PA advances rule to limit PFAS in drinking water
Pennsylvania’s Environmental Quality Board voted in mid-October in favor of adopting a new rule to limit the amount of two toxic PFAS chemicals in Pennsylvanians’ drinking water.
PFAS chemicals are referred to as “forever chemicals” because they don’t easily break down in the environment or in the body. They are linked to serious health issues, including some cancers, birth defects and low birth weights, and immune deficiencies.
The new regulations are now in the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) process.
If approved, the new rule would set limits on the PFAS compounds PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonic acid), and require water companies and municipalities to regularly monitor water for PFAS and treat the water if it exceeds the maximum contaminant levels (MCLs).
Currently, PFOA and PFOS are not regulated in drinking water at the federal level.
The new rule sets an MCL of 14 parts per trillion for PFOA and an MCL of 18 parts per trillion for PFOS.
In June, the Environmental Protection Agency revised its federal health advisory level (HAL) for PFAS that it set in 2016, reducing the HAL from 70 parts per trillion (the equivalent of 70 drops in an Olympic-sized swimming pool) to near-zero parts per trillion because those PFAS compounds are more dangerous than previously thought. That advisory, however, is unenforceable.
PFAS have been used since the 1940s to make products such as non-stick cookware, stain-resistant carpets, and water-resistant clothing, dental floss, popcorn bags, take-out containers, food packaging, and the foam used in firefighting.
PFAS also has been used in industries such as aerospace, automotive, construction, electronics, hydraulic fracturing and other types of oil and gas extraction across the U.S. and in Pennsylvania.
PFAS can travel through rainwater, and seep into and contaminate surface water and ground soil. People can build up PFAS in their bodies a number of ways – by drinking contaminated water, eating fish in which PFAS have accumulated, or breathing air, for example, near a factory that emits PFAS.
Dr. Ned Ketyer, medical adviser of Environmental Health Project, who moderated an Oct. 19 webinar regarding the health risks of PFAS, said, “I’m very pleased that the issue of PFAS in our drinking water, in our food, in our products and in our lives is finally getting the urgent attention it deserves. People are realizing there is no safe level of PFAS. This is a ‘stop the presses’ moment when we learn how PFAS is in everything, even in rainwater everywhere on the planet. It’s a manmade chemical we’ve allowed into everything, and it appears to have had significant health impacts and will continue to have significance health impacts moving forward.”
Dr. Tasha Stoiber, a senior scientist with the Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy organization that has spent years mapping PFAS contamination across the U.S., participated in the webinar and recommended that one small action homeowners can do is to purchase reverse osmosis and activated carbon filters, both of which are effective at reducing PFAS in drinking water at home.
“In communities where we know there’s significant PFAS contamination either from a specific industry or point source, drinking water is a primary concern,” Stoiber said.