The U.S. EPA announced their journey to regulate PFOA & PFOS in drinking water.

American Communities address the presence of chemicals in their drinking water.

On February 20, 2020, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its Proposed Decision to Regulate perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) in drinking water. This furthers the nationwide efforts to address the presence of the per-and polyfluoroalkyls’ (PFAS) group of chemicals in US drinking water and marks a key milestone in EPA’s efforts to help communities address PFAS. PFAS (which include PFOA and PFOS) are a group of man-made chemicals that are resistant to heat, oil, stains, grease and water and have been used in many commercial and household products and applications. PFAS are very ubiquitous and persistent in both the environment and the human body and can be found virtually everywhere—PFAS chemicals don’t break down in the environment or the body, have the ability to travel through soil and water and they accumulate within fish and wildlife over time. The most common uses for PFAS chemicals are in household products such as waterproof and stain resistant materials, repellent fabrics, carpets, nonstick cookware (i.e. Teflon), polishes, waxes, paints and cleaning products; in stain and moisture resistant food packaging like burger wrappers, French fry containers, pizza boxes, and paper drink cups; and for industrial uses like fire-fighting foams, chrome plating, electronics manufacturing and oil recovery. Although these chemicals can no longer be manufactured in the US, they are still produced internationally and can be imported into the US via consumer goods such as carpet, fabrics, textiles, leather , paper, packaging, coatings, rubber and plastics. Some stores of these materials are still present at firefighting colleges and training facilities, airports, military bases, industrial plants, and other commercial installations where suppression of hydrocarbon or petroleum based fires is a priority. This step marks some progress in EPA’s journey to regulate these chemicals. EPA first issued a drinking water Health Advisory for PFOA and PFOS in May 2016. Since then, the EPA and the states have been studying the sources of PFOA and PFOS in drinking water and working towards adopting regulations to limit these chemical classes in drinking water, even though some states are ahead of EPA in adopting regulation for these chemicals. Almost 3 years after issuing its first health advisory for these substances, EPA adopted a PFAS Action Plan in February 2019 to help all American communities address the presence of these substances in their drinking water supplies.

This is in conjunction with the national drinking water regulation rule-making process established by Congress under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Currently, approximately 90 contaminants are regulated under National Primary Drinking Water Regulations established by the EPA under the SWDA. These federal regulations establish enforceable standards called “maximum contaminant levels” (MCL’s). An MCL is the maximum level allowed of a contaminant in water which is delivered to any user of a public water system. These standards are established based on the best science available to protect public health and are calculated so that little or no adverse health risk would be expected after consuming an average of 2 liters of water per day for 70 years. When determining an MCL, the EPA considers adverse health risks to the general population and sensitive subpopulations like infants, children, elderly and those with chronic diseases or compromised immune systems. MCL’s are used by EPA to regulate the level of chemicals allowed in drinking water. The SDWA establishes a scientific and public participation process to guide EPA’s development of regulations for unregulated contaminants or pollutants that may present a risk to public health. These chemicals, known as “contaminants of emerging concern” (CEC), are chemicals discovered in water that had not been previously detected and have no regulatory limits, but may have a long term health or environment risk associated with them. The EPA must publish the Contaminant Candidate list (CCL) which identifies a list of contaminants or pollutants that are known to be present in public drinking water systems, but are not subject to EPA drinking water regulations prior to developing regulations for a specific chemical or class of chemicals. Once officially identifying PFAS as a contaminant, EPA issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking that allows the public to provide input on adding PFAS to the Toxics Release Inventory toxic chemical list on September 25, 2019. On December 19, 2019, the EPA issued its Interim Recommendation for Addressing Groundwater Contaminated With PFOA and PFOS to give states and tribal groups guidance for federal cleanup programs. Using a hazard quotient of 0.1 (the ratio of potential substance exposure to the level where no adverse non-cancer effect is expected), the EPA recommended groundwater screening level for PFOA and PFOS to be set at 40 parts per trillion (ppt); the recommended Preliminary Remediation Goal for groundwater sources of drinking water is set at 70 ppt. This is based on the EPA’s 2016 lifetime drinking water Health Advisory (HA) limit of 70 ppt for individual or combined concentrations of PFOA and PFOS. This interim recommendation is non-binding and based on the EPA’s current scientific understanding of the toxicity of PFOA and PFOS. Further toxicity information is being developed for the PFAS family of chemicals and the EPA will consider that information as it becomes available in order to set the MCL for the chemicals. As stated above, there is currently no regulatory limit for PFAS chemicals in drinking water, but with this announcement, the time for action by both the EPA and the states to set hard limits on PFAS chemicals draws near. Also contained in the February 20, 2020 announcement, the EPA issued a supplemental proposal to ensure that new uses of certain PFAS chemicals in surface coatings cannot be made or imported into the US without prior authorization and also released an updated list for 172 PFAS chemicals subject to the Toxics Release Inventory reporting. Lastly, the EPA is currently conducting toxicity assessments to determine if other chemicals in the PFAS family which are replacements for PFOA and PFOS (which include the GenX family of chemicals, HFPO dimer acid and PFBS) also need to be regulated in drinking water. Any industries, business or property owners that use significant amounts of chemicals in the PFAS family or their analogues should prepare action plans to address eliminating or significantly their uses of these materials. In regard to control of these chemicals, the Federal government is lagging behind the states in its regulation of the PFAS group of chemicals in drinking water. In Florida, for instance, the State Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) began systematically testing sites suspected of higher levels of PFOA and PFOS like firefighter training colleges and stations, airports, industrial plants, dumps, and military bases (in coordination with the US Department of Defense). House Bill 1427 and Senate Bill 1720 were introduced during the 2020 legislative session to amend Florida’s Safe Water Drinking Act and require FDEP to adopt MCL’s for PFAS in its drinking water by 2021. Senate Bill 492 was introduced to require the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) to notify any private well owners of within a 1-mile radius of a reported release or discharge of PFAS (drinking water standards do not apply to private domestic drinking water wells).