New toxic chemical limits would protect Columbia water but may cost the city a bundle
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed strict limits on the amount of “forever chemicals’’ allowed in drinking water, a plan that could push cities like Columbia out of compliance with safe drinking water standards and require potentially expensive filtering systems to be installed.
In a decision the EPA said would protect people across the country, the agency is establishing the first ever limits on forever chemicals, which are showing up in drinking water systems nationally.
More than 30 South Carolina drinking water systems, including Columbia’s, have registered some amount of forever chemicals in water distributed to customers during the past three years, records show.
Of that, as many 19 utilities exceeded the proposed drinking water standard during testing by state health regulators for one or both of the two most common types of pollutants, state records show. Many of those systems are slightly above the new limits for PFAS.
Columbia officials said last week that it could cost the city about $150 million to upgrade the city’s water system to comply with the new limits, but many who have pushed for the standard say the limits are worth it to protect drinking water supplies.
Forever chemicals, formally known as per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, increase a person’s chances of getting certain cancers, reduce the body’s ability to fight disease and can cause developmental disabilities in children.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who said the new limits are a “bold step forward,’’ made the announcement of the new drinking water limits Tuesday in Wilmington, N.C., where high levels of forever chemicals were registered in the Cape Fear River basin. The pollution came from a Chemours plant in the area.
“Communities across this country have suffered far too long from the ever-present threat of PFAS pollution,’’ Regan said, noting in a news release that the “EPA’s proposal to establish a national standard for PFAS in drinking water is informed by the best available science.’’
Regan said the EPA would help provide states with the guidance needed to make decisions “that best protect their communities. This action has the potential to prevent tens of thousands of PFAS-related illnesses and marks a major step toward safeguarding all our communities from these dangerous contaminants.”
Environmental groups that have pushed for a national drinking water standard applauded the decision.
“Today’s announcement by the EPA is historic progress,” said Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs at the Environmental Working Group. “More than 200 million Americans could have PFAS in their tap water. Americans have been drinking contaminated water for decades. This proposal is a critical step toward getting these toxic poisons out of our water.’’
The EPA’s proposed drinking water standards, which city officials say would not likely take effect for three years pending final approval, would set a limit of four parts per trillion on two of the most well-known PFAS compounds: PFOA and PFOS. The rules also would set limits on four other types of forever chemicals. Those chemicals are PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS and Gen X.
The standards are the first ever legally enforceable national limits on forever chemicals, of which there are thousands of different variations.
Forever chemicals are aptly named because they don’t break down easily in the environment and can linger for years in the bodies of people who are exposed. They have been used widely in manufacturing since their creation in the 1940s. PFAS has been used in products such as firefighting foam, non-stick frying pans and water proof clothing. Dupont and 3M are national corporations involved in PFAS production.
In South Carolina, forever chemicals have not only shown up in public water systems, but also in private wells, including at mobile home parks near Shaw Air Force Base outside of Sumter and houses near an industrial plant and agricultural fields in Darlington County.
If the final rules are approved by the federal government, public water systems will have to monitor for the chemicals and reduce PFAS pollution that exceeds the new standards, according to the EPA.
Clint Shealy, an assistant city manager in Columbia, said the EPA’s announcement was expected, but he noted that the rules must be vetted and are only proposed at this point. His staff said during a recent City Council meeting that the 4 parts per trillion standard was likely. Filtering systems would be needed to comply, officials said.
“We are concerned about affordability issues, to treat to low levels like this if we are not able to control things at the source’’ of pollution, Shealy said Tuesday. “We are looking at this very closely and what it might mean for our utility and our customers.’’
The levels of PFOA and PFOS in Columbia’s water are, for the most part, above the 4 parts per trillion standard. Higher levels were registered at Columbia’s canal drinking water plant on the Broad River than at the plant on Lake Murray. Those levels, on average, were 5.1 parts per trillion for PFOA and 6.2 parts per trillion for PFOS. Not all Lake Murray levels exceeded the standard.
Levels above the 4 parts per trillion standard also were found across the state for either PFOA or PFOS — or both — in water systems serving West Columbia, parts of the Myrtle Beach area, Gaffney, Greenwood and Florence, according to state Department of Health and Environmental Control testing in 2020.
The highest levels registered statewide in DHEC’s testing were at Gaffney at 12 parts per trillion to 18 parts per trillion.
The EPA’s proposed limits on PFOA and PFOS are stricter than a non-binding health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion that was in effect for years. But the limits are not as tight as a revised health advisory level of near zero that was unveiled last summer.
Officials with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control plan to discuss the new EPA rules with the media later this week. The agency had not pushed for a state drinking water standard, saying it was waiting on the EPA to act.
The American Chemistry Council, a trade group, issued a statement Tuesday criticizing the new PFAS standard. The council’s statement called the EPA’s proposed drinking water limits “overly conservative’’ and potentially costly to water systems nationally.
“These low limits will likely result in billions of dollars in compliance costs,’’ the council’s statement said.
But officials with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national environmental group, said the EPA’s action is in order.
“We have a five-alarm fire,’’ said Erik D. Olson, senior strategic director for health at the NRDC. In addition to the drinking water limits, Olson said a key is finding the sources of PFAS pollution and taking action.
“ We must crack down on PFAS polluters. They should be required to halt further pollution, clean up the contamination they’ve already caused, and pay to treat PFAS-contaminated drinking water,’’ he said. “Most of us learned in kindergarten that we should clean up our own messes—but it seems like big chemical corporations never learned that lesson.”
This story was originally published March 14, 2023 at 11:47 AM.
