Conn. secures $18M to combat chemicals in drinking water

The goal is to keep polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, from contaminating water sources in Connecticut.

Toward that end, the Environmental Protection Agency recently awarded Connecticut $18 million to address PFAS in drinking water and late last year the agency released a plan to address PFAS that includes a program to restrict discharge of the chemicals at their sources and a program to obtain comprehensive information on PFAS discharges to better inform future policies to fight the chemicals.

Environmental advocates joined U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and state Commissioner of Public Health Manisha Juthani in Hartford to speak about the $18 million in funding and the new federal guidance.

“We need to devote these resources, because Americans and people in Connecticut deserve better than the curse of PFAS in their drinking water. This contamination is a threat to their health, safety, and their children,” Blumenthal said.

When it comes to cleaning PFAS from the drinking water, Juthani said that for the larger water systems, there are techniques that can be built into the system itself.

Connecticut Public Health Section Chief Lori Mathieu said that for smaller water systems, the carbon treatment is called granulated activated carbon.

Mathieu said the good news for PFAS is that the carbon treatment is a well-known system for drinking water and it can rise as the level of PFAS is found, and take it out.

“And again, when you have carbon treatment, you create a waste product and you have to dispose of that as well. So yes, the commissioner is absolutely 100% correct. How do you deal with the PFAS? You can treat it by adding carbon treatment, or you could eliminate those sources of supply altogether and connect with another nearby water system that doesn’t have PFAS, which is expensive as well,” Mathieu said.

Blumenthal said PFAS have been used in the United States for decades in household, commercial and industrial products and are linked to kidney and testicular cancer, increased cholesterol levels, immune system problems, and decreases in childhood growth and development.

“We need to look also at other sources, all of the common utensils, boxes, other kinds of sources, and make sure that we eliminate wherever we can,” he said. “Approximately $445 million over five years should include a focus and ever-growing focus on PFAS, because we owe it to ourselves in the generations to come.”

He also said that in Connecticut, PFAS had been detected in drinking water across the state, as well as in the Farmington and Hockanum rivers. According to a 2022 study by the Northeastern University’s PFAS Project Lab, 693 sites in Connecticut are contenders for PFAS contamination.

Juthani said this initiative by the federal government and the investment in Connecticut is going to be directed very specifically to the state’s small or disadvantaged communities.

“What an important and remarkable step to recognize that it isn’t just our big water systems, but smaller ones, and those in our disadvantaged communities that are going to need help to address contamination by PFAS and other emerging contaminants,” she said.

She also said that one of the things that they look forward to as the Department of Public Health is that they are the agency that has primary authority over drinking water in the state, which allows them to figure out how to identify the small and disadvantaged communities.

“We know that our children are in schools, we know that some of our schools are on systems that may have water contaminated by substances like this. It is our responsibility as a society and as a department to try to tackle this problem at its heart and try to address this issue when it comes to our youngest – especially,” she said.

Juthani said that her department will be looking at ways to identify the small and disadvantaged communities that will be able to benefit from the funding influx in the first two years.

“And this being a five-year program. I just want to thank Senator Blumenthal and our federal partners for getting this bipartisan infrastructure law passed, bringing these resources to our state, which are going to be so critical to be able to address this problem,” she said.

Clean Water Action’s Anne Hulick said this is an issue of critical importance, as the forever chemicals are so toxic.

“The levels for these chemicals, and the health impacts have been reduced so significantly, as we’re understanding more and more about just the enormous toxicity of these chemicals,” she said.

As an example, she said one of the chemicals used to be determined to have health impacts at 70 parts per trillion. But the new rate is 0.004 parts per trillion, which is probably less than a drop of water in an Olympic-sized pool, she said.

“We know Connecticut residents are increasingly aware of and concerned about this issue. We’re getting calls all the time about people who are worried about PFAS in their water, PFAS in their environment. So that influx of these federal funds is lifesaving, frankly, to address a major source of concern, which is our drinking water. And it will go an incredibly long way to very proactively and aggressively address this issue,” she said.

Long Island Sound Keeper Bill Lucey said that as an employee of a regional nonprofit dedicated to protecting the waters of Long Island Sound, PFAS are an issue that came to the forefront a few years ago.

He thanked Blumenthal for his relentless, consistent drumbeat on the problem over the last four or five years that he has been involved.

“The drinking water guidelines have been reduced, both the state and the federal government have reduced their drinking water guidance levels to much safer levels of contamination,” he said. “That’s the first step and the next thing is going to be finding out where all this contamination is, and then cleaning it up. And it’s going to be a massive, massive effort.”

“What an important and remarkable step to recognize that it isn’t just our big water systems, but smaller ones, and those in our disadvantaged communities that are going to need help to address contamination by PFAS and other emerging contaminants.” MANISHA JUTHANI STATE COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC HEALTH