REASSURANCES are offered after something bad has already happened, as in “Yes, the tiger escaped from the circus but the chances are pretty slim you are the one it will pick to eat.”

The revelation that yet another man-made chemical with likely negative health conse-quences was dumped into Northwest Georgia’s rivers, this time up by Dalton on the Conasauga at some of the highest levels ever detected, brought the expected reassurances for Floyd Countians. The stuff shouldn’t get this far.

But, just to be on the safe side, one of seven new monitoring stations to detect perfluorooctanoic acid, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has branded a “likely carcinogen,” will be placed north of Rome on the Oostanaula River (Rome’s main water intake is on the Oostanaula). The Conasauga joins the Coosawatee River to form the Oostanaula near Calhoun.

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And, it is also interesting to note that some of the worst of such perils regularly appears to be “man-made” in nature, meaning not originally created by either God or Darwin. And, at least Mother Nature’s creations seem to be self-healing or self-dissipating to some degree. The new peril, perfluorooctanoic acid (nicknamed PFOA), is like PCBs apparently fairly indestructible.

The main difference is that PCBs are really heavy and settle in the soil or pile up against dams. It explains a lot about why a monitoring site for this new risk was deemed advisable near Rome and so far from the main dump site in Dalton to learn from Elizabeth Booth, manager of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division’s planning and watershed program, “It doesn’t bind to soils. It slips right on by.”

How much farther can a greased pig travel before being caught than a dry one? Quite a ways.

THE SLIPPERINESS is to be expected as this chemical has been used, among other things, to make carpet stain resistant (the spills slide right off). It’s also prized for fire resistance (like PCBs) and generally repels oil, stains, grease and water. It’s used for a whole lot of stuff: non-stick cookware, waterproof outer clothing and, according to a USA Today article, “microwave popcorn bags, fast-food and candy wrappers and pizza-box liners.”

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