PFAS, AKA "forever chemicals"
PFAS, one of many kinds of “emerging contaminants”, have been increasingly in the news as recent research has found these compounds more ubiquitous and harmful than previously believed.
What are PFAS and why should we care?
PFAS is the acronym for a large group of substances known collectively as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. These substances have been widely used for decades in a variety of manufacturing and consumer products and other materials, notably, fire-fighting foam, water resistant clothing, and non-stick coatings of various types of cookware. PFAS do not break down naturally like most other substances, and they remain in organisms and the environment indefinitely while accumulating over time, building up in animals, aquatic life, people, and sediments. PFAS are sometimes called “forever chemicals”' because of these persistent characteristics. One of the primary ways that PFAS enter our bodies is by ingesting them when they are in drinking water or fish that we eat.
PFAS are now linked to increased incidence of numerous illnesses such as cancer, liver and kidney disease, and other disruptions to normal functions related to hormones, reproduction, and the immune system.
What’s being done about PFAS?
RRK 2022 summer intern, Sarah Lilley, taking a our upstream water sample to test for PFAS in the Rogue River.
While PFAS remain in the environment and have now been found to be widespread, the extent of the contamination is unknown. In response to the lack of information about the presence of PFAS in surface waters of the US, Waterkeeper Alliance initiated and coordinated a nationwide sampling of surface waters in the summer of 2022 and invited Waterkeeper groups from all over the US to participate. Rogue Riverkeeper was one of 113 waterkeepers in 34 states and the District of Columbia who collected samples to be tested for a total of 54 individual analytes (separate chemical substances included in the group defined by PFAS).
Rogue Riverkeeper’s sampling for PFAS
The sampling materials for testing for PFAS in the Rogue River.
Rogue Riverkeeper’s sampling for PFAS consisted of choosing an “upstream” and “downstream” location on the Rogue River and running a few ounces of river water through a specialized filter, then sending the filter media to the contracted lab for analysis. The “upstream” location was chosen so that it would be less likely to have PFAS based on a lower possibility of contamination from industrial operations, wastewater and stormwater discharges, landfills, or other typical PFAS sources. For our sampling, the “upstream” location chosen was on the Rogue River, just downstream of the Hwy. 62 bridge upstream of the Shady Cove boat ramp. The “downstream” location was on the Rogue River in the river channel upstream of the boat ramp at Schroeder Park near Grants Pass. This “downstream” location of the basin has surface water that drains from all the population centers and every major landfill and wastewater treatment plant in the Rogue basin.
The Results
The surprise was that, while the “downstream” location sample was found to have no detectable PFAS, the “upstream” location (which drains mostly forested and undeveloped land as well as part of the town of Shady Cove, some rural residences, agricultural and forestry operations, and runoff from numerous paved and gravel roads) did result in a very small detection of one single PFAS analyte: PFHpA (Perfluoroheptanoic acid) at 1.1 parts per trillion (ppt) which was just over the level of quantification for the PFAS sampled.
Sarah Lilley taking our downstream PFAS sample on the Rogue River.
Overall, the single PFAS analyte result in the Rogue was very small and all of the other PFAS analytes for both the upstream and downstream Rogue River locations came in as non-detectable (under the 1.0 ppt level of quantification). To put our Rogue River data into perspective with the other sample sites in the US, many of which draw from heavily industrialized watersheds with findings of many more detectable PFAS at higher amounts, the Rogue River has almost no PFAS contamination. PFHpA was found in 23 other states besides Oregon and our result is low in comparison to some others.
For example, the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper in Pennsylvania result for the same analyte, PFHpA, was 272.80 ppt. While it is good news that the PFAS results for the Rogue River are so low, it was surprising that there was any detectable at all in the upstream site, which has no obvious sources of PFAS contamination. And while PFAS in the Rogue are present, the downstream location showed none detectable but we don’t know why, though it is possible that the larger flows of the middle Rogue would dilute any contaminants. This is not to say that the Rogue PFAS result is inconsequential. It is still an indication of contamination by a dangerous substance. The Rogue Riverkeeper PFAS sampling data also cannot tell us what the source of the PFHpA result was. To see the results and more details about the nationwide PFAS study that Rogue Riverkeeper participated in, check out the report and interactive map from Waterkeeper Alliance.
The future of PFAS
Scientists have learned more about PFAS and people are asking regulatory agencies to implement binding and enforceable regulatory standards to protect public health and the environment. The EPA did issue a statement in early December 2022, to provide direction under existing Clean Water Act permitting to restrict PFAS at the source. The document from EPA outlines how states can monitor for PFAS discharges and take steps to reduce them where they are detected. EPA is now beginning to take notice and initiate action on PFAS to address these harmful chemicals under its PFAS Strategic Roadmap. Private industry, retailers, other businesses, and individual states are also beginning to limit or seek to eliminate the manufacture and use of PFAS.
What can you do?
Rogue Riverkeeper thanks the Waterkeeper Alliance for the opportunity to participate in this nationwide study and with other waterkeepers throughout the nation we call on the EPA to continue to take action to create binding regulations to restrict PFAS at their source, to reduce PFAS entering waterways via our wastewater and stormwater systems and protect public health and the environment by lowering people’s exposure to PFAS through swimming, fishing, drinking, and other pathways.
Learn more about PFAS and their regulation at the Waterkeeper Alliance page.
Data sourced from the National Library of Medicine and this scientific journal from PLOS ONE.