U.S. Water Supply Contaminated with Forever Chemicals

A Government Accounting Office (GAO) study found that 25 percent of tested U.S. water had “forever chemicals” in them. The study sampled water from 5,800 water systems in six states. It found 18 percent of the systems tested had forever chemicals present, which affected 25 percent of the population of the six states sampled.

The study was done in 2022 and is just now garnering attention as states consider what to do in response to this news. The EPA plans on conducting more tests this year and to continue to monitor the systems that showed the presence of forever chemicals.

Here is what the GAO found:

Recent drinking water data from six selected states show that at least 18 percent of the states’ 5,300 total water systems had at least two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonate—above the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2022 interim revised health advisory levels. Over these levels, adverse health effects can occur and EPA plans to regulate these two PFAS in drinking water in 2023. GAO found that 978 water systems had the two PFAS at or above EPA’s minimum reporting level of 4 per trillion (ppt)—the lowest level reliably quantified by most laboratories—and above EPA’s health advisory levels. These systems served 9.5 million (29 percent) of the total 33 million people served by all the systems (see fig.).