After announcing the first ever national drinking standard for “forever chemicals” last month, the U.S. Environmental Agency has also revealed data that shows nearly 300 of our public water systems exceed the new limits.
According to a USA Today analysis of the EPA testing conducted over more than a year, some of those water systems serve hundreds of thousands of people. It released a map of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) levels across the U.S. this week.
“USA Today recreated the EPA’s analysis and found public systems in Fort Worth, Texas; Fresno, California; Pensacola, Florida; and Augusta, Georgia, were among the hundreds whose sample averages landed above the new annual limits,” said the report. This number is only expected to grow over the next two years.
As of this April, the fourth set of data under the fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule for 30 chemical contaminants (29 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances [PFAS] and lithium) had been collected, per the EPA. That means that approximately 35% of the total results (around 4,750 water systems) that the EPA expects to receive by completion of data reporting in 2026 have been delivered.
Reuters reported Tuesday that German chemical company BASF said it reached a $316.5 million settlement with some U.S. public water systems that claimed toxic “forever chemicals” in firefighting foam made by the company contaminated their water supplies. This settlement must be approved by a federal judge.
“Last month, the EPA estimated that one in 10 – or more than 6,000 – systems may eventually need to take some sort of corrective action to rid their water of PFAS,” said USA Today.
In the Philadelphia area, the map indicated that Lancaster, Pa. has PFAS detected at/over limit with a population of 120,000, according to the outlet’s map. The Aqua Pennsylvania main system in Bryn Mawr, which serves approximately 822,600 people, also has PFAS detected over the new limits.
Water systems have five years to treat their water as the new rules gradually kick in. Additionally, the agency will require remediation only for systems based on their running annual average, not just point-in-time measurements.
“Almost 800 drinking water systems across the United States have recently measured PFAS at or above the newly established limits at least once, according to a USA Today analysis of data the EPA released last week,” said the outlet. Overall, those systems serve approximately 47 million people.
PFAS have been linked to health issues such as the rare cancer that killed 20-year-old Amara Strande of Oakdale, Minn., last year.
In order to get below the new PFAS standards, water systems across the U.S. are working on remediation plans.
“Mary Gugliuzza, spokesperson for Fort Worth Water, said the utility took action last summer with a PFAS treatability study ‘as soon as we were seeing numbers above’ the then-proposed limits. She said they plan to go before the City Council as soon as next month to get a contract to begin designing a treatment process that uses granular activated carbon,” according to USA Today.
That’s just one example of efforts underway to get PFAS out of drinking water.
Just this week, the EPA also announced that the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) will receive $18.9 million to assess the extent of emerging contaminants such PFAS in public water systems.
“Clean, safe drinking water is something every person in New Mexico deserves,” said Regional Administrator Dr. Earthea Nance. “With this funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the New Mexico Environment Department will be able to take crucial steps to safeguard New Mexico’s drinking water from PFAS and other emerging contaminants.”
USA Today also said that some good news came out of the recent testing.
“Over 1,000 [water systems] were included for the first time in last week’s update, and they do show one bright spot: Many of the largest, newly added water systems haven’t detected any PFAS yet, including Los Angeles; Chicago; Tucson, Arizona; Boston; and Portland, Oregon,” it said.