Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf last week released the state’s initial report and recommendations from its Action Team on PFAS, as well as results from the first round of water system sampling. The report identifies five challenges in dealing with PFAS, including the needs for increased funding for hazardous site cleanup, improved federal leadership, established standards for Pennsylvania’s private water wells, safer disposal methods, and better science. The Action Team recommends various items for different departments in the state; for the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), it recommends funding for staff resources and hazardous site cleanup, testing of water systems, and sampling authority at landfills.
In an effort to remain transparent with the community, Pennsylvania also released DEP’s first round of water system sampling, which showed just one of 96 sampled sites to test above the U.S. EPA Lifetime Health Advisory (LHA) of 70 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS in drinking water. PFAS were not detected in two-thirds of the sites sampled, and the results of the other third showed PFAS concentrations below EPA’s LHA. DEP has identified 493 public water system sources as potential sampling sites due to location near military bases, fire training sites, landfills, manufacturing facilities, and other sources of PFAS. Of those, the agency will test about 360. DEP will also test 40 sources further away from the facilities to establish a baseline.
To learn more about Pennsylvania’s PFAS efforts, see here.
