PFAS Substances: Protecting Ourselves and Our Drinking Water

FROM THE AWWA On June 15, 2022, the EPA released drinking water health advisories for four PFAS. Health advisories provide states and water utilities with a reference point as they evaluate potential contamination and appropriate responses to assure the safety of drinking water. The PFOA and PFOS advisory levels are extremely low and do not reflect the draft recommendations of EPA’s own expert Science Advisory Board review. The health advisory levels at parts per quadrillion, undetectable by modern laboratory methods.

AWWA is committed to both the protection of public health and decision-making based on the best available science. As a community of water professionals, we share EPA’s desire to keep harmful levels of PFAS out of the nation’s drinking water. We support setting national drinking water standards for PFAS that protect all consumers, including the most sensitive populations. We also stand for strong source water protection to prevent PFAS contamination and increased investment in PFAS research.

At the national level, EPA is already in the process of setting maximum contaminant levels for PFAS within the scientifically rigorous framework of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). A proposal is expected in the fall. Through the SDWA regulatory process, many utilities are sampling for PFOA, PFOS and other PFAS to better understand where they occur and at what levels. They are sharing that information with their communities. It’s important that EPA complete this rulemaking process so that states, utilities and consumers have a clear and consistent path forward for managing harmful levels of PFAS in drinking water.

These four health advisories reflect potential risk assuming 70 years of exposure. EPA’s support materials appropriately point consumers toward opportunities to reduce PFAS exposure in their daily lives, be it exposure through drinking water, food, dust, or other routes.

AWWA’s members are working diligently to manage the risk posed by PFAS in drinking water. At the low levels set in the health advisories, protecting source water from PFAS contamination is critical. AWWA urges Congress and other decision-makers to implement policies that keep harmful PFAS out of our communities, especially the nation’s drinking water supply. FROM THE EPA As part of a government-wide effort to confront PFAS pollution, EPA is making available $1 billion in grant funding through the new Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help communities that are on the frontlines of PFAS contamination to reduce PFAS in drinking water in communities facing disproportionate impacts. EPA is making $1 billion available in the fiscal year 2022 and a total of $5 billion for fiscal years 2022–2026.

The goal of the Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities grant program is to have states, territories and tribes prioritize grant funding in small or disadvantaged communities to focus exclusively on addressing emerging contaminants in drinking water, including PFAS, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, and unregulated contaminants such as manganese, perchlorate and 1,4 dioxane. Funding will be provided to participating states and territories to benefit small or disadvantaged communities in scoping, planning, testing and remediating emerging contaminants in drinking and source water.

There are likely thousands of PFAS that are currently present in the United States. Each of these chemicals has different properties and may be used for different purposes or may simply be present as unintended by-products of certain manufacturing or other processes. The toxicity of the chemicals varies, and people may be exposed to each chemical in different ways, in varying amounts and with different mixtures.

Robust information about PFAS is needed to better understand the risks they pose and to be able to take effective actions to protect human health and the environment. EPA’s research is helping to deepen our understanding of these chemicals so that we can take steps to continue reducing the risks posed by PFAS and provide certainty to state, local and tribal partners and the public. That is why EPA has placed a strong emphasis on research and why this work is vital to addressing PFAS in the environment.

EPA researchers continue to evaluate different drinking water treatment technologies that can remove certain PFAS from drinking water systems. They are evaluating systems across the nation currently treating PFAS and gathering data on cost and performance. Researchers are also testing

modifications needed to improve treatment. This research is being conducted in cooperation with drinking water utilities and with other federal agencies.

Researchers will generate performance and cost data with collaborators to develop models and provide tools to enable local communities to determine optimal treatment choices based on their specific needs and circumstances.

This work is incorporated into the Drinking Water Treatability Database, which helps drinking water utilities, communities, states, academics and more identify effective treatment processes. So far, EPA research has helped update the Database with 22 PFAS chemicals.

“EPA researchers are measuring PFAS in air, drinking water and soils to understand how and to what degree people might be exposed to PFAS.”

EPA researchers are developing methods for characterizing PFAS releases and movement in soil, water and sediments at contaminated sites, so that site managers can understand the scope and magnitude of such contamination to decide how best to respond. Researchers are also developing and testing methods for treating, removing, or immobilizing PFAS at such sites, to provide site managers with tools for site remediation. Some of this work is being done in collaboration with the Department of Defense on current and former military bases. For example, the EPA and DoD recently collaborated on a field study to evaluate a commercial PFAS-contaminated soil thermal treatment technology near Fairbanks Alaska. EPA researchers are measuring PFAS in air, drinking water and soils to understand how and to what degree people might be exposed to PFAS. This research includes modeling human population exposures to better understand the relative contributions

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of different sources and pathways for PFAS. This will help states, tribes and local communities to assess potential risks and to choose the most effective methods for protecting public health.

QUICK GUIDE TO COMMON PFAS EXPOSURE

PFAS can be present in our water, soil, air and food as well as in materials found in our homes or workplaces, including: • Drinking water – in public drinking water systems and private drinking water wells. • Soil and water at or near waste sites – at landfills, disposal sites and hazardous waste sites such as those that fall under the federal Superfund and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act programs. • Fire extinguishing foam – in aqueous film-forming foams (or AFFFs) used to extinguish flammable liquid-based fires.

Such foams are used in training and emergency response events at airports, shipyards, military bases, firefighting training facilities, chemical plants and refineries.

• Manufacturing or chemical production facilities that

produce or use PFAS – for example, at chrome plating, electronics and certain textile and paper manufacturers. • Food – for example, in fish caught from water contaminated by PFAS and dairy products from livestock exposed to PFAS. • Food packaging – for example, in grease-resistant paper, fast food containers/wrappers, microwave popcorn bags, pizza boxes and candy wrappers.

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Information obtained from awwa.org and www.epa.gov/pfas •

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