More work ahead to protect rural communities, end PFAS use in consumer products
Today the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the first ever national drinking water standards for harmful PFAS “forever chemicals.’ Public water systems across Wisconsin will now be required to meet strict Maximum Contaminant Levels for five different types of PFAS compounds, levels which are far lower than the standards Wisconsin currently has in place.
“The national drinking water standards established today reinforce how harmful these chemicals truly are,” says Clean Wisconsin Water and Agriculture Program Director Sara Walling. “This badly-needed action from the EPA ensures that Wisconsinites who get their drinking water from public systems will have peace of mind knowing that the water flowing from their taps is protected from dangerous levels of PFAS contamination.”
Millions of people in Wisconsin get their water from public water systems. About 355,000 Wisconsinites are served by systems that do not meet the new EPA standards for PFAS.
“Our understanding of the toxicity of these chemicals has greatly improved in the past decade,” says Clean Wisconsin Science Director Paul Mathewson. “The EPA must take into account the cost and feasibility of treatment when setting these standards, and it is telling that even after this consideration, they set the Maximum Contaminant Level in the single parts per trillion. Standards for most other drinking water contaminants are set thousands or millions of times higher.”
The EPA also announced today that nearly $1 billion in newly available funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be coming to impacted communities to help build treatment systems that remove PFAS from drinking water.
“Clean Wisconsin commends the Biden Administration for its action today to protect families across Wisconsin and the country. Funding to support remediation at the municipal, public and private levels demonstrates the administration’s commitment to public health and safe drinking water,” Walling says.
While federal funding will be available for families who get water from private wells, the new drinking water standards announced by the EPA only apply to public drinking water systems. Walling says the responsibility of protecting the hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites who rely on private wells ultimately falls to the state.
“We don’t have groundwater standards in Wisconsin for PFAS, so that means no real protection for rural families from these dangerous chemicals. It’s the state’s job to create and enforce groundwater standards, but the most recent effort by the DNR to do so was blocked by the Natural Resources Board. Clean Wisconsin is calling for a renewed effort to pass groundwater standards in the state as quickly as possible,” she says.
Drinking water is just one way people are exposed to PFAS chemicals, which are used in a wide variety of consumer products, including non-stick pans, fast food wrappers, carpets, upholstery, firefighting foam, cosmetics, shoes and clothing.
“Given the harm possible at such low levels and the cost of treating contaminated water sources, we must work to phase out any non-essential uses of PFAS as quickly as possible,” Mathewson says. “PFAS are known as ‘forever chemicals’ because they persist in the environment and in the bodies of animals and people. It’s important that we address production and use on the front end before more of these toxic chemicals end up in our environment and in our food supply.”
PFAS (or per-and-polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a class of thousands of different chemicals manufactured since the 1940s. The toxic compounds have made their way into waterways across Wisconsin, prompting the DNR to issue numerous fish consumption advisories. PFAS have also been detected in municipal drinking water systems and private water wells in many communities including Eau Claire, La Crosse, Madison, Rhinelander, Marshfield, Manitowoc, French Island, Marinette, Peshtigo and Wausau. Studies have shown that high-level exposure to PFAS is associated with suppressed vaccine response, increased risk of some cancers, increased cholesterol, and increased risk of high blood pressure in pregnant women.
