SOURCE:
https://patch.com/new-york/massapequa/new-map-shows-level-forever-chemicals-li-drinking-water
By Alex Costello, Patch Staff - December 7, 2022
The map shows just how widespread PFAS are in Long Island's water. But the group behind it says the problem can be solved.
LONG ISLAND, NY —The Long Island environmental advocacy group Citizens Campaign for the Environment has just released a new map that shows residents how much PFAS are in their drinking water.
The group put together an interactive map showing how much PFAS are in the drinking water of the various water suppliers across Long Island. Polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly called PFAS, are chemicals that are used for their waterproofing and stain resistances. They are commonly found in a variety of products, including fabric conditioners, firefighting foam and older styles of teflon.
PFAS are known as "forever chemicals" because they never break down in the environment. They keep accumulating, which can lead to increasing levels of the chemicals. And they are not distributed evenly.
"There's people on Long Island drinking from really clean water," said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment. "But then there are people like myself who live in Patchogue, who are drinking over 100 parts-per-trillion of PFAS chemicals, which is downright scary."
The health effects of PFAS vary greatly. According to the CDC, PFAS may lead to liver problems, high cholesterol, decreased vaccine efficacy in children, decreases in birth weight and increased risk of kidney or testicular cancer.
The map from Citizens Campaign for the Environment is the result of months of work. The group gathered water-quality reports from all the water distributors across Long Island, to see the concentrations of all the PFAS in the water supply.
While some PFAS have mandatory limits under state law, there's currently no limit to the total accumulated PFAS that can be in water — meaning multiple types of PFAS can stack to create high levels. Other states have a cumulative standard of 20 parts-per-trillion (ppt) for PFAS, which is a standard Citizens Campaign would like to see New York adopt.
"The state wants to make cumulative standard of 30 ppt," Esposito said. "Twenty is the cumulative standard that other states have, and we don't think we should get less protection than them."
The data Citizens Campaign collected covers PFAS levels for all of 2021, and it shows that the chemical can show up everywhere. All water on Long Island has some PFAS, but it varies based on the water district, not geography.
For example, according to the map, the Village of Hempstead Water District had a cumulative total of 42.6 ppt of PFAS in its water in 2021. Next door, the West Hempstead Water District had none.
The highest concentration of PFAS was in the Suffolk County Water Authority's Distribution Area 20, which serves Shirley, Mastic Beach, Mastic, Moriches, Center Moriches, East Moriches, Eastport, Westhampton Beach, Quiogue, Quogue, East Quogue and Westhampton Island. That area had cumulative PFAS of 99 ppt.
Esposito said that PFAS are not an unsolvable problem, though.
"The good news is the technology to remove them works really well," she said. "It's called granulated activated carbon. It's a carbon filtration system that's used widely around the world to filter drinking water. It's a proven, known technology."
The downside, however, is that it is expensive to implement the filtration systems.
But that's part of the reason Esposito and her group released their map now. The state is currently in the middle of a regulatory process to decided what the acceptable levels for PFAS in the water supply should be. Two PFAS are already regulated, but the state is deciding on more of them. And Esposito says the state should also implement a cumulative cap.
In addition, there's currently federal and state money available to water authorities specifically for purifying their supplies. The infrastructure law that was passed in 2021 includes $5 billion in possible grants to purify water systems, and specifically to filter PFAS out of water. There are also state grants available as well.
"The problem is, [filtering PFAS] is expensive," Esposito said. "But not nearly as expensive as cancer."