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Scientist Discusses Drinking Water Contamination

PFAS, more commonly known as “forever chemicals,” are manmade chemicals used in an array of industrial processes and consumer products, but linger in the environment and pose a risk to human health. Chris Schulz spoke with EWG Senior Scientist Tasha Stoiber about water contamination, its health risks, and possible solutions.

Earlier this week, tap water testing conducted in 18 states by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found New Martinsville had the second-highest level of PFAS in the country at 40 parts per trillion.

Reporter Chris Schulz spoke with EWG Senior Scientist Tasha Stoiber about water contamination, its health risks, and possible solutions.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Schulz: Tell me what the Environmental Working Group is and what they do.

Stoiber: We are a nonprofit research and advocacy organization. We are largely based in D.C. and have offices in California and Minnesota. Our mission is to empower people to make healthier choices in their life. We do research and outreach and education to help reduce chemical exposures in your daily life.

Schulz: What do you focus your research on?

Stoiber: I work on a number of different areas, looking at drinking water contaminants in the U.S., PFAS of course, other contaminants like hexavalent chromium. Outside of drinking water and drinking water filters, I also work on chemicals in consumer products. PFAS is pervasive in that space as well. Also some work in other consumer product areas like mattresses, and also food additives. So a wide portfolio, but I definitely spend a lot of time thinking about chemicals in drinking water, and the drinking water filters that take those chemicals out.

Schulz: Can you give me an idea of what some of the contaminants historically have been that people are concerned about in their water and what the concerns are today?

Stoiber: There are a number of drinking water contaminants, some of them are regulated, some of them are unregulated. Our focus is always working towards getting regulations on the books. There hasn’t been a new drinking water regulation for an unregulated contaminant in the last 20 years. The EPA’s proposal for a new MCL (maximum contaminant limit) for PFOA or PFOS, that is something that has been a long time coming and that we’ve been waiting for, for quite some time.

The process for setting drinking water regulations in the U.S. is quite lengthy, it’s quite inefficient. There’s a huge burden of gathering information before that can happen. That’s why there hasn’t been a new regulation. And that’s why these new regulations for PFAS are going to be quite significant.

Drinking water contaminants that people think about, and maybe people might be a little bit more aware of: there’s been a lot of attention placed on lead in the last few years, given some of the contamination issues that have happened in some cities. That’s a little bit different because it’s due to pipes and distribution systems. It’s a little bit of a different type of contaminant, it’s picked up after drinking water treatment, so it’s largely an infrastructure issue. Cities have been dealing with that, and there’s been a lot of attention placed on that.

People probably don’t really think too much about contaminants in their drinking water, especially if you get your drinking water from a public utility. People might take it for granted and think that, well, since the drinking water is coming out of my tap, it’s from a public utility, it’s perfectly fine, it’s perfectly safe. I think a lot of people don’t give it a second guess. However, we do know that there are a lot of these unregulated contaminants, and the regulations that we do have in place, a lot of them haven’t been updated based on the most current science and what we know about potential health effects.

So a lot of them aren’t as protective as we would want them to be as well. Nitrate, for example, should be a lot lower than what the legal standard is currently to protect against the additional risk of several different types of cancer and reproductive effects.

Schulz: Yeah, let’s zoom in here. I actually briefly hopped on your website and looked at my local provider, and was a little surprised at what I saw.

Stoiber: Yeah, the tap water database is a good resource. It’s the online tool, anybody can use it to look up their drinking water.

Schulz: I am curious to know a little bit more about why EWG makes the differentiation between legal and safe.

Stoiber: If you look at the tap water database, there is an EWG standard for drinking water contaminants, and we compare that to the legal limits. What we would like to see, what the gold standard would be, those would be limits that would be purely based on protecting health and what we know about how these contaminants can harm your health. Those are largely based on either state or federal agency findings.

Many of them are based on California’s public health goals to protect against cancer. They are often quite lower than what the federal legal limits would allow. Either based on California’s public health goals, or EPA’s IRIS assessments, or often other state agency findings, sometimes based on our own derivation, based on recent scientific literature, findings. But they would all be what would be ideal to protect against public health and to not allow the additional health harms and risk that is associated with some of the contaminants that are in our drinking water. A lot of these legal limits are not as protective as they could be based on what the current scientific findings are.

Schulz: What is PFAS? And more importantly, based on what we’ve just been talking about, why is there so much focus on it now, given the fact that it’s one of the many contaminants that we should be looking at?

Stoiber: PFAS, I think people are becoming more aware of. I think it is becoming more of a household term. PFAS is actually a family of thousands of different chemicals, and they all share the same common characteristic. They all have these carbon and fluorine bonds, they’re highly fluorinated chemicals. It’s these really strong bonds that give them those properties of being stain resistant, water resistant, grease resistant and that’s why they’re used in so many products.

And it’s those strong bonds that also make them really persistent in the environment. They tend not to break down, they end up cycling in the environment, and they ended up in drinking water, soil, air and then we’re exposed to them.

So people may know them as the Teflon chemicals. They’ve been used for decades now. Some of the legacy, longer chain PFAS chemicals were voluntarily phased out, but they’ve since been replaced by other very similar chemicals that are just as persistent. We have been working on this issue for decades now.

As I mentioned before, the federal drinking water regulation is a long time coming. We have known about drinking water pollution for quite some time, and the more that we test for it, the more that we’re finding it. EPA is coming out again with another national testing data set, but it will take some time for that data to be available. That’s why we continue to do these smaller testing projects, just to get more results out there and to show that this contamination is quite widespread.

We have been talking about them for a long time, but now I just think more people are talking about them. I think the message is getting out there that the contamination is so widespread. And in the most recent USGS report, almost half of the taps in the U.S. have detections. Also people are talking about them because of the new MCL proposal, and what that means for our drinking water.

Schulz: So what exactly is the proposal, if you can give it to me in layman’s terms?

Stoiber: There are two proposed MCLs and then the hazard index. So the MCL will cover six different types of PFAS, it’ll cover PFOA, PFOS and four others as part of a mixture, and a hazard index will be calculated for those. So for the PFOA PFOS, the limits would be four parts per trillion, and that’s largely based on detection limits and how we can reproducibly and reliably detect PFAS in drinking water.

But in the EPA’s proposal, it’s the MCL-G, which is the health based limit that we want to be working towards. That is different from the legally enforceable MCL. That’s the four parts per trillion. But actually the goal would be zero, because there’s no actual safe limit of these chemicals in your drinking water. So the goal is zero, they are linked to cancer. But what we can legally enforce because of those detection limits, that’s going to be four parts per trillion.

Schulz: One of the things you mentioned that EWG does is that they work to identify, what commercially available resources there are for people to utilize in their households. Are there any filters that you would recommend people use? Or anything that people can do?

Stoiber: Starting with the filters, we do recommend filtering your drinking water at home. Either granular activated carbon or reverse osmosis type drinking water filters in your home can greatly reduce PFAS exposure. Filtering your drinking water is a really easy step that you can take to reduce these known exposures, so that’s why it’s recommended.

Activated carbon filters are going to be a little bit more cost accessible, compared to reverse osmosis, which would be a little bit more expensive and a little bit more involved in terms of plumbing. You might need to do a little bit of plumbing to install that under the sink. The thing to remember with the carbon filters is that they need to be changed on time, because if you don’t change out the filter cartridge, they won’t really work all that efficiently. So we do recommend absolutely filtering your drinking water, that’s a great way to reduce exposure. It will take some time for the MCLs to be finalized and to be enforced, so this is one way that people can do something.

But absolutely recognizing that this, the mental burden of having to figure out what filter to buy, the economic burden of, now I have to purchase a filter and use this, this shouldn’t be placed on individuals or the community. Absolutely, recognizing that it should be the polluters that were originally responsible for this and that have profited so much over the last few decades, it should be the polluters that pay to fix this.

That cost shouldn’t be the burden of that community that now has to deal with that existing pollution from here on out. That’s why the long-term solutions, you know, those are short-term solutions, but the long-term solutions are having federal regulations in place, and of course, overall, reducing as much as possible the use of these types of chemicals in commerce, because they as a result of manufacturing, and releases from manufacturing, use and disposal, they find their way into the environment, and they tend to stay there. So reducing them as much as possible is really the way to go.

New Study Finds High Levels Of ‘Forever Chemicals’ In New Martinsville Water

Tap water testing conducted in 18 states by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found New Martinsville had the second-highest level of PFAS in the country at 40 parts per trillion.

Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are manmade chemicals used in an array of industrial processes and consumer products, but linger in the environment and pose a risk to human health.

Of the 36 locations tested by the nonprofit research and advocacy organization, only Monroe, New Jersey had higher levels at 80 parts per trillion.

The EPA has proposed a new limit for some PFAS of four parts per trillion.

Tasha Stoiber, senior scientist for EWG, said the EPA’s proposed regulation is significant and overdue, but more can be done for public health.

“The health based limit that we want to be working towards, that is different from the enforceable legal MCL (maximum contaminant limit), the four parts per trillion,” she said. “Actually the goal would be zero because there’s no actual safe limit of these chemicals in your drinking water. The goal is zero, they are linked to cancer.”

Stoiber said consumers can take proactive steps, such as filtering their water at the tap before drinking, but more will need to be done to address the larger issue.

“The mental burden of having to figure out what filter to buy, the economic burden, this shouldn’t be placed on individuals or the community,” she said. “Recognizing that it should be the polluters that were originally responsible for this and that have profited so much over the last few decades, it should be the polluters that pay to fix this.”

The EPA is in the process of collecting samples to understand the frequency the chemicals are found in the nation’s drinking water systems and at what levels. The data collection is slated to take place through 2025, and Stoiber said it could be some time before the data is publicly available.

“That’s why we continue to do these smaller testing projects, just to get more results out there and to show that this contaminant contamination is quite widespread,” she said.

Gov. Jim Justice’s office has directed the DHHR and DEP to collaborate with water systems in West Virginia in preparation of the revised EPA guidelines.

Messer Agrees To Pay EPA $1.9 Million Over Water Pollution Violations

The EPA and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection found that the company exceeded its discharge permits for copper, aluminum, iron and residual chlorine at its facility in New Cumberland.

A Northern Panhandle industrial and medical gas manufacturer has agreed to pay a civil penalty for water pollution violations.

Under a consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Messer LLC has agreed to pay a $1.9 million penalty for violations of the federal Clean Water Act.

Messer is required to construct a new water treatment system to eliminate those violations and monitor stormwater to ensure future compliance.

The public has 30 days to comment on the consent decree prior to approval from the federal district court for the Northern District of West Virginia.

The EPA and the state DEP, as co-plaintiffs in the consent decree, will split the penalty.

Potomac River Cleaner Than It Was A Decade Ago, Report Says

The Potomac Conservancy gave the river a B grade on its “Potomac River Report Card.” That’s a step up from a report 10 years ago.

The Potomac River is cleaner than it used to be, according to a new report. But there is still work to be done.

The Potomac Conservancy gave the river a B grade on its “Potomac River Report Card.” That’s a step up from a report 10 years ago. It’s also a slight improvement from the B-minus grade the conservancy’s last report granted in 2020.

The improvement is in large part because of a sharp reduction in river pollutants like nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment over the past three decades, according to measurements from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program.

Wildlife is also coming back to habitats in and around the Potomac, with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources reporting a return in abundance of American shad.

Runoff pollution, deforestation and climate change were noted as the top threats the Potomac River currently faces against restoration. According to the report, habitats along the river are not recovering as quickly as projected. That means restoration efforts likely won’t reach certain benchmarks by 2025, a goal set by the Chesapeake Executive Council in 2009.

West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle includes about 100 miles of the Potomac River, from Hampshire County to its confluence with the Shenandoah in Harpers Ferry.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s Companies Owe Millions More In Environmental Fines

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This story was co-published with Mountain State Spotlight, a new nonprofit newsroom covering West Virginia. For more stories from Mountain State Spotlight, visit www.mountainstatespotlight.org.

The federal government is seeking to collect nearly $3.2 million in fines from coal companies owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice after the firms violated the terms of a major water pollution settlement, according to documents filed Thursday in federal court.

U.S. Department of Justice attorneys said in their filing that Southern Coal Corp. and two related companies failed to renew required water pollution permits, leading to unauthorized discharges at three mining sites in Tennessee and one in Alabama. Those permits are required so regulators can limit the runoff of everything from mud to toxic metals from coal operations.

The companies’ actions triggered fines under the terms of a 2016 settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency. As part of the deal, the governor’s companies had agreed to resolve more than 23,000 water pollution violations by paying a $900,000 fine, spending millions of dollars on new pollution controls, and covering automatic penalty amounts — known as “stipulated penalties” — for any future violations.

The DOJ’s new court filing indicated Justice’s companies have so far paid nearly $2.9 million in stipulated penalties, but the firms have repeatedly failed to honor the other terms of the settlement, either delivering late or not at all on site improvements and fines, continuing what federal attorneys called a “long history” of environmental violations.

A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment beyond the Thursday court filing.

Representatives for Justice’s companies and the governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

The new court filing, in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, comes three months after another one of Justice’s companies reached a separate pollution settlement with environmental groups, which sued over excess discharges of selenium, a mining byproduct that can be toxic to fish, at a strip mine in southern West Virginia.

In that deal, Bluestone Coal Corp. paid a federal fine of $30,000 and contributed $270,000 to a conservation group, settling a case brought by the Sierra Club and other citizen groups. The maximum federal penalty for Bluestone Coal could have been nearly $170 million.

Justice, a billionaire listed by Forbes as the richest person in the state, owns a vast empire of businesses, including coal mines, resort hotels and agricultural interests, many of them regulated by the state agencies that report to him. While Justice’s adult children have day-to-day control over the family’s business operations, the governor has continued to guide the empire.

Last year, an investigation by ProPublica found that, over the last three decades, the governor’s companies have accumulated more than $140 million in judgments and settlements in cases brought by vendors and other businesses and government entities over unpaid bills. (The governor and his representatives say that his companies always eventually pay their bills.) Many of the cases involve Justice’s mining companies.

Last spring, about two dozen of those mining companies reached a deal with the DOJ to pay more than $5 million in delinquent mine safety penalties, some of them dating back more than five years.

The 2016 water pollution settlement at issue in this week’s filing was announced just weeks before that year’s general election, in which Justice, then a Democrat, won the governor’s race. Last year, Justice, now a Republican, was reelected to another four-year term.

On Thursday, the federal government asked U.S. District Judge Glen Conrad to order Justice’s companies to stop the unpermitted discharges and to pay the outstanding fines. Attorneys said they have been seeking compliance since September 2020.

As part of the 2016 settlement, the federal government took the unusual step of requiring Justice’s companies to put up $4.5 million, in the form of a bank line of credit, that the DOJ could access so it could pay to have mine cleanup work done if the governor’s companies failed to complete it. In December 2020, with promised work at mine sites in Tennessee unfinished, the U.S. withdrew $1.5 million from that account.

A lawyer for the companies objected to the amount of the government’s withdrawal and asked that the matter be taken up through a dispute resolution process spelled out in the settlement.

Reach reporter Ken Ward Jr. at kenwardjr@mountainstatespotlight.org

WVDEP Releases Draft Water Quality Standards Update

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection this week released a long-awaited plan to update the state’s water quality standards.

The rules govern the amount of pollution that can be discharged into the state’s streams and rivers.

The agency first proposed this revision of human health criteria in the state’s water quality standards in 2018. WVDEP originally proposed updating standards for 60 pollutants in line with 2015 suggestions by the U.S. EPA. Two-thirds of the updates made it so less of certain chemicals could be discharged into rivers and streams and one-third loosened pollution levels.

The proposal sparked controversy, most notably pushback from the West Virginia Manufacturers Association. The state Legislature in 2019 adopted a bill that required DEP to hold off on updating the standards until 2021 and go back to the drawing board.

The agency’s new proposal, released this week, would adopt 24 of EPA’s proposed updates. That includes weakening some standards. Environmental groups asked the agency to strengthen all pollution criteria.

The proposal is open for public comment. And a virtual public hearing is scheduled for May 19 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.