These contaminants, widely used to make carpets, fabrics, food packaging and more, are pervasive; they can’t be easily broken down and effectively poison water sources.
While several states are rushing to clean up contaminated sites and act on safety regulations, EPA administrators have failed to take this issue seriously.
Despite new EPA guidelines set out in 2016, the Pentagon did not disclose the full scope of the contamination on military installations until March of this year.
Today, the U.S. Army says there are 146 military sites contaminated with PFAS and PFOA.
Environmental Working Group released a study showing that up to 16 million Americans use drinking water with such contamination.
In North Carolina, we’re falling behind in dealing with air and water pollution from GenX, an unregulated chemical released into the Cape Fear River for years — a river that provides drinking water for residents from Fayetteville to Wilmington.
The “hotspots” for PFAS and PFOA contamination are popping up in different locations every week — Colorado recently found new contamination in Boulder, potentially 4,800 public drinking water systems are threatened in Ohio, and Michigan has more than 30 known contaminated sites.
The Department of Defense can safeguard public health, and has the obligation to protect and provide for service members and their families.
The first step is notifying any who have been stationed at military bases where PFAS-containing foams were used.
Our public health leaders have not protected military families and neighboring communities from PFAS contamination, but there is still time to do the right thing.

Although the concentration of hexavalent chromium in those wells is far under the legal limit, information from the Environmental Protection Agency, the State of California, and a senior scientist with chemical watchdog Environmental Working Group indicate it may pose an elevated cancer risk if consumed for many years.
“Chromium contamination in the shallow groundwater aquifer appears to have migrated to the deeper Edwards Aquifer, the sole source of drinking water in this area,” the EPA wrote in a letter to the neighborhood association.
The concentration in the wells is far below the legal limit under federal and state rules, what’s known as the maximum contaminant level.
For total chromium, the drinking water standard is 100 parts per billion.
Still, in their January report, EPA investigators wrote that levels found in the wells were roughly four times higher than what they call a “cancer risk screening concentration benchmark” – 0.05 parts per billion.
“Adding the River City site to the [National Priorities List] will allow for additional investigation and a specific risk assessment.” In an interview with the Rivard Report, David Andrews, a senior scientist with the Environmental Working Group, discussed the extreme range between the legal limit and the non-binding levels that regulators often will use as goals to guard against cancer risk.
In July 2014, the State of California established a legal limit of 10 parts per billion, 10 times lower than the federal limit.
California had also in 2011 adopted a non-binding public health goal of 0.02 parts per billion, lower than the EPA’s value.
“We directly asked the EPA representatives if the water was safe to drink, cook with, and bathe in,” Gary Gold, a director of operations at SouthWest Water’s western Texas office, wrote in the email.
“Your sample results were compared to the TCEQ Texas Risk Reduction Program health-based protective concentration levels, which represent safe levels,” Love wrote.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nexstar) – Reports of contaminated water at military bases is raising concerns about the safety of servicemembers and their families.
Defense officials say firefighting foam used on military bases leaked into water systems.
That caused potentially harmful levels of compounds linked to cancer and other health issues.
Lucian Niemeyer, a spokesperson for DoD environmental issues, said the agency is working to fix the water problem.
Pentagon officials said the drinking water issues have been addressed and they are now working with members of Congress on making sure the groundwater is safe.
"We want all our military members to be protected," Rep. Walter Jones, R-North Carolina, said.
He wants to focus on long-term solutions, not temporary changes.
Federal officials will continue to monitor water levels to determine if they meet safety standards.
Pentagon officials said they are still assessing the cost but they plan to shift money from other defense programs to help clean up the contaminated water sites.
Sheppard Air Force Base and Fort Sill aren’t on the list of installations with contaminated water, but 11 of 12 wells at Altus Air Force Base tested positive for the presence of perfluorinated compounds.

A new analysis from the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, finds that drinking water contamination with PFAS chemicals now exists in 36 states.
The pollutants, also known as perfluorinated compounds, have been found at high levels in the drinking water of approximately 70,000 residents in Bucks and Montgomery counties and are the subject of ongoing investigation by this news organization.
According to a new mapping effort by the Environmental Working Group, known drinking water contamination sites have grown from just a handful a decade ago to more than 94 locations.
That includes dozens of military bases where the chemicals were used in firefighting foams, as well as near industrial plants that used the chemicals in manufacturing processes.
The chemicals have been linked by some studies to health effects including high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, immunodeficiencies, low birth weight babies and some cancers.
In lieu of federal action, states such as New Jersey and Michigan have passed or proposed regulations such as drinking water and surface water limits, as well as limits for the consumption of sport fish.
“With the alarming spread of known PFAS contamination sites, it’s unconscionable that the Environmental Protection Agency has taken only the most feeble steps to respond to the crisis,” said Bill Walker, an investigative editor for the Environmental Working Group, in a prepared statement.
The chemicals also were found in Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Washington.
However, that EPA study mostly sampled large water systems and used detection limits some researchers say was too high.
The Environmental Working Group calculates that some levels of the chemicals are in 194 water systems serving about 16 million Americans, which is in line with other estimates.

The non-profit Environmental Working Group and a team of environmental health researchers at Northeastern University in Boston developed the map, which tracks publicly-known contaminated sites reported from both EPA testing and state and local agencies.
The number of sites has exploded in the 10 months since the map was first published.
Last February, researchers knew of 52 sites in 19 states.
Much of the newly noted activity came from Michigan.
Communities there are dealing with contamination from 3M’s Scotchgard fabric protector used by shoemaker Wolverine World Wide.
It maps both C-8 and PFAS pollution.
PFAS are replacements for C-8 chemicals companies no longer make and include GenX.
"Every place that has gone looking for it systematically, with any reason at all to suspect they might have contamination, has found it," he said.
"So, that’s why we’re confident in saying that we’re nowhere near the end of knowing the true scope of this problem."
EPA will host a national leadership summit on PFAS contamination next month in Washington, D.C.

Feeling thirsty?
Where and why radium is a problem What’s the big deal about radium?
In the natural environment, radium is found at low levels in soil, water, rocks, coal, plants and food.
But radium also happens to be radioactive, so even low-level exposure could increase your risk for cancer.
Even though 80 percent of the radium consumed or inhaled will be excreted by the body, the remaining 20 percent will enter the blood stream and travel to all areas of the body, with a portion of that percentage accumulating in the bones, according to an EPA factsheet.
The EWG found radium in all 50 states, with 158 public water systems in 27 states reporting radium in amounts that exceeded the federal legal limit.
California has the most residents impacted by radiation in drinking water, with 64 percent of the population — or 25 million people — affected by the almost 800 systems that reported detectable levels of radium.
More than 3,500 utilities in Texas, which serve more than 22 million people, reported detectable levels of radium Curious to know if the water in your local community is contaminated with radium?
Use this link to access the EWG’s interactive map and plug in your ZIPcode to see the results.
If you get your groundwater from a well, it’s a good idea to get it tested.

Do you really know whats in your local tap water supply?
Well, its a question the non-profit organization called the Environmental Working Group or EWG has made easier to answer.
"This was all available data that was compiled into a database that was user friendly and Americans could log into and become more aware of what contaminants may be present in their water," says Alexis Temkin, a toxicologist for the non profit.
Between 2010 and 2015, the city of Odessa water utility, and the city of Midland water utility each had positive tests for 11 cancer causing contaminants, though each level was under the federal legal limit.
"I’ve been doing this for a long time and nothing here seems all that shocking," says Barron He says the contaminants listed mainly come from two sources, naturally occurring contamination into water wells from surrounding soil, and leftover by-products from water treatment processes.
"as long as they’re under the federal legal limit, 99% of the population should be alright," says Barron.
Meanwhile Temkin, says there are a lot of considerations that go into setting a federal legal limit "of course they consider health and safety, but other considerations are economic and technical feasibility."
"California takes a one in a million cancer risk its difficult to extrapolate but that’s the risk lit they use, the EPA limit is I believe 70 times higher than that."
For a full list and more information about those contaminant visit the EWG’s tap water database at https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/index.php#.WneoZa6nEdU Copyright 2018 KWES.
All rights reserved.

LANSING, MI – Four water utilities in Michigan have been found to have radium levels in excess of the legal limit allowed by federal law, according an environmental and health organization.
The organization also found that hundreds of local water utilities, while in compliance with federal guidelines, had radium levels above standards considered healthy.
Federal law allows up to 5 picocuries per liter of combined radium-226 and radium-228, the two most common forms of radium, in tap water.
The reports showed these four water utilities, all in central Michigan, had radium levels above the 5 picocuries per liter limit: The four utilities’ water is distributed to some 24,500 customers, according to the Environmental Working Group’s data.
Additionally, the organization maintains that to more accurately assess the threat of radiation in U.S. tap water, it compared levels of contaminants reported by local utilities to public health goals set by the California Office of Environmental Hazard Assessment.
Subscribe While California’s public health goals are not legally enforceable limits, they are guidelines for levels of contaminants that pose only a minimal risk to health.
According to the group, combined radium-226 and radium-228 was found to be above legal limits in 37 utilities serving 24,637 people in the state.
EWG says it included six radioactive contaminant in its tap water database, including radon, radium and uranium.
The most widespread contaminants are radium-226 and radium-228, which contaminate tap water in every state, according to EWG.
Exposure to high levels of radium can lead to higher chances of bone, liver and breast cancer.

More than half of Americans could be drinking tap water tainted with a radioactive element.
A new report from the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG) finds more than 170 million people are exposed to radium in their drinking water.
When Dennis Taylor moved with his wife and two kids back to her hometown of Brady, Texas, he quickly found out many there don’t drink the city water, reports CBS News correspondent Anna Werner.
So exposure to radium… even low levels, may increase the risk of cancer development," said Alexis Temkin, toxicologist with the EWG.
Radium was found in all 50 states – and the group found 158 public water systems in 27 states "reported radium in amounts that exceeded the federal legal limit."
The state with the most widespread contamination, according to EWG, is Texas, where "more than 3,500 utilities serving more than 22 million people – about 80 percent of the state’s population" reported finding radium.
EWG alleges Kathleen Hartnett White "deliberately falsified data" on public water system radiation levels as head of the Texas commission on environmental quality in the mid-2000s.
You bet we do," Carper responded.
Back in Brady, Dennis Taylor said he and his family won’t be drinking the water for now.
We also asked the EPA about the EWG’s criticisms of its work, but the agency has not gotten back to us with its response.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – A national, non-profit health research and advocacy organization released a report this week that found widespread contamination of drinking water in Cleveland and throughout Ohio.
The Environmental Working Group determined that, in 2015, virtually every large water system in Ohio produced tap water with detectable levels of the same seven or eight contaminants that exceeded health guidelines, but not federal standards.
EWG obtained its health guidelines from the latest state and federal scientific research, as well as from health and environmental agencies and EWG’s own research, said David Andrews, a senior scientist at EWG.
Nearly all of the contaminants listed by EWG are byproducts of chlorine and other disinfectants used in the treatment process that water systems typically use to purify their raw water from natural sources.
All of the contaminants are legal, as there have been no additions to the nation’s list of regulated chemicals since 1996, the EWG said.
Chromium remains a problem in much of the nation’s drinking water, including Ohio, according to the latest EWG report.
All Ohio public water systems are in compliance for chromium federal standards, Lee said.
He noted that all of the Cleveland Water department’s 1.3 million customers receive drinking water that meets or exceeds all state and federal standards established by the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Ohio EPA.
"EWG recommends that you drink filtered tap water," Andrews said.
EWG’s drinking water quality database includes nearly 30 million test results for 502 contaminants.