Recent data released by the EPA shows drinking water systems serving 46 million people have per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in concentrations at or above the Agency’s Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) minimum reporting level (MRL) and therefore above the agency’s Health Advisory (HA) levels.
“Of about 3,200 systems included so far, 854 measured at least one PFAS compound above the EPA’s reporting levels,” reports USA Today. “That’s almost 27%, an increase from August’s update of the data.”
PFAS are a group of manufactured chemicals that include chemicals known as perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and GenX. There are nearly 5,000 different types of PFAS, some of which have been more widely used and studied than others, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
They have been produced by a variety of industries since 1940 for use in water and stain repellant materials, as well as fast-acting firefighting products. These chemicals are also found in paint, nonstick Teflon, cleaning products, and food packaging materials. PFAS are known for their ability to repel oil and water, and they’re often referred to as "forever chemicals" because of their persistent nature in both the human body and the environment.
Traces of these chemicals have been found in the blood of virtually everyone tested over the last 20 years by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They have also been linked to a host of health issues, including cancer, immune system deficiencies, negative developmental effects in infants and children, lower fertility rates, and increased cholesterol.
The recent data released reveals PFAS were found in “one in four public drinking water systems this year in concentrations at or above the [EPA’s] minimum reporting levels,” USA Today adds.
“One system included in the EPA’s data for the first time is in Augusta, Georgia, which detected six distinct PFAS contaminants,” continues USA Today. “With industrial manufacturing, a major military base and a downtown factory that makes fire-retardant bricks, Augusta has multiple PFAS sources.
“There’s definitely things that do need to be improved, but there’s not, in our opinion, a health threat,” said Wes Byne, Augusta’s director of utilities, according to USA Today. “Depending on who you talk to, the industry has tried to consider this [detection level] like a drop of water in the Rose Bowl.”
In the Augusta examples, PFAS concentrations in drinking water were well above the EPA’s MRL. Georgia doesn’t currently have binding maximum requirements for PFAS.
Some states have their own requirements for drinking water contaminants not yet regulated by the EPA, and those requirements may be based on state-established levels that differ from the EPA’s reference concentrations.
There are 196 current policies in 33 states and 129 adopted policies in 24 states regarding PFAS in drinking water, according to Safer States, a coalition dedicated to turning “off the tap on over 12,000+ chemicals in this class, drive cleanup of and protections for impacted communities and move towards safer chemistries that ensure safe food, air and drinking water for all.”
Safer States lists several incidents in which PFAS have allegedly caused health problems across the United States. “Residents of the Ohio River Valley in West Virginia were systematically exposed to PFAS for several decades through intentional dumping of chemicals by DuPont while the company had knowledge of the health risks,” according to the organization’s website. “Similar stories play out across the nation, such as 3M’s pollution of drinking water in Minnesota and high incidences of cancer resulting from fouled water in Hoosick Falls, NY.”
“Many states have begun the process of regulating PFAS in drinking water themselves and have adopted enforceable standards or Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for PFAS in their state,” according to Safer States. “States with enforceable drinking water standards include Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Both Delaware and Virginia are in the process of establishing enforceable drinking water standards.
“Other states have adopted guidance levels, notification levels, and/or health advisories for PFAS in drinking water. These states include Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, and Washington.”
UCMR 5
The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requires the EPA to issue, every 5 years, a list of unregulated contaminants to be monitored by public water systems (PWSs).
UCMR 5 was published on December 27, 2021, and requires sample collection for 30 chemical contaminants between 2023 and 2025 using analytical methods developed by the EPA and consensus organizations. This action provides the Agency and other interested parties with scientifically valid data on the national occurrence of these contaminants in drinking water.
Consistent with the EPA’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap, UCMR 5 will provide new data to improve the agency’s understanding of the frequency with which 29 PFAS (and lithium) are found in the nation’s drinking water systems and at what levels.
The monitoring data on PFAS and lithium will help the EPA make determinations about future regulations and other actions to protect public health under the SDWA.
The EPA released the second set of data collected under UCMR 5 in October 2023.
“With this latest action, the data released to date represent approximately 15% of the total results that the EPA expects to receive over the next three years,” states the EPA UCMR 5 Data Summary. “The agency has also released the UCMR 5 Data Finder that allows people to easily search for, summarize, and download the available UCMR 5 analytical results. The EPA will update the results quarterly in the UCMR 5 Data Finder and via the National Contaminant Occurrence Database (NCOD) until completion of data reporting in 2026.”
Federal PFAS drinking water limits—Background
Currently, there are no national regulations in place for ensuring PFAS in drinking water systems fall below the EPA MRL.
In May 2016, the initiation of a four-step action plan to erase PFOA and PFOS from drinking water was announced by previous EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. His plan “included initiating steps toward establishing an enforceable maximum contaminant standard for the two chemicals and regulating them as a ‘hazardous substance,’” CNN reported.
The EPA released a lifetime HA in November 2016 that limited combined exposures to PFOA and PFOS at 70 parts per trillion (ppt).
These HAs are unenforceable. Drinking water HAs are “based on the agency’s assessment of the latest peer-reviewed science” and are designed to “provide drinking water system operators, and state, tribal and local officials who have the primary responsibility for overseeing these systems, with information on the health risks of these chemicals, so they can take the appropriate actions to protect their residents,” according to the EPA.
In November 2018, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, issued a report indicating that the "minimal risk levels" for oral exposure to PFOS and PFOA should be set at:
- PFOA: 78 ppt (adult) and 21 ppt (child)
- PFOS: 52 ppt (adult) and 14 ppt (child)
This report indicated that the threshold levels set by the EPA should be lowered, according to CNN.
On June 15, 2022, the EPA released four drinking water HAs for PFAS in the latest action under President Joseph Biden Jr.’s action plan to deliver clean water and EPA Administrator Michael Regan’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap.
This marked the first time the EPA has issued final health advisories for perfluorobutane sulfonic acid?and its potassium salt (PFBS) and for hexafluoropropylene oxide (HFPO) dimer acid and its ammonium salt (GenX chemicals). GenX chemicals have been widely used as a replacement for PFOS.
The 2022 HAs lowered the levels to 0.004 ppt for PFOA and 0.02 ppt for PFOS. The initial levels set for GenX chemicals are 10 ppt, and for PFBS chemicals, it’s set at 2,000 ppt.
“EPA is issuing interim, updated drinking water [HAs] for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) that replace those EPA issued in 2016,” according to an Agency news release. “The updated advisory levels … indicate that some negative health effects may occur with concentrations of PFOA or PFOS in water that are near zero and below EPA’s ability to detect at this time.”
The agency recommends that water systems currently detecting PFOA and PFOS take steps to reduce limits of these chemicals in their systems.
U.S. manufacturers have voluntarily phased out most PFOA and PFOS use, and ongoing usage is extremely limited. However, because these chemicals are extremely durable compounds, they’re very difficult to erase from the environment.
Setting such low levels creates testing difficulties.
“In an interview [with the Star Tribune], Jim Kelly, Minnesota Department of Health's manager of environmental surveillance and assessment, said the federal regulator is ‘on the right track’ but that the revised limits are so low they stretch the ability of labs to test for them. That complicates efforts to measure the effectiveness of steps to treat water for PFAS, among other problems.
“‘It's significantly lower than any guidance values that have been issued previously by just about anyone,’ Kelly said.”
Costly cleanup
As of September 6, 2023, nonstickkitchennightmare.org estimates costs of cleanup for PFAS to have cost taxpayers $2.6 billion.
And this is just the beginning of the associated costs of cleaning up “forever chemicals.”
“Based on recent conservative estimates from the American Water Works Association, implementing such technologies to address PFAS contaminants in drinking water nationally per the EPA's standards could cost between $3.2 - $5.7 billion annually,” reports the Environmental Litigation Group PC. “Moreover, the financial impact per household would disproportionately burden public water systems serving areas with less than 100 residents ($10,090 - $11,150) than those serving larger population centers with more than a million individuals ($80 - $105).
“A major point of contention for most public water systems is that local taxpayers will primarily shoulder the costs associated with the EPA's proposed measures. Since PFAS contamination is mainly the result of manufacturers' negligent conduct and misrepresentation of their products' safety, the National Rural Water Association (NRWA) filed a class action lawsuit in 2020 on behalf of public water utilities across the US to keep the liable polluters accountable.”
The NRWA won two settlements in June 2023. The Corteva, DuPont, and Chemours settlement was $1.185 billion, and the 3M settlement, payable over 13 years, was in the amount of $12.5 billion, reports the Environmental Litigation Group. The settlement funds are meant to be used to help rural communities and drinking water systems pay for PFAS cleanup.
“Notably, as the 3M litigation is currently ongoing, public water systems still have the option to join the lawsuit and retrieve compensation for PFAS contamination,” the Environmental Litigation Group notes.
There have been several lawsuits filed by states against the manufacturers of PFAS chemicals due to contaminated water sources. These “include Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware (settled), District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan (settled), Minnesota (settled), New Hampshire, New Jersey (settled), New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin,” according to Safer States.
Once the EPA’s UCMR 5 is completed, federal regulations under the SDWA are predicted to follow to eliminate PFAS in drinking water systems.
Additionally, more litigation is forecasted as drinking water systems seek funding for PFAS cleanup and detection.
In May 2023, “Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed into law the first-ever ban in the U.S. on PFAS … in cookware, dental floss, and menstrual products as part of the broadest PFAS policy package in the country,” reports a Safer States article. “The new law bans all uses of PFAS in products by 2032—except those that are necessary for public health, requires manufacturers to report their use of PFAS in products to the state by 2026, and bans specific uses in several products starting in 2025.
“Building from existing state laws, Minnesota’s new law combines approaches from laws in Colorado, California, and Washington—which banned PFAS in specific products—as well as with the approach from a Maine law that requires disclosure of PFAS in all products and sets a timeline for eliminating PFAS from all products unless the use of PFAS is deemed currently unavoidable.”
Industry using PFAS in any of their products or processing methods are advised to find safer alternatives, as the federal government and states continue to impose increasingly stringent regulations for these chemicals. Discontinuing these uses, wherever possible, will help reduce future financial liability.