EPA Limits Forever Chemicals in Drinking Water

By Jondi Gumz

On April 10, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued the first national and legally enforceable drinking water standard to protect communities from exposure to harmful per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals.”

Exposure to PFAS has been linked to deadly cancers, impacts to the liver and heart, and immune and developmental damage to infants and children, according to the EPA.

For PFOA and PFOS, EPA is setting a Maximum Contaminant Level Goal, a non-enforceable health-based goal, at zero. This reflects the latest science showing that there is no level of exposure to these contaminants without risk of health impacts, including certain cancers.

EPA is setting enforceable Maximum Contaminant Levels at 4.0 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS, individually. This standard will reduce exposure from these PFAS in drinking water to the lowest levels that are feasible for effective implementation.

For PFNA, PFHxS, and “GenX Chemicals,” EPA is setting the Maximum Contaminant Level Goals and Maximum Contaminant Levels at 10 parts per trillion.

This final rule aims to prevent thousands of premature deaths, tens of thousands of serious illnesses, including certain cancers and liver and heart impacts in adults, and immune and developmental impacts to infants and children.

This rule represents the most significant step under EPA’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap released in October 2021 and President Biden’s action plan assigning the EPA, Department of Defense, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Agriculture, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Department of Health and Human Services and Federal Aviation Administration to combat PFAS pollution.

Among those actions: A phaseout of PFAS in food wrappers, an inventory of PFAS in firefighting foams and research on alternatives, and funding a study by the University of Arizona on firefighter exposure to PFAS and health impacts.

At that time, 29 PFAS forever chemicals had been found in the nation’s water systems.

EPA also announced $945,700,000 for states and territories for detecting, treating, and mitigating PFAS and emerging contaminants in drinking water. California was allotted $82,961,000.

Already there is $9 billion in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help states and territories implement PFAS testing and treatment at public water systems and Biden’s Justice40 Initiative has a goal of 40% of funds going to disadvantaged communities overburdened by pollution.

Spurring this effort was the 2017 discovery that the Cape Fear River, the drinking water source for 1 million people around Fayetteville, North Carolina, was heavily contaminated with PFAS pollution from a nearby manufacturing facility.

Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear, said, “We learned about GenX and other PFAS in our tap water six years ago. I raised my children on this water and watched loved ones suffer from rare or recurrent cancers. No one should ever worry if their tap water will make them sick or give them cancer. I’m grateful the Biden EPA heard our pleas and kept its promise to the American people. We will keep fighting until all exposures to PFAS end and the chemical companies responsible for business-related human rights abuses are held fully accountable.”

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said, “Drinking water contaminated with PFAS has plagued communities across this country for too long.”

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper thanked Regan and the Biden Administration, saying, “We asked for this because we know science-based standards for PFAS and other compounds are desperately needed.”

Ken Cook, Environmental Working Group president and co-founder, said, “For decades, the American people have been exposed to the family of incredibly toxic ‘forever chemicals’ known as PFAS with no protection from their government. Those chemicals now contaminate virtually all Americans from birth. That’s because for generations, PFAS chemicals slid off of every federal environmental law like a fried egg off a Teflon pan — until Joe Biden came along.”

He added, “There is much work yet to be done to end PFAS pollution.”

EPA estimates between 6% and 10% of the 66,000 public drinking water systems subject to this rule may have to take action to reduce PFAS to meet these new standards.

All public water systems have three years to complete their initial monitoring for these chemicals. They must inform the public of the level of PFAS measured in their drinking water.

Where PFAS is found at levels that exceed these standards, systems must implement solutions to reduce PFAS in their drinking water within five years.

The EPA aid the limits “are achievable using a range of available technologies and approaches including granular activated carbon, reverse osmosis, and ion exchange systems.”

For example, the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, serving Wilmington, North Carolina — one of the communities most heavily impacted by PFAS contamination — has effectively deployed a granular activated carbon system to remove PFAS.

EPA will offer webinars April 23 and April 30 to provide information to the public, communities, and water utilities about the final PFAS drinking water regulation. To learn more visit www.epa.gov/sdwa/and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas#Webinars

EPA also offers a communications toolkit at https://www.epa.gov/sdwa/pfas-communications-toolkit to help drinking water systems and community leaders educate the public about PFAS, where they come from, their health risks, and how to reduce exposure.