The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
EPA rules PFAS must be removed from drinking water
The Environmental Protection Agency this week issued new rules for municipalities and water companies regulating PFAS contamination of drinking water. The April 10 verdict? Get them out of the tap.
PFAS are known as “forever chemicals” due to their high stability in the environment. They have been used for a variety of applications including on nonstick cookware, fire retardants and food packaging, among others. They have been in use for over 70 years and have since spread almost everywhere in the environment. Long-term exposure to PFAS is linked to cancers, liver, heart, immunological and developmental damage.
“Connecticut recognizes the public health threat posed by PFAS, and as a result of Governor Ned Lamont’s Interagency PFAS Task Force, we can protect all residents, including sensitive populations, from adverse health effects due to a lifetime of exposure to these chemicals in drinking water,” wrote Dr. Manisha Juthani, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health in an emailed statement. “The EPA’s decision to set enforceable limits for PFAS in public drinking water is a welcome tool that our agency can use to ensure that consumers of public drinking water are protected from these PFAS chemicals.”
The EPA rule targets six out of the many thousands of chemicals in the
PFAS family. Under the new limits, two of these chemicals, PFOA and PFOS would be legally capped at the lowest limit that is currently technologically possible — four parts per trillion, or roughly four drops of water in 500 in-ground swimming pools.
The danger of PFAS exposure isn’t necessarily from swallowing or bumping into a single drop or two of contaminated water. PFAS bioaccumulates, meaning any that’s ingested has a high chance of simply staying in the body. Over time, PFAS buildup causes health problems. The EPA doesn’t believe there is any safe limit of exposure to PFAS chemicals.
Under the new rules, public water systems have three years to complete their monitoring for PFAS. If they detect PFAS in the drinking water, they have two years to purchase and install equipment designed to filter it out.
Upgrading, remediating, and monitoring for PFAS contamination is anticipated to be expensive. The EPA estimates
that nationally the cost will be about $1.5 billion a year. The American Water Works Association, an industry group, said that the EPA’s estimates are off and that that cost could be three times as much.
The Biden administration estimates that the new rule will reduce PFAS exposure for about 100 million people. The EPA is making about $1 billion in federal funds available to help local governments implement PFAS treatment and testing.
The EPA also limited three other chemicals: PFNA, PFHxS and “GenX Chemicals,” to 10 parts per trillion. This limit applies to these chemicals alone, or in combination with other PFAS-family chemicals.
The news comes just months after a flurry of lawsuits nationwide and here in Connecticut by local governments and the state attorney general against PFAS manufacturers for damages related to PFAS contamination. New Haven, Danbury and Norwalk were among towns seeking
damages to remediate and upgrade drinking water infrastructure.
Other similar lawsuits were filed against two local water companies, Connecticut Water Company and Aquarion, in 2023.
Attorney General William Tong filed two suits in January of this year, targeting 28 chemical manufacturers for damage to the state’s water supply.
Aquarion, in an emailed statement, said that they were pursuing federal, state and settlement money from PFAS manufacturers to address its water systems where the chemical has been detected. The company did not want to pass those costs on to ratepayers and said they had been “preparing for the new science-based standard.”
“Aquarion’s planning efforts have allowed our engineering team to proactively design appropriate PFAS solutions for our water systems. We have shovels in the ground on several projects and are focused on promptly completing them,” said Donald Morrissey,
president of Aquarion Water Company.
Connecticut Water officials said in an emailed statement that they began testing for PFAS in 2019, ahead of the EPA’s requirements and began notifying affected customers at that time. Connecticut Water confirmed that they were also party to lawsuits against chemical manufacturers of PFAS and that they were implementing treatment measures in affected systems.
2019 was the same year that Lamont established the Interagency PFAS Task Force in response to a spill at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks that dumped PFAS-laced firefighting foam into the Farmington River.
The lawsuits against the chemical manufacturers were filed in anticipation of the EPA’s final ruling on PFAS. The federal agency had announced their intention to lower the safe limit from 70 parts per trillion to 4 parts per trillion, the limit of existing technology’s ability to detect PFAS in water.