PRESENT REGULATIONS
In 2016, the EPA placed PFOA/PFOS chemicals on their health advisory (HA) list with suggested HA maximums levels. In 2022, the EPA lowered the HAs level to 4 ppt and is now turning those into the national drinking water standards for PWS with a maximum contaminant level of 4 ppt (MCLs) by the end of 2023. Primary standards go into effect three years after, with mitigation effects entirely in effect the following two years.
MITIGATION OPTIONS
EPA treatment options:
§ Granular activated carbon (GAC)
§ Anion Exchange (AIX)
§ Nanofiltration (NF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO)
Utilities will need to determine their PFAS and PFOS strategy and to what extent they will need to make changes to meet the proposed standards.
MITIGATION COSTS
Those municipalities and PWSs trying to get ahead of the EPA regulations or forced by state regulators (WI started mandatory testing of forever chemicals last month) are reporting a minimum cost of $1.0 million for capital upgrades with double annual O&M costs.
POSSIBLE FUNDING
Once the EPA passes national drinking standards later this year, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) will provide an unprecedented $9.0 billion to invest in communities whose drinking water is impacted by forever chemicals. $4.0 billion will be appropriated to the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) and $5.0 billion through EPA's Emerging Contaminant in Small and Disadvantaged Communities Grant Programs. In addition, states and communities can further leverage an additional $12 billion in the DWSRF dedicated to making drinking water safe.
However, once these funds are available, they will contain, as usual, many "first steps" before receipt and after disbursement, reporting, auditing, and types of allowable expenses.
SL Environmental Group, national forever chemical legal experts, is working on the second funding avenue: seeking funds directly from PFOA/PFOS manufacturers (e.g., Dupont and 3M). Both are in the process of setting up settlement funds with the Courts to help fund PWSs' mitigation efforts.
The beauty of these funds will be PWS can use them for general and enterprise fund costs, engineering, planning, mitigation capital, and expenses. In addition, their receipt will not hinder any municipality's or PWS's ability to acquire BIL funds.
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