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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to propose restrictions on harmful “forever chemicals” in drinking water after finding they are dangerous in amounts so small as to be undetectable. But experts say removing them will cost billions, a burden that will fall hardest on small communities with few resources.
Concerned about the chemicals’ ability to weaken children’s immune systems, the EPA said last year that PFAS could cause harm at levels “much lower than previously understood.”
“We as a community of scientists and policymakers and regulators really missed the boat early on,” said Susan Pinney, director of the Center for Environmental Genetics at the University of Cincinnati.
There is also evidence the compounds are linked to low birthweight, kidney cancer and a slew of other health issues. It’s unclear what the EPA will now propose and how well it will protect people from these recently-understood harms.
The compounds PFOA and PFOS are part of a larger family of chemicals called PFAS, for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, that are widespread, don’t degrade in the environment and have been around for decades. They’ve been used in nonstick pans, food packaging and firefighting foam. Their use is now mostly phased out in the U.S., but some still remain.
Water providers are preparing for tough standards and testing that will undoubtedly reveal PFOA and PFOS in communities that don’t yet know the chemicals are in their water. The deadline for the proposal is Friday, but first it must be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget. As of Thursday, that review wasn’t finished.
“This rule would help ensure that communities are not being poisoned,” said Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, senior attorney, toxic exposure and health at Earthjustice.
Over the last decade, an increasing number of cities and towns, often abutting manufacturing plants or Air Force bases, suddenly realized they had a problem. In 2016, for example, Sarah McKinney was on maternity leave when she got word there was too much PFOA and PFOS in the tap water in her Colorado Springs suburb. She picked up her weeks-old daughter and hustled out to buy enough bottled water for her family of five.
“If I’m just spitting it out, can I brush my teeth?” she remembers wondering.
In response to concerns from people who had been drinking the water for years, McKinney’s water utility switched to a different source, provided water bottle filling stations and installed a $2.5 million treatment system that was the first of its kind in the country, according to Lucas Hale, the water district manager. The chemicals had gotten into the water from nearby Peterson Air Force base, which then built a treatment facility.
For communities with the pollutants, it’s not a cheap problem to solve.
Nationally, it could cost roughly $38 billion to remove enough of the chemicals to meet a strict EPA rule limiting them to where they can’t be detected, according to an estimate prepared by engineering consultant Black & Veatch for the American Water Works Association, an industry group. There also will be ongoing costs for filter material and testing.
When people feel misled about the safety of their tap water, they are less likely to drink it. Instead, they tend to reach for expensive bottled water and consume sugary drinks more often, choices associated with health problems like diabetes.
“We do have challenges in this community with trust,” said Abel Moreno, the district manager of the South Adams County Water & Sewer District that serves Commerce City, an industrial stretch of Denver. Contaminants leaked from a nearby chemical manufacturing plant decades ago. Although the district built a facility to treat the contamination, it sparked long-simmering distrust in the predominantly Latino neighborhood, and questions about how long people had been exposed.
Moreno responded that the district tested for PFAS long before the news reports, in 2018. It discovered extremely high levels in certain wells, but once the water went through the treatment plant, it didn’t surpass the EPA health advisory threshold in place at the time. Moreno’s agency closed the wells. He said the letter Rivas received was frustrating because PFAS hadn’t spiked — it had just made the news. Now, the district purchases and mixes in water from Denver to keep PFAS at undetectable levels and plans to build a treatment plant for a permanent fix.
Across the U.S., so far only local utilities and state regulators have imposed changes, not the federal government. Michigan set a drinking water limit and paid for testing. Those tests helped quickly find and fix some places with contamination and Michigan officials have said since then its limits haven’t proved too expensive.
New standards, however, will force tradeoffs, according to Chad Seidel, president of a water consultant company.
“Resources going towards addressing this are in some ways coming at a cost” of other needs, like removing dangerous lead pipes and replacing aged water mains, he said.
Kalmuss-Katz of Earthjustice said too many people are drinking contaminated water. Cost can’t be a barrier.
“The solution is to do whatever you have to do to ensure that people are not getting sick,” he said.
注释：
Undetectable: adj
表示"发现不了的"，means "barely able to be perceived;"，如：The craft are designed to be almost undetectable. 先进技术使得核潜艇几乎是无法察觉的。
Polyfluoroalkyl: n
表示"多氟烷基"，如：Synthesis of Polyfluoroalkyl Substituted Cyclopropane Derivatives 多氟烷基取代的环丙烷衍生物的合成
Phase: v
表示" 逐步执行"，means "arrange in phases or stages"，如：The use of lead-free petrol is now being phased in. 无铅汽油的应用现正逐步推广。
Abut: v
表示" 邻接"，means "lie adjacent to another or share a boundary;"，如：An earthquake hit the area abutting our province. 与我省邻接的地区遭受了一次地震。
Hustle: v
"赶紧做; 打发"，means "move or cause to move energetically or busily"，如：He hustled into and out of the office.他急匆匆地走进办公室，又匆匆离去了。The mother hustled the children off to school and started working. 母亲打发孩子们赶快去上学，然后就开始干起活来。
Simmer：v
表示" 炖；煨"，means " keep a pot,food,etc. almost at boiling-point"，如：Simmer the stew for an hour. 用文火把菜炖一小时。
Spike: v
表示"用尖物刺伤；挫败"，means "pierce with a sharp stake or point"，如：They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。
中文简要说明：
美国佛罗里达大学（University of Florida）最新研究显示，厕所卫生纸中含有一种「永久性化学物质」，可能导致男性不孕、造成胎儿体重过低，并且和部分癌症有关。
综合《美联社》、《纽约邮报》和《每日邮报》报导，1日刊登在「环境科学与科技通讯」期刊（Environmental Science & Technology Letters）的这份研究指出，「全氟烷基物质和多氟烷基物质」（PFAS）是一种「永久性化学物质」，1940年代发明以来，普遍应用在化妆品、不沾厨具和防水衣物上。然而研究人员检测发现，厕所卫生纸也含有大量PFAS，原因出自于部分工厂在造纸的过程中，添加了PFAS来加速木材转化成木浆，于是这种添加物就留在了纸制品中，再透过家家户户的废水处理系统，进入土地和水域环境。
这项研究调查了2021年11月至2022年8月间采集的厕所用纸样本。研究人员搜集在北美洲、拉丁美洲、非洲和西欧地区贩卖的卷筒卫生纸，以及美国废水处理厂的污水样本，发现即使再生的如厕卫生纸也不安全，因为制纸用的纤维中仍可能含有PFAS。
美国环境保护局（U.S. Environmental Protection Agency）意识到问题的严重性，估计近期就会提出规范来提高饮用水的安全标准。不过，专家也坦言，虽然可以透过一些措施来减少饮水中的PFAS，像是汰换管线或安装过滤系统，但是花费高昂，不是所有小区都负担得起，政府还需拿出更有力的措施来保障民众的生命安全。
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