Drinking water tests OK in state, EPA says

As federal regulators weigh the possibility of regulating a harmful set of chemicals found in millions of Americans’ drinking water, no testing conducted in Arkansas appears to show the chemicals’ presence in the state’s drinking water.

Most people have been exposed to the chemicals, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says.

Testing for the chemicals in Arkansas’ drinking water took place at the state’s largest utilities from 2013-15 and was measured if detected above a level established by the EPA. It was not detected at that level at any of the state’s utilities, but critics have said the level the EPA used was not low enough to detect concentrations of the chemicals that remain harmful.

The 14 chemicals fall under the category of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) are the most-studied PFAS, and research shows they can cause “reproductive and development, liver and kidney, and immunological effects in laboratory animals,” according to the EPA. Both have caused tumors in animals.

PFAS don’t break down in the environment or in a person’s body, so they remain there and build up with the addition of more PFAS. Certain filtration systems can remove them from tap water.

Manufacturers have phased out use of perfluorooctanoic and perfluorooctanesulfonic acids, according to the EPA. Perfluorooctanoic acid has been replaced by a category of chemicals known as GenX chemicals,

according to the agency.

The chemicals have drawn comparisons to DDT, a pesticide that was heralded in the 1940s for its efficiency and was used worldwide before it was ultimately banned in 1972 because of adverse health effects.

People can be exposed to PFAS chemicals via some food packaging, food grown with PFAS-contaminated soil or water, certain commercial household products, certain industrial facilities, other living things or drinking water, according to the EPA’s website.

From 2013-15, utilities with 10,000 or more customers were required under federal rules to test for perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, perfluorooctanoic acid and 12 more PFAS chemicals. During that time, none of the Arkansas utilities pulled samples that had detectable levels of the chemicals, according to EPA data.

But, across the country, dozens of utilities serving millions of customers did. Some have levels hundreds of times higher than recommended.

Arkansas’ drinking water sources appear to be far away from potential industrial sources of pollution, said Jeff Stone, director of the Arkansas Department of Health’s engineering section.

Major drinking water sources, such as Lake Fort Smith or Beaver Lake, are surface water sources in forested areas. “Nothing can be better than a lake surrounded by forestland,” Stone said. “That’s our optimal situation.”

Industry is also far enough from the watersheds of Central Arkansas Water’s two water sources, Lake Maumelle and Lake Winona.

“Because we own our lakes, and we protect them, and we don’t have that type of development around our water sources, we really don’t have an issue with those chemicals,” said Doug Shackelford, a spokesman for the utility.

“It would be really difficult for them to find their way into our lake,” he said.

The sampling was required under the third round of the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule. The rule requires testing for dozens of chemicals over a threeyear period, followed by two years of analysis of the results and decisions on whether to move forward with regulating any of the “contaminant candidates.”

After trying to stop the Department of Health and Human Services from releasing a report recommending even lower levels of PFAS concentrations in drinking water, the EPA has traveled to states with high PFAS levels and intends to spend the fall working on a PFAS management plan.

The EPA’s detection level for perfluorooctanesulfonic acid was 0.04 micrograms per liter, and for perfluorooctanoic acid it was 0.02 micrograms per liter (20 parts per trillion).