Fire fighting foam contamination sites clustered along Delaware River.
A national mapping project detailing tap water contaminated with toxic chemicals used in fire fighting foams and nonstick frying pans shows a large number of those public water systems along the Delaware River in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
The chemicals, commonly referred to as PFC’s, (and include PFOA and PFOS), are used by manufacturers in making non-stick pans, waterproof clothing, take out food packaging, and fire-fighting foams.The compound is no longer manufactured in the U.S., but increasing numbers of drinking water sources have been found to contain levels that exceed EPA’s maximum contaminant levels.
The report, entitled “Mapping a Contamination Crisis,” reveals 15 million people are exposed to PFC’s through their drinking water resulting from use of the chemical at manufacturing sites and military bases across the country.
David Andrews, a senior scientist with the Environmental Working Group, says the bulk of the data came from the EPA, which required drinking water facilities that served more than 10,000 people to test for PFC’s between 2013 and 2016 and report findings to the federal government of levels above 20 parts per trillion for PFOA and 40 ppt for PFOS.
Andrews says they found 162 systems serving 15.1 million people had high PFC levels.
Seventeen of those tap water sources were located in Southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware along the Delaware River.
New Jersey officials have recommended lowering the maximum levels from 70 ppt to 14 ppt.
Some have suggested it should be as low as 1 ppt.
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network recently petitioned Pennsylvania officials to set a lower level than the federal standard based on new peer-reviewed research into the health impacts.