CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state’s preemptive strike to test for PFAS before the finalization of new regulatory standards from the federal government has turned up 27 public water systems in West Virginia that show detectable levels of the man-made chemicals.
The levels were found in the finished drinking water of those systems, according to a joint announcement made Friday afternoon by the state Department of Health and Human Resources and state Department of Environmental Protection.
Nineteen of the 27 systems have detections of the chemicals above at least one of the federal EPA’s proposed standards.
PFAS are a family of chemicals found in thousands of commonly used products, and while the effects of many of them are unknown, some are known to be dangerous to human health.
The U.S. Geological Survey did the testing for the state. A total of 37 systems were tested. The testing was done to the water after it went through the individual system’s filtration process.
State Health Officer Dr. Matthew Christiansen told MetroNews the test results are something to keep an eye on.
‘It is certainly something to be concerned about and certainly something to have on everyone’s radar but we are taking the critical steps to mitigate this in that long-term horizon to make sure we are reducing that risk as much as possible,” Christiansen said.
He pointed out that PFAS are more of a problem over a long period of time.
“There’s no acute threat, meaning there’s no risk of going home and drinking the water out of your faucet, even if your water system flags positive on this set of results right now,” Christiansen said. “There is no risk to your immediate health by doing that. It’s a cumulative impact over time. We do know certain health issues arise of decades of drinking this water.”
There are currently no regulatory requirement for states to test systems for PFAS but the EPA has proposed regulating certain compounds. The EPA rule could be finalized by the end of this year. West Virginia is trying to get out ahead of the issue. State lawmakers passed a bill earlier this year called the PFAS Protection Act (HB 3189),
The state already has a working group that’s been formed, Christiansen said.
“The testing that West Virginia has specifically has done is to help us do advanced planning and make sure that if and when these EPA rules come out, which are not even finalized yet, if and when they come out in their final version we will be off to the races already and have a plan in place to deal with some of these chemicals,” Christiansen said.
West Virginia will receive $18.9 million in federal funding over two years to deal with PFAS in drinking water. The money will be able to be used for testing and treatment. Christiansen said the goal is make sure to get the PFAS levels as low as possible.
“There’s lots of different things we can do, from controlling the source, making sure that these chemicals are not being released into the environment in the first place, all the way through to potentially switching water sources to non-contaminated sources to installing filtration systems,” Christiansen said.
Under the new law, industries that use PFAS chemicals must report their usage to the DEP. And DEP will, to the extent data is available, consider ways to address the sources and mitigate the impacts on public water systems.
Christiansen said he feels good about where the state is with the new law and the recent testing and upcoming efforts to eliminate PFAS.
“It’s something that we know is possible now that the science has become much more clear. We are already ahead of the curve to make sure we can mitigate this and get it out of the water,” he said.