For more than half a century, residents of Sampson County, North Carolina have watched their local landfill grow to nearly 1,300 acres, becoming the largest in the state. Garbage now arrives from far beyond the county line, traveling from all over the state. For locals like Sherri White-Williamson, the scale of the operation has become a source of concern. She grew up in the county, and was alarmed by potential for landfill chemicals leaching into residents’ groundwater and the impact it may be having on their health. ‘Many of the folks out around that landfill are on well water,’ White-Williamson explained. ‘They are drinking in it, they’re bathing in it, they’re using it to water gardens and animals.’ She worked for years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, working in its Office of Environmental Justice, where public outreach and education, and coordinating between communities and federal agency staff together with the community were part of her daily routine. Eventually, White-Williamson saw that kind of advocacy was missing in her own backyard. In 2020, she co-founded the non-profit Environmental Justice Community Action Network (EJCAN) to educate and empower communities to advocate for themselves on environmental issues. Not long after its first meeting in October of that year, the group began working with residents of Snow Hill, a historically Black rural community near the Sampson County landfill. People described a range of environmental and public health worries. One concern that rose quickly to the top was whether the water — especially the private wells on which many households rely — might be contaminated. Sherri White-Williamson outside of EJCAN’s headquarters in Sampson County, NC. Cornell Watson Over the next few years, EJCAN partnered with UNC Chapel Hill and Appalachian State to do free well water testing through some small grants. ‘The community felt like they were seeing elevated levels of illnesses and [were] convinced what they were seeing was directly related to their proximity to the landfill, and the water that they’re drinking,’ White-Williamson said, but there had been little formal research. ‘There’s never been a health impact analysis in that area, so it’s been all anecdotal,’ she explained. The well testing became a first step toward gathering evidence that contaminants from the landfill might be harming residents. The results were troubling. After four rounds of sampling at homes in the area, they found 13 percent of wells were contaminated with PFAS and other contaminants of concern. Short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, the synthetic chemicals have been produced in the U.S. since the 1940s, and are used in water-repellent fabrics, nonstick cookware, and fire fighting foam, among other things. PFAS are sometimes referred to as ‘forever chemicals’ because of how long they persist in the body and the environment. That includes ‘legacy’ PFAS, substances such as PFOA and PFOS that were widely used for decades, but phased out during the 2000s. It also includes what researchers call ‘novel’ PFAS, or newer chemicals developed as replacements. While initially thought to have fewer health risks, scientists are now questioning if these next-generation products are meaningfully safer. Because they are newer, far less is known about their impacts, according to the Center for Environmental and Health Effects of PFAS at NC State. ‘We know that landfills are a common source of [PFAS], because folks have thrown away a range of consumer products,’ said Courtney G. Woods, an environmental sciences professor at the University of North Carolina. According to a 2020 report in the academic journal Toxicology, there is mounting evidence that PFAS are implicated in ‘adverse health outcomes associated with exposure, including reduced kidney function, metabolic syndrome, thyroid disruption, and adverse pregnancy outcomes.’ Residents raise red flags Research into Sampson County water quality dates back a decade, thanks to the work of the late Ellis Tatum, who lived in Snow Hill. In 2016, Woods and some of her students met Tatum at the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network Summit, a gathering of environmental justice organizations led by people of color. ‘He was convinced there was something going on with what was in the water,’ explained White-Williamson. Tatum invited Woods and some students to partner with his community. After convening neighborhood focus groups, Woods and a student began to test for legacy and novel PFAS, metals, and bacteria in Bearskin Swamp, located on the north side of the Sampson County landfill in Snow Hill. ‘There was a suspicion that bad things were going into the water from [the landfill],’ White-Willliamson explained. An exterior view of the Sampson County landfill where a constant stream of trucks deliver waste daily. Cornell Watson On this first research foray, Woods’ team didn’t detect significant contamination upstream of the landfill. But downstream was a different story. ‘We found elevated levels of legacy PFAS, as well as novel PFAS just near the landfill,’ Woods explained. These include newer chemicals like GenX and Nafion, she explained, which some studies have linked to liver damage and other human health effects. Some of these chemicals match those produced by Chemours, a PFAS manufacturing facility which has dumped in the landfill for years. ‘We did have some knowledge from Chemours’ permit, as well as knowledge from other folks that Chemours had been sending their industrial sludge for disposal at the Sampson County landfill,’ Woods continued. Bridging community concern with free water testing After Woods’ initial findings, EJCAN worked to establish further relationships with universities to expand water testing in the Snow Hill community. The collaboration marked a crucial step moving community concerns toward independent scientific verification. The cost of at-home testing can be prohibitive to many households. According to Antrilli, costs for PFAS testing through private labs start around $380. ‘Considering the population in Sampson County, a lot of folks could not pay to have their water tested,’ White-Williamson said. In February 2021, EJCAN partnered with Appalachian State University to provide free testing of well water for bacteria and metals for residents. The non-profit sent out a notice to community members asking if they wanted to participate. ‘There was a fairly decent amount of response,’ said White-Williamson. The initial round of testing included professor Rebecca Witter, who focuses on sustainable development, and biologist Shea Tuberty. Rebecca Witter worked to develop a protocol that could be used to derive community impressions of water quality, while Shea Tuberty and his students went door to door collecting samples, testing for bacteria, nitrates, and heavy metals. Pictured from left to right are Dr. Shea Tubberty, Sherri White-Williamson, Danielle Koonce (Project Director, EJCAN) and Dr. Rebecca Witter during the first weekend of water testing in Snow Hill. Chris Lang On subsequent research trips, the team was joined by Woods from UNC, who provided PFAS testing with support from the nonprofit Research Triangle Institute. After sampling about 250 homes, they found over thirty families had PFAS in their water. As further rounds of testing were conducted, the respective labs mailed letters to residents with their results, as well as called to speak to residents who had concerning results. The scientists also held a meeting with residents, which White-Williamson attended, so that they could ask questions. Woods said the close communication ‘was absolutely instrumental’ for both research and community organizing. EJCAN holds a monthly community meeting that is open to the public, which Tuberty sometimes brings his class to attend, ‘just to be present and answer questions,’ he said. ‘That’s been really useful, because we get more community buy-in when they realize we’re invested long-term.’ The results led White-Williamson to contact the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Waste Management. In November 2023, the department held a community meeting where people who lived closest to the landfill could request sampling of their private wells. State staff initially tested 30 wells, before expanding the effort, Vincent Antrilli Jr., the waste management agency’s environmental program supervisor, wrote in an email. From October 2023 through April 2026, the program had collected 241 samples—about 25 percent (61) of which had exceedences of PFAS for EPA drinking water standards. Point-of-use filter systems like this one are common throughout the Snow Hill community. Cornell Watson The program also provides bottled water and home filtration systems designed to remove PFAS. ‘To date, 87 point-of-use filter systems have been installed or authorized statewide, including 37 in Sampson County,’ Antrilli wrote. EJCAN has supplemented this by distributing over 50 Clearly Filtered water pitchers, which remove PFAS and other contaminants like lead and arsenic. ‘We worked with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to identify a pitcher that seemed to be pretty efficient in removing a large number of contaminants from drinking water,’ White-Williamson said. A canceled grant EJCAN is still hearing from people who want their well water tested. ‘We really need thousands of water samples, and we’ve only done hundreds,’ said Tuberty from App State. For about six months, EJCAN, App State, UNC and the Department of Health and Human Services collaborated on an EPA grant application. ‘The grant would have been for a million dollars over the next three years,’ White-Williamson explained. With that support, the coalition would have been able to test up to 250 homes a year and provide follow up support for the homes who had problems. ‘That would have gone a long way,’ she said. In February, they learned they’d been approved for the million dollar grant. But in April 2025, as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) slashed federal programs, the coalition learned the grant might be suspended. Only three days later, Tuberty said, they were told it would be spared. Then in early May, there was another reversal. ‘Before we got a nickel of it, we got DOGE-d,’ Tuberty said. ‘Most of the money was going to go to the community members to mitigate the problems that we identified, which would have been great.’ While the research to date has been supported by a number of smaller grants, Tuberty said, ‘you need that big money to make a significant impact.’ The researchers hope another opportunity will present itself. ‘I don’t think any of us are giving up on it,’ he said. With federal priorities shifted, EJCAN is concerned about the unmonitored forever chemicals in their community. ‘These are hard projects to do, because the communities have just been burnt for so long, for so many decades,’ Tuberty said. ‘They’ve just been overlooked over and over again.’ The Environmental Justice Community Action Network (EJCAN) is a North Carolina–based nonprofit that works to advance environmental justice in rural communities, particularly in Sampson County. The organization supports residents facing pollution and other environmental harms by providing scientific research, water and air monitoring, education, and advocacy. EJCAN also helps communities access legal and technical resources, empowering them to hold polluters accountable and push for cleaner air, water, and soil. LEARN MORE This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Rural North Carolina fights back against PFAS contamination on May 6, 2026.