What’s Happening at Black Creek Elementary School?
What happens when land that once received industrial wastewater sludge becomes an elementary school?
That question is now playing out at Black Creek Elementary School in Darlington, South Carolina, where PFAS—often called “forever chemicals”—were recently found in the soil.
State and federal regulators say the contamination does not currently pose an unacceptable health risk to students or staff. But the discovery raises an important question that goes beyond this one school:
How did industrial sludge end up on this property in the first place—and why wasn't that history known before a school was built there?
From industrial sludge to school property
Black Creek Elementary opened in fall 2025 on property purchased by the Darlington County School District in 2022.
The property had a history that wasn't discovered until after the school opened.
In March 2026, the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (SCDES) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) learned that approximately 91 tons of wastewater-treatment sludge from the former Galey & Lord textile facility had been applied to part of the property in 1998 and 2001.
That history matters.
The Galey & Lord facility in Society Hill was a textile manufacturing operation whose wastewater treatment process generated industrial sludge. The facility later became an EPA Superfund site, and investigations have identified PFAS contamination associated with the facility and areas where its sludge was applied.
In other words, material generated by an industrial facility with known environmental contamination was spread on land that would eventually become an elementary school.
Testing finds PFAS in the soil
Once the historical sludge application was discovered, SCDES conducted an investigation of the school property.
The agency collected 68 soil samples, focusing particularly on playgrounds and other areas where children and staff spend time outdoors. The samples were tested for PFAS, metals, PCBs and pesticides.
The metals, PCBs and pesticides did not appear at levels of concern.
But three PFAS compounds were detected:
PFDA
PFOA
PFOS
Some of the PFAS detections were above EPA's residential Regional Screening Levels, which are used to identify contaminants that warrant additional evaluation.