For people living in areas with serious PFAS contamination, drinking water is likely the most important source of exposure. People rely on drinking water every day for drinking, cooking, and other daily activities, which means even low levels of PFAS can lead to long-term exposure over time.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), public drinking water systems that serve up to 105 million people in the United States may contain PFAS at levels that could be unsafe for human health. However, this estimate is likely lower than the real number of people affected. One key reason is that the EPA’s analysis only includes six specific PFAS, while research has shown that many more types of PFAS exist and are commonly found in drinking water. In addition, the EPA’s estimate only considers people who receive water from public water systems. It does not include the approximately 43 million people who depend on private wells for their drinking water. Private wells are not regulated in the same way as public systems and are often not regularly tested for PFAS, which increases the risk that contamination may go unnoticed.
To address these gaps, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), working together with community members affected by PFAS pollution, conducted a study to examine the presence of PFAS in drinking water more closely. The study tested 44 drinking water samples from both public water systems and private wells across 16 states. Unlike standard testing methods, the researchers used a commercially available test that can detect 70 different PFAS, allowing for a more comprehensive analysis. The results showed that 26 different PFAS were present in the drinking water samples. Importantly, the EPA does not currently require monitoring for 12 of these PFAS. Among them were ultrashort-chain PFAS, which are very small PFAS chemicals. These substances are especially concerning because their small size makes them harder to remove from drinking water and easier to spread through the environment.
Studies have found that ultrashort-chain PFAS are frequently detected in drinking water. However, there are still relatively few health studies focused on these chemicals. This lack of scientific data makes it difficult to fully understand their long-term health effects, but their widespread presence has raised serious concerns among scientists.
Overall, evidence from both the EPA and NRDC shows that PFAS contamination in drinking water is likely more widespread and complex than current regulations reflect. These findings highlight the need for expanded testing, especially for a wider range of PFAS, as well as stronger protections to ensure safe drinking water for all communities.
Reference
EPA, “PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation.”
Anna Reade, “Federal Drinking Water Monitoring Overlooks Many PFAS: Community-Led Water Testing Finds Dangerous Levels of PFAS that EPA Does Not Test For,” NRDC, https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/2023-04/federal-drinking-water-monitoring-overlooks-many-pfas-fs-20230412.pdf;
Katherine E. Pelch, Taryn McKnight, and Anna Reade, “70 Analyte PFAS Test Method Highlights Need for Expanded Testing of PFAS in Drinking Water,” Science of The Total Environment 876, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162978.