EPA slashes forever chemical health advisory levels to ‘near zero’ in drinking water

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it has lowered drinking water health advisories for two “forever chemicals” and is setting advisory levels for their replacements, including the chemical found in southeastern North Carolina’s drinking water.

Radhika Fox, the EPA’s assistant administrator for water, announced the proposed levels at the Third Annual National PFAS Meeting. Cape Fear Community College in downtown Wilmington hosted the event, held just over five years after the region learned that the Chemours chemical company was contaminating the region’s drinking water with GenX.

The EPA’s long-awaited GenX advisory proposal is 10 parts per trillion. That’s significantly lower than the 140 ppt interim advisory level that North Carolina has been using since 2017. State health officials have indicated that they will update the NC standard once the EPA announced its level.

More than 400 studies have indicated that PFOA and PFOS are more dangerous to human health than previously believed, Fox said, causing the EPA to propose that it lower the health advisory level for lifetime exposure from a combined 70 parts per trillion to .004 ppt for PFOA and .02 ppt for PFOS.

“Near zero. Near zero,” Fox said, drawing applause in a conference room filled with scientists and community members from areas that have dealt with PFAS contamination.

Fox also announced that the EPA is proposing a health advisory level of 2,000 ppt for PFBS. That chemical was the replacement industry used for PFOS, where GenX was the replacement for PFOA.

Health advisories are not regulatory and are not enforceable, but are intended to provide guidance to state regulators and health officials.

A consent order between Chemours and the state requires the Delaware-based company to provide drinking water to anyone whose groundwater is contaminated with 10 ppt of any one PFAS linked with Fayetteville Works or a combined 70 ppt.

All four of the chemicals are man-made and have been prized by industry for their resistance to water and long-lasting properties. But those same properties mean that they pose a risk to human health because they do not easily degrade in the natural environment and accumulate in the human body.

Coffee at Wednesday’s event featured a sign that said “made with reverse osmosis filtered water,” touting that it had been run through filtration devices that have been found to eliminate PFAS.

PFOA and PFOS could cause health impacts at concentrations that are lower than those the EPA can detect right now, the agency warned in its press release.

The chemicals suppress vaccine response in children by lowering the concentration of serum antibodies, according to an EPA fact sheet. They also have been linked with decreased birth weights and certain cancers, among other impacts.

Liver effects, namely a “constellation of lesions” on the organ, served as the basis for setting the EPA’s GenX advisory level. The agency also said that evidence suggests that oral exposure to GenX can cause cancer, but there is not enough evidence to set a cancer risk concentration.

Brian Buzby, the executive director of the N.C. Conservation Network, wrote, “EPA’s action on these four PFAS is ... a reminder that this entire class of chemicals appears to be much more toxic than previously known — it’s crucial that we keep them out of our water, air, clothing and food.”

Wednesday’s announcement is a sign that federal regulators need to move more quickly to limit exposure to forever chemicals, according to the Environmental Working Group, a watchdog group.

“Today’s announcement should set off alarm bells for consumers and regulators,” Melanie Benesh, the group’s legislative attorney, wrote in a statement. “These proposed advisory levels demonstrate that we must move much faster to dramatically reduce exposures to these toxic chemicals.”

Benesh suggested that the EPA could require that sludge be tested for the presence of forever chemicals and set limits on industrial discharges of the chemicals.

Fox also announced Wednesday that $1 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is available for water utilities in small or disadvantaged communities to address PFAS or other so-called emerging compounds.

The EPA’s Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule 5 will require all water utilities serving at least 3,300 people to sample their water for 29 different PFAS between 2023 and 2025.

Additionally, the agency plans to soon issue a rule that would allow the EPA to use its Superfund authority to require entities that release PFOA and PFOS to pay to clean up the chemicals.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

This story was produced with financial support from 1Earth Fund, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.

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