GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Drinking water safety advocates believe a new rule from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will protect people’s health, but note a likely minimal impact on providers in West Michigan.
On Wednesday, the EPA announced drinking water standards, which set limits on six PFAS for the first time ever.
“It's been swept under the rug and pushed aside for far too long,” said Tony Spaniola, the co-chair of the Great Lakes PFAS Action Network. “Impacted communities across the region and across the country are celebrating this. This is really, it's a real milestone event.”
Commonly called forever chemicals, the hard to break down contaminants cause severe health problems even at low levels of exposure to them. Companies began to use them in the 1940s in industry and consumer products, like firefighting foam and nonstick cookware.
“We’re seeing things like kidney cancer, thyroid disease and thyroid cancer, testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, high cholesterol, and developmental issues in young and developing children,” said Spaniola.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), PFAS is present in about 97% of Americans.
The U.S. Geological Survey released a 2023 study, which notes at least 45% of water systems in the U.S. contain at least one type of PFAS.
The White House expects 6–10% of water systems to surpass the new standard PFAS level. We’re told they have five years to reduce their respective PFAS levels.
Under the new rule, public water providers must show less than 4 parts per trillion of PFOA and PFOS chemicals in samples and no more than 10 parts per trillion for PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA (GenX), and PFBS chemicals. It also establishes a maximum contaminent level for any mixtures of the PFAS identified.
The standards fall below ones adopted by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy in 2020, but Spaniola believes because communities across the state already test and treat forever chemicals, the new rule may not be a big deal.
“If you're testing and you're finding these chemicals in your water systems, and you're treating, the treatment should take the levels down below even the EPA levels,” said Spaniola. “That's the good news for Michigan, but there are chemicals that [the EPA] set way lower standards for. A chemical called Gen X, a chemical called PFHxS, we’re talking at quite a bit lower levels then what we see under the Michigan standards.”
Spaniola adds towns that get their water from Lake Michigan find themselves in a better position too since it’s more common to find PFAS in inland waterways.
In a statement to FOX 17, the city of Grand Rapids said it does not expect to be affected by the standard.
“Like many other systems using Lake Michigan as our water source, we already routinely monitor for PFAS chemicals in our raw water,” said a spokesperson for the city. “We have not had any detections near the limits the EPA has put forth.”
According to the EPA, between 6 and 10 percent of public water providers across the country will be subject to the standard.
Health advocates commend the federal standard, but utility groups argue it's too expensive.
The EPA expects the new rule to cost $1.5 billion per year to implement. Officials plan to provide $9 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law to address contamination, including $1 billion to conduct initial samples and mitigation, although the standard does not dictate how that should be done.
Michigan will receive $19 million.
“I think there's going to be a lot of work between the EPA and states and localities as this rule is implemented,” said Danielle Carnival, the head of Cancer Moonshot. “I think the first step is really understanding what the levels are in water systems around the country, and then taking steps, I think there's there's a number of water treatment technologies available, and the EPA will work where that mitigation is needed.”
Carnival adds the new standard will reduce PFAS exposure for millions of Americans and prevent thousands of deaths and illnesses.
“Steps like protecting people's health in Michigan and around the country, steps like decreasing the impact of cancer,” said Carnival. “We think these are things that bring us together and that we can all get behind delivering for the American people.”
Sen. Gary Peters applauded the new limits on PFAS in the following statement:
"Every person deserves access to safe, clean drinking water, but PFAS chemicals continue to threaten the health and lives of people across our state.
"I have long pushed for stricter standards to protect Americans from PFAS exposure, and I applaud this new EPA standard and significant investment of federal dollars that will help our state and nation make serious progress in the fight to rid our communities of these toxic, deadly chemicals."
Attorney General Dana Nessel also released a statement:
“The day I took office as Attorney General, I made the PFAS problem a top priority.
“I will use the full authority of my office to uphold these important protections, and my department will continue to pursue the manufacturers of these toxic chemicals to force their contributions toward the cleanup of their chemicals that ended up in our environment.”
The new rule does require the following:
- Public water systems must monitor for these PFAS and have three years to complete initial monitoring (by 2027), followed by ongoing compliance monitoring. Water systems must also provide the public with information on the levels of these PFAS in their drinking water beginning in 2027.
- Public water systems have five years (by 2029) to implement solutions that reduce these PFAS if monitoring shows that drinking water levels exceed these MCLs.
- Beginning in five years (2029), public water systems that have PFAS in drinking water which violates one or more of these MCLs must take action to reduce levels of these PFAS in their drinking water and must provide notification to the public of the violation.
Spaniola calls it a worthwhile investment and believes states could also sue PFAS sources to help cover the cost associated with the standard.
“It's a tough problem, but, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” said Spaniola. “I just hate to see young children and pregnant women drinking this water and potentially poisoning their children for decades to come.”
Michigan has been plagued with PFAS contamination for years. There are 280 sites contaminated with the forever chemicals throughout the state, according to the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team (MPART).
Wolverine Worldwide contributed to PFAS contamination in Rockford and Plainfield Township. They and 3M arrived at multimillion-dollar settlements to curb PFAS across Kent County.
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