EPA Proposes New PFAS Contamination Standards

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed the first-ever national health safety standard for the group of chemicals collectively known as PFAS that have been found to be polluting groundwater in thousands of sites across the nation — including southern Wainscott and Westhampton.

The proposal would put a regulatory cap at 4 parts per trillion — the lowest level at which the chemicals can be reliably measured — of any of six PFAS chemicals in drinking water supplies.

Setting a standard, which will still have to go through an extensive review and analysis process, would require that public water systems monitor for the chemicals and notify the public of any PFAS detections and institute filtering to lower contamination if the chemicals were found at levels above standards.

In 2020, New York State established its own maximum standard for PFAS in groundwater at 10 parts per trillion.

The Suffolk County Water Authority has already said that upgrading its water treatment systems to combat PFAS and other pollutants will cost ratepayers $1 billion.

“The EPA’s proposal is an important step to protect the public health of our communities and to avoid long-term exposure to PFAS pollution,” New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. said. “These chemicals pose a serious public health threat on the East End of Long Island and across New York.

“Just last year, I sponsored critical legislation to protect access to water supply and hold polluters responsible for the damages they create to the environment, including sources of water supply. We must continue our work to prevent the future contamination of ‘forever chemicals’ and keep our drinking water safe in order to protect the health of our families.”

The PFAS family of chemicals are what is known as “emerging pollutants” because their presence in the environment, their detection and the potential for negative health effects from them is still a new science and little understood.

The two PFAS chemicals found locally, known PFOS and PFOA, were common substances used in the manufacturing of a broad variety of products that need to repel liquid, from pizza boxes to carpet treatments.

They were also used extensively in fire-suppressing foams like those commonly used at airports to combat airplane fuel fires. But that use also led to them being sprayed on open ground around plane crashes and at training sites, leading to extensive groundwater contamination by the chemicals in areas around airports and military bases nationwide.

In the wake of the discovery of PFAS chemicals in the soil at East Hampton Airport and in hundreds of drinking water wells around southern Wainscott, the Suffolk County Water Authority extended mains to more than 500 homes in the region.

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against the chemical giant 3M, which developed the chemicals, and the manufacturers of the fire-suppressant foams that used them. A class action lawsuit by a Wainscott resident against the chemical and foam manufacturers and East Hampton Town is among the lawsuits consolidated into a single action in federal court.