PFAS chemicals have contaminated 17 sites in Pennsylvania, data show

Date: May 6, 2019
Author: Jon Hurdle, StateImpact Pennsylvania (Edited for Length and Content)

Seventeen sites in Pennsylvania have been contaminated by PFAS chemicals in recent years and are still likely to contain at least some of the toxic material even if water supplies there have been treated by local authorities, according to data released by a national advocacy group.

Environmental Working Group compiled PFAS reports from local utilities, the Department of Defense, and researchers at Northeastern University, and presented the information in a national map showing public water systems, military bases, civilian airports, industrial plants and dumps where contamination has been found at various times since 2013.

The utilities include one in the eastern Pennsylvania town of Horsham where five PFAS chemicals, including PFOA and PFOS, were detected at more than 44 million parts per trillion (ppt) in 2014, thousands of times higher than a level recommended — but not required — by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as being protective of human health.

Aqua, an investor-owned utility that also serves Horsham Township, said that the combined PFOA/PFOS level there was 10.8 ppt, well within the EPA limit of 70 ppt for those two chemicals. Aqua spokeswoman Donna Alston said all the company’s water systems in Bucks, Montgomery and Chester counties showed PFAS levels below the EPA’s threshold in the latest tests.

Although many utilities use the EPA’s PFOA and PFOS level as a benchmark, advocates say it’s too high to protect public health. For that reason, state scientists in New Jersey have recommended – and environmental officials are in the process of adopting – levels that are some five times lower than the federal standard.

In the EWG data, one of the bases, the former Willow Grove Naval Air Station at Horsham, had combined PFOA and PFAS contamination as high as 86,000 ppt, affecting 108 out of 161 wells on-base in testing during 2017, DoD data show. Public wells near the base had contamination of up to 1,000 ppt.
Other utility data show contamination well above the EPA’s health limit at Warminster and Warrington, two communities that have also been affected by PFAS chemicals from the military bases.

While utilities such as Horsham’s have largely removed PFAS from their systems since the samples were taken, the chemicals will still be present at some level because they don’t break down in the environment, said Bill Walker, vice president of EWG. “When a water system is contaminated with PFAS, treatment will lower the concentration but not completely remove it. So, the contamination is still there, just being treated at a cost to the water district and its customers,” Walker said.

The chemicals, once used in consumer products like nonstick cookware and flame-retardant fabrics, are being increasingly regulated by states as more becomes known about their links to cancer and other health conditions including thyroid problems, low birth weights and elevated cholesterol.

In New Jersey, the state last year became the first in the country to adopt a tough standard for PFNA, a type of PFAS chemical, and is in the process of adopting low limits for PFOA and PFOS.