US EPA recommends testing wastewater for PFAS

December 1, 2020

Read the full article by Cheryl Hogue (C&EN)

"Some facilities may have to test for the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in their wastewater, under a new strategy from the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The effort could eventually help reduce the level of environmentally persistent and toxic PFAS in drinking water drawn downstream of such facilities as well as in fish and river sediment.

But environmental advocates say the guidance amounts to little for people who have drinking water contaminated with PFAS.

“The EPA should be issuing tough, mandatory standards to regulate PFAS discharges from thousands of industry facilities,” Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, says in a statement. Faber notes that PFAS are virtually ubiquitous in the blood of Americans. The EWG estimates that 2,500 US manufacturers likely discharge PFAS to rivers and lakes or to wastewater treatment plants, which aren’t designed to remove these chemicals."