SUMTER — A conservation group warned city officials that its wastewater treatment system is violating federal pollution laws in the wake of findings that water downriver from the plant had some of the highest levels of “forever” chemicals in a recent national study.

In a letter sent Aug. 25, the Southern Environmental Law Center also demanded the city identify significant industrial customers that use the so-called forever chemicals and order them to stop dumping the toxins into the wastewater system.

Doing that “doesn’t cost the city anything,” said Carl T. Brzorad, an attorney for the group. “The polluter pays.”

So-called forever chemicals, formally known as PFAS, are a group of synthetic compounds that don’t break down in the environment or the human body, allowing them to build up o

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