct link between Forever Chemicals (PFAS Horry County water) and cancer risks. Should residents demand safer drinking options as it relates to the Highway 90 Landfill where plastic containers are buried adjacent to Sterritt Swamp which feeds into the Waccamaw River?
Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority serves more than 115,000 customers across Horry County. Two of its surface water treatment plants tested positive for PFAS compounds above the limits the EPA proposed last year. A peer-reviewed study published in 2025 links PFAS in drinking water to an estimated 6,864 new cancer cases per year nationwide. The water flowing into homes along the Grand Strand contains concentrations roughly eight to twelve times the federal maximum — and the technology to remove it does not yet exist at scale in the local system.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — PFAS — have been manufactured since the 1940s for nonstick cookware, water-repellent fabrics, firefighting foam, and food packaging. More than 12,000 compounds exist. They earned the name “forever chemicals” because they do not break down in the environment.
## What’s in the Water
Understanding PFAS Horry County Water
GSWSA operates two surface water treatment plants. The Myrtle Beach facility draws from the Intracoastal Waterway. The Bucksport facility draws from Bull Creek and the Great Pee Dee River. Both tested positive for two of the six PFAS compounds the EPA regulates, according to MyHorryNews reporting in 2024.
As the community learns more about the implications of PFAS Horry County water, discussions on health risks and regulatory measures are becoming increasingly urgent.
**PFAS levels in the area’s water sources measure approximately 30 to 50 parts per trillion.** The EPA’s maximum contaminant level for PFOA and PFOS — the two most studied PFAS compounds — is 4 parts per trillion. That means Horry County’s raw water carries concentrations between seven and twelve times what federal regulators consider safe.
Existing water treatment processes cannot remove PFAS, according to the Post & Courier. The chemicals pass through conventional filtration the way salt passes through a coffee filter. GSWSA is testing two advanced technologies — Calgon Granular Activated Carbon and anion exchange resin filtration — with what the authority describes as “varying degrees of success.”
GSWSA says it is ahead of the timeline for PFAS testing requirements that take effect in 2027. That claim deserves context. Being ahead of a testing schedule is not the same as being ahead of a treatment solution. Testing confirms what residents already know: the chemicals are there. Removing them is the problem no one has solved yet.
## The Cancer Connection
The International Agency for Research on Cancer issued updated classifications in 2023. IARC now classifies PFOA as “carcinogenic to humans” — its highest designation, Group 1 — based on limited evidence linking the compound to testicular and kidney cancer. PFOS received a Group 2B classification: “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” The American Cancer Society defers to these IARC and EPA classifications rather than making independent cancer determinations.
A 2025 study led by Li and colleagues, published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, examined 1,080 U.S. counties covering roughly 156.1 million people. The study found that **PFAS in drinking water is associated with increased cancer incidence across digestive, endocrine, oral cavity, pharynx, and respiratory systems.** Incidence rate ratios ranged from 1.02 to 1.33. Researchers estimated 6,864 incident cancer cases per year in the United States are attributable to PFAS in drinking water, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
The risk profile differs by sex. Males showed associations with urinary system cancers, brain cancers, leukemia, and soft tissue cancers. Females showed associations with endocrine cancers, oral cavity and pharynx cancers, and soft tissue cancers.
National Cancer Institute research sharpens the picture. A study using the PLCO Cancer Screening Trial found increased kidney cancer risk with PFOA exposure across 324 cases. Air Force servicemen with elevated PFOS showed higher testicular cancer risk. Among 621 postmenopausal women, PFOS was linked to hormone receptor-positive breast tumors. No association was found with aggressive prostate cancer.
Animal studies reinforce the human data. PFOA exposure increased tumors in liver, testicles, mammary glands, and pancreas in laboratory animals, according to the American Cancer Society. Scientific debate exists — some researchers writing in Frontiers in Public Health in 2025 question whether IARC’s Group 1 classification for PFOA is fully supported by mechanistic evidence. But the weight of the research points in one direction. These chemicals are in Horry County’s water supply at concentrations far above federal limits, and the science increasingly ties them to cancer.
## Where It Came From
GSWSA filed a lawsuit on August 9, 2024, naming 14 companies as defendants. The list includes Burlington Industries, Mohawk Industries, Aladdin Manufacturing, Delta Mills, Domtar Paper, Elevate Textiles, Fiber Industries, GFL Environmental, J.P. Stevens, Nan Ya Plastics, PRET Advanced Materials, Red Rock Disposal, Sampson County Disposal, and Waste Industries, according to WMBF News.
Burlington Industries sits at the center of the complaint. **The company operated a 234-acre industrial textile mill near Cedar Creek and the Great Pee Dee River from 1966 to 1988, according to the Post & Courier.** After the mill closed in 2016, unremediated wastewater lagoons overflowed into local waterways. Burlington allegedly released contaminated wastewater from its Society Hill operation into the Pee Dee River watershed for decades.
Dylan Coleman of the Winyah Rivers Alliance told the Post & Courier that “textile mills typically are very much associated with PFAS contamination.” The contaminated waterways now include the Waccamaw River, Intracoastal Waterway, Great Pee Dee River, and Bull Creek — every major water source that feeds Horry County’s treatment plants.
The legal claims filed by GSWSA include negligence, nuisance, trespass, failure to warn, and violation of the South Carolina Unfair Trade Practices Act. Georgetown County filed its own suit against more than 20 companies, including 3M, DuPont, and Darling Fibers. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson also filed suit over PFAS contamination in the state’s waterways, according to WPDE.
The contamination is not contained to drinking water. PFAS has been found in South Carolina’s marine life — freshwater fish, oysters, and blue crabs, according to DHEC data reported by WPDE. Researchers have detected PFAS at nearly all surface water sites tested statewide, and in virtually every South Carolina river sampled, according to a study reported by Phys.org.
## The Regulatory Gap
The EPA finalized its first-ever National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for PFAS on April 10, 2024. The rule set maximum contaminant levels for PFOA and PFOS at 4 parts per trillion and established limits of 10 parts per trillion for PFHxS, PFNA, and HFPO-DA. The rule took effect on June 25, 2024. The EPA projected it would prevent PFAS exposure for approximately 100 million people and prevent thousands of deaths.
Then the rollback began. The Trump administration kept the PFOA and PFOS standards at 4 parts per trillion but extended the compliance deadline from 2029 to 2031. **The administration rescinded standards for four other PFAS chemicals — PFNA, PFHxS, GenX, and PFBS — and terminated more than $15 million in PFAS research grants, according to the Environmental Protection Network.** Delayed enforcement means water systems face no penalty for missing the original timeline.
South Carolina offers no backstop. The state has no PFAS protections or regulations of its own, according to Post & Courier editorial reporting. No state-level maximum contaminant limits. No state-mandated testing beyond what the EPA requires. If federal enforcement slows — and it has — Horry County residents have no fallback authority demanding action.
The compliance delay matters in concrete terms. Two additional years of inaction means two more years of Horry County customers drinking water with PFAS concentrations that exceed the EPA’s own safety limits. The federal government set the standard, then moved the deadline for meeting it.
## What Residents Face
The cost of PFAS treatment will land on ratepayers. GSWSA’s testing of Granular Activated Carbon and anion exchange resin represents the leading edge of available technology, but neither has been deployed at full scale in the local system. The Post & Courier reports that new treatment technology is required — conventional processes simply do not capture these compounds.
Lawsuits against manufacturers may eventually recover some costs. But litigation moves slowly. The 14 defendants in GSWSA’s suit and the 20-plus defendants in Georgetown County’s case will contest liability for years. Residents cannot wait for court settlements to stop drinking contaminated water.
**GSWSA’s own data shows PFAS is more common in surface water than well water.** Residents on private wells may face lower exposure, though individual well testing remains the only way to confirm that. For the 115,000-plus customers on GSWSA’s system, there is no opt-out. The water comes from the Intracoastal Waterway, Bull Creek, and the Great Pee Dee River. All three are contaminated.
Point-of-use filtration — reverse osmosis systems and NSF-certified activated carbon filters — can reduce PFAS at the tap. These systems cost hundreds to thousands of dollars per household. That expense falls on individual families while the water authority works toward a system-wide solution and the federal government pushes compliance to 2031.
The federal standard exists. The science is building. The contamination is confirmed. What does not exist is a timeline that protects the people drinking this water now. Horry County residents are paying for a water system that delivers PFAS at concentrations the EPA calls unsafe — and the agencies responsible for fixing it keep extending their own deadlines.
## Further Reading
– [EPA — Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Drinking Water Standards](https://www.epa.gov/sdwa/and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas)
– [NCI — PFAS Exposure and Risk of Cancer](https://dceg.cancer.gov/research/what-we-study/pfas)
– [American Cancer Society — PFOA, PFOS, and Related PFAS Chemicals](https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/chemicals/teflon-and-perfluorooctanoic-acid-pfoa.html)
– [Li et al. (2025) — PFAS and County-Level Cancer Incidence, Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-024-00742-2)
– [Horry County Water Provider Working to Remove Forever Chemicals — MyHorryNews, 2024](https://www.myhorrynews.com/news/horry-county-water-provider-working-to-remove-forever-chemicals/article_91ed16ac-49b5-11ef-97bc-d7a5a02cb159.html)
– [Myrtle Beach-Area Water Supply Contaminated, Lawsuit Says — Post & Courier, 2024](https://www.postandcourier.com/myrtle-beach/news/lawsuit-forever-chemicals-waccamaw-river-intracoastal-waterway-sc/article_288a5cfa-66da-11ef-b4c4-fb48c5fa4090.html)
– [Grand Strand Water and Sewer Sues Over a Dozen Companies — WMBF News, 2024](https://www.wmbfnews.com/2024/10/03/grand-strand-water-sewer-sues-over-dozen-companies-alleged-pfas-pollution/)
– [SC DES — PFAS Bureau of Water](https://des.sc.gov/programs/bureau-water/and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas/pfas-bureau-water)
