Harmful chemicals called per- and poly fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been found within the water supply or ground water in many communities around the country, with sites as close as the Charlotte airport measuring over 142 times the US Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended safe levels, according to the Environmental Working Group.
Scientists have found the long-term effects of the consumption of PFAS can cause increased cholesterol, cancer, decrease in fertility and interference with the body’s natural hormones, in addition to affecting the development of a fetus, leading to growth, learning and behavior developments.
PFAS are considered “forever chemicals” because they do not break down in the environment. These chemicals are used to make materials such as carpets, clothing and paper food wrappers and make materials resistant to grease, water, and stains. However, “PFAS manufacturing and processing facilities, airports and military installations that use firefighting foams are some of the main sources of PFAS,” according to the EPA.
There are two types of PFAS: Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS). Two known water treatments, Ion Exchanges and Activated Carbon treatments, which are used to absorb natural organic compounds, have been developed to filter out these chemicals.
According to the CDC, the National Biomonitoring Program measures the amount of exposure people have had with PFAS, and participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were found to have 12 types of PFAS in their blood.
In February 2021, the Biden-Harris administration announced that they would begin their efforts and take action to advance science in order to have more control over PFAS entering the water systems. The EPA created a new “EPA Council on PFAS” on April 27, 2021 that is “charged with building on the agency’s ongoing work to better understand and ultimately reduce the potential risks caused by these chemicals,” according to the EPA website.
However, according to Dr. Brandon Ranallo-Benavidez, an assistant professor of political science at Winthrop University, while the EPA can do testing, it cannot do anything to improve water quality without the help of local governments. Even on military bases, where PFAS are most frequently found in groundwater, local governments control the water supply and distribution.
“Water treatment facilities are almost always locally run. So unless it is something massive where they have their own water treatment facilities for the military base, it is almost certainly going to be connected to the local water supply that the local city that it’s in uses,” Ranallo-Benavidez said.
When a high level of PFAS in drinking water is identified by the EPA, it issues a health advisory. However, according to the EPA website, “EPA’s health advisories are non-enforceable and non-regulatory and provide technical information to states agencies and other public health officials on health effects, analytical methodologies associated with drinking water contamination.”
Some sites, like the Charlotte airport, are reported by the EWG to have PFAS levels over 10,000 parts per trillion (ppt) in the on-site groundwater in 2019, over 140 times higher than the EPA’s recommended 70 ppt. While surrounding areas only report small amounts of PFAS in tap water, some evidence suggests that even small amounts can have an impact on health.
Military bases in South Carolina are not immune. According to the EWG, in Charleston, SC, the Charleston Air Force Base’s groundwater in 2018 was found to have PFAS in a concentration of 1,150,000 ppt, over 16,000 times the EPA’s recommendation. The Myrtle Beach Air Force base in Myrtle Beach, SC, was found to have concentrations of PFAS in the groundwater equal to 2,640,000 ppt in 2019, which is over 37,700 times the EPA’s recommendation.
