Leaders at odds on limits of PFAS

Lehigh Valley official questions effectiveness

The Environmental Protection Agency has placed new limits on harmful chemicals in drinking water, but Lehigh Valley officials disagree on how effective the limits would be.

State Sen. Nick Miller, D-Lehigh/Northampton, said the EPA decision was a great “first step” for protecting residents while urging legislators to pass additional laws to limit PFAS chemicals.

“Here in Pennsylvania, our residents have a constitutional right to clean air and water,” he said in a separate news release.

Yet Emmaus Borough Manager Shane Pepe said he feels the new limits for the chemicals were “arbitrary.” Emmaus is working to treat PFAS contamination in two of its wells.

The EPA last week announced new maximum levels for six PFAS chemicals in drinking water of up to only 10 parts per trillion.

PFAS, also known as perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl substances, are part of a group of chemicals that don’t break down and can build up in people, animals and the environment, leading to increased cancer risk and decreased fertility.

There are different chemicals in the PFAS family, and the regulations vary. For PFOA and PFOS, the maximum allowed in drinking water is 4 parts per trillion. For PFHxS, PFNA and HFPO-DA, the maximum is 10 ppt. For mixtures that contain two or more of these chemicals or PFBS, the maximum is a 1 on the EPA Hazard Index, which measures potential health risks from exposure to chemical mixtures.

As part of the new regulation, for which the EPA said it evaluated over 120,000 public comments, public water systems will have five years to reduce PFAS levels to the legal requirements.

The EPA also announced that $1 billion in federal

funding would be available to states for testing and treating PFAS chemicals in public water systems.

The “EPA expects that over many years the final rule will prevent PFAS exposure in drinking water for approximately 100 million people, prevent thousands of deaths, and reduce tens of thousands of serious PFAS-attributable illnesses,” the news release said.

Yet Pepe questioned the limits, saying most companies that test for such chemicals can’t detect as low as 4 parts per trillion — the limit Emmaus would face to remove PFOA and PFOS from its wells — and that water sources such as rainwater have a higher PFAS contamination level.

“[This] means any drinking water system that pulls from streams or underground water is going to be polluted,” Pepe said.

He also expressed concern for not seeing the research for how the EPA decided on the limits, and said the money the federal government will provide for implementing antiPFAS infrastructure likely isn’t sufficient.

“It’s a drop in the bucket,” Pepe said. “For two wells, it’s $10 million for [Emmaus] so how far is their money going to go?”

The EPA didn’t answer a question regarding the research and decisions behind the new PFAS limits.

In its announcement, the agency estimated that 6%-10% of public drinking water systems would have to take action to reduce PFAS levels to meet the new standards. It said the limits could be met using a range of available technologies, including activated carbon filters, reverse osmosis and ion exchange systems.

Pepe said the borough hopes to treat those two wells, near the Emmaus Fire Department’s training facility, by November 2025.

Borough officials also want to eventually treat two other wells — by Emmaus Community Park and Macungie Avenue, respectively — for trace amounts of PFAS, which would cost an additional $6 million, Pepe said.

The Lehigh County Authority, which operates water systems across 15 municipalities in Lehigh County, is investigating how the new EPA limits would affect its water systems, according to CEO Liesel Gross, including any potential costs.

Gross said water utilities nationwide have been concerned about the EPA limits due to their being close to the chemicals’ detection limits, adding that the challenge for those systems will be to find labs that can accurately test PFAS at low levels.

Emmaus was originally party to nationwide litigation against the company 3M, which manufactured the firefighting foam that contained the chemicals linked to PFAS contamination of wells in the borough.

Pepe said that the borough has since opted to sue the company on its own, adding that the timeline of such litigation is unknown.