The potentially toxic contaminants, known as perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, are known to be especially elusive and difficult to track.
In some cases, the chemicals could be coming from sewage that is recycled and used for agriculture.
It’s important to note that while Ferguson and Stapleton discovered these chemicals, they did so at levels well below what the EPA considers dangerous.
However, the combined level of a broader range of chemicals collectively known as PFAs, for which the EPA has not yet written a health advisory, was substantially higher in Cary and Jordan Lake.
Chemicals like PFOAs and PFAs are known as emerging contaminants because scientists have only recently developed the tools to identify them in water systems.
"In a lot of cases, that [health advisory level] is a shot in the dark, and it is not based on hard evidence.
At a recent tour for state representatives of DEQ labs, DEQ officials insisted that their staff members were working tirelessly to track PFAs and PFOAs across North Carolina, but the lack of state funding was making their job increasingly difficult.
Senate Republicans argued that scientific equipment could instead be borrowed from local universities and that research expenditures should fall on the companies responsible for the pollution rather than taxpayers.
The bill will likely come up again when the legislature reconvenes next month for the short session.
Ferguson stressed that, compared to other states, North Carolina already has great potential to be a leader in the field of emergent contaminant detection.