Columbia faces $150 million tab to meet federal water standards. Water bills could rise
Federal plans to limit the amount of toxic “forever chemicals’‘ in drinking water could cost the city of Columbia more than $150 million in water system upgrades, a price tag that could cause monthly utility bills to rise.
That’s the assessment of Assistant City Manager Clint Shealy, whose staff briefed City Council on Tuesday about how Columbia is preparing to deal with requirements to reduce or eliminate forever chemicals, formally known as per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
“You could be looking at an investment of $150 million to $200 million of capital, combined, at our treatment plants,’‘ depending on how strict the federal limit will be, Shealy told The State.
President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to establish the nation’s first-ever limit on how much PFAS will be allowed in drinking water. The proposed limit on some of the most common types of forever chemicals is expected out this spring, and some water utilities expect the limit to be extreme.
Forever chemicals are a hazard to people who are exposed over time but the chemicals are unregulated at the federal level and in South Carolina.
Shealy, who oversees Columbia’s utilities, said a filtering system known as granular activated carbon is the most likely to be installed to meet expected federal limits.
In addition to the $150 million-$200 million price tag to upgrade the system, it could cost an extra $24 million annually to run the system to filter out PFAS chemicals, officials said.
The requirement could wind up “fundamentally changing the cost of water for customers,’‘ Shealy said.
Columbia has the largest capacity water system in South Carolina and serves one of the largest populations, with about 400,000 people. It now spends about $17 million annually treating water, officials said. Much of the city’s utility upgrades are also directed at costly fixes to Columbia’s leaking sewer system.
Shealy, like some other public utility officials, is urging a deliberate approach before setting stringent new standards for PFAS in drinking water. City officials questioned Tuesday whether the federal government knows enough about the health effects of PFAS to warrant such a costly investment, saying 80% of a person’s exposure is not from drinking water.
The health impact “is still very uncertain,’’ Columbia utilities director Frank Eskridge told a City Council committee. “There is an enormous amount of research going on at the federal level by all the different health agencies and they’re very diligently looking into what kind of effect it would have.’’
Environmental groups are pushing the administration to set the limit as soon as possible, saying there have been plenty of studies to warrant a drinking water limit on PFAS. More than 1,000 studies have been conducted that show a link between harmful health effects and certain PFAS compounds, Upstate Forever’s Megan Chase-Muller said at a meeting with state regulators last year to discuss PFAS limits.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says peer-reviewed scientific studies show that certain PFAS can decrease fertility in women, increase the risk of prostate and kidney cancer, cause developmental delays in children, and hurt the ability of people’s immune systems to fight infections. The greatest risk to the public is long-term exposure to the chemicals, which don’t break down easily in the environment.
During a news conference last week, lawyer Robert Bilott and actor Mark Ruffalo said the federal government has delayed the drinking water standard for too long. The federal government today is offering billions of dollars to states to pay for water system improvements, but Bilott and Ruffalo say the government also needs to act on the new drinking water standard.
Bilott, a plaintiff’s attorney who once worked for a corporate law firm, is widely credited with helping to unravel how chemical manufacturers knew about the hazards of forever chemicals more than 50 years ago, but never said much about the danger.
Ruffalo played Bilott in the movie “Dark Waters,’‘ which was about the forever chemicals work the lawyer did.
“We’ve all been victims to the polluters who hid the risks of PFAS from their workers and neighbors — and the victims of the regulators, who have looked the other way for decades,’‘ Ruffalo said.
The proposed federal limit is expected to be lower than a non-binding federal health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion that was in place for years for the most well-known forever chemicals. The non-binding health level, which gives guidance on the amount of PFAS considered unsafe, is now near zero for the most well-known types of forever chemicals.
The level of the proposed limit has not yet been made public, but Columbia officials are bracing for a level of 4 parts per trillion. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could announce the limit as soon as Friday, they said. It would not take effect for three years, according to plans.
Forever chemicals were developed in the 1940s for a variety of uses, including non-stick frying pans, waterproof clothing and foam used in firefighting. Forever chemicals are widely present in the environment because they are used in so many products. Industrial plants, military bases and airports are among the major sources of PFAS contamination in groundwater and rivers. The materials were key ingredients in materials used at those facilities, federal research shows.
Officials with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control have not advocated for a state drinking water standard, despite efforts by some state lawmakers and environmentalists last year to set a state limit. Agency officials are waiting for the federal limit to be set, a position that has drawn criticism from environmentalists.
DHEC said this week it is conducting extensive research on where forever chemicals are showing up in drinking water, rivers and groundwater.
In the past three years, the department has documented PFAS contamination in about three dozen drinking water systems in South Carolina, including Columbia’s. In the city, the average amounts of the most common PFAS chemicals -- known as PFOA and PFOS -- are generally below 10 parts per trillion, according to the city. That’s below the old 70 parts per trillion health advisory level but above the new non-binding advisory level of near zero.
At the same time, DHEC has found evidence of widespread PFAS contamination in rivers that public drinking water plants depend on. Two rounds of testing have found PFAS contamination in most waterways DHEC checked.
Shealy said the key to ridding water systems of PFAS contamination lies with stopping sources of PFAS that are contaminating the rivers and lakes water treatment plants depend on. If the water comes in clean, there won’t be a need to install expensive filters for PFAS, he said.
“We’re better off if we keep the materials out of our environment, rather than trying to treat them,’‘ Shealy said before Tuesday’s meeting. “
This story was originally published February 28, 2023 at 3:09 PM.
