SOURCE:
https://www.newsday.com/opinion/newsday-opinion-the-point-newsletter-1.36213515
September 12, 2019
As the state Department of Health prepares to set drinking water standards for contaminants found in firefighting foam, Teflon-coated cookware, stain-resistant carpet, and other products, some environmental groups are asking officials to hold public hearings before adopting the limits.
The issue is big on Long Island, where perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which have been linked to kidney and testicular cancer, have been found in water in many public and private wells in the region. Upstate communities also have been affected, especially Hoosick Falls in Rensselaer County, where the village’s water supply was found in 2014 to be contaminated with PFOA.
The hearings, while not mandated by state law, would provide “an opportunity for members of the public” to participate in the process, according to a letter sent to the health department and signed by such groups as the Natural Resources Defense Council and Citizens Campaign for the Environment.
In July, the department recommended a drinking water standard of 10 parts per trillion each for PFOS and PFOA, the toughest in the nation and well below the higher federal advisory level of 70 parts per trillion set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The environmentalists are pushing a collective limit of 2 parts per trillion, which means the combination of those chemicals could not exceed that limit.
Written comments are being accepted by the department, but advocates say the importance of getting the standards right demands hearings as well. And holding one on Long Island “would be awesome and absolutely justified,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment. “We do have the most sites identified with this contaminant.”