In recent years, many communities across New York State discovered their drinking water sources are contaminated with harmful PFAS chemicals. PFAS are referred to as “forever chemicals” because they are very persistent, meaning they build up in our bodies and don’t break down in the environment. Unfortunately, we are seeing widespread PFAS contamination in drinking water throughout Long Island. New York State must do more to address this water quality crisis.
CCE compiled the 2021 data from every Long Island water district and created an interactive map of PFAS levels in drinking water. Some key takeaways of our findings:
The Good News: 450,000+ Long Islanders (out of 2.7 million served by public water) have drinking water below the detection levels for PFAS chemicals.
The Bad News: 570,000 Long Islanders’ drinking water exceeds the current standard of 10 ppt for PFOA/PFOS.
What could be done to help protect our water: If the state lowered the drinking water standards from 10ppt to 2ppt for 6 PFAS chemicals, over 800,000 more Long Islanders would be protected from these toxic chemicals.
What else could be done to help protect our water: NYS is considering a combined PFAS standard of 30ppt for six PFAS chemicals. If the state opted for a combined drinking water standard at 20ppt, similar to what is being done in states like Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont, 112,000 more Long Islanders would be protected.
Background and how you can help:
Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of thousands of manufactured chemicals that have been used by industry and in consumer products for many decades and are now found in waterways throughout the country. These chemicals are highly toxic and persistent in the environment. Based on a growing body of new science, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently updated its drinking water health advisory for two types of PFAS chemicals, PFOS and PFOA. The EPA significantly reduced the health advisory from 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for both PFOA and PFOS down to a mere .004 ppt for PFOA and .02 ppt for PFOS. This means that there is essentially no safe level of exposure to these chemicals in our drinking water.
The New York Department of Health has proposed regulations to adopt drinking water standards, known as Maximum Contaminant Levels or MCLs, at 10 ppt for four additional PFAS chemicals: PFDA, PFHpA, PFHxS, PFNA. The DOH is keeping existing MCLs for PFOA and PFOS at 10ppt. The state is also proposing to set a combined standard of 30 ppt for these 6 PFAS chemicals. These proposed standards are not adequate to protect public health and must be strengthened!
CCE is advocating for New York to strengthen drinking water standards by:
Lowering the existing MCLs for PFOA and PFOS from 10ppt to 2ppt
Lowering the proposed MCLs for PFDA, PFHpA, PFHxS, PFNA from 10ppt to 2ppt
Lowering the proposed combined MCL for six PFAS chemical from 30ppt down to 20ppt or lower
Click here to take action and urge New York State to strengthen its proposed regulations!
Thank you for taking action
Sincerely,
Your friends at CCE