Read the full article by Brett Simpson (East Bay Express)
“Before radio host Jill Buck interviewed Rob Bilott on her weekly show, she had never heard of the environmental lawyer, or of the toxic chemical at the center of his West Virginia water contamination lawsuit against DuPont. But after closing the show, Buck wondered: how safe is my town’s water?
‘I opened Google and typed in ‘PFAS chemicals Pleasanton,’ she said. ‘What I found absolutely floored me.’
As it turns out, Pleasanton had a contamination problem of its own. Last January, the state initiated a pilot testing program for the previously unregulated PFAS chemicals. By April, Pleasanton had shut down one of its three wells, which provide drinking water to 25 percent of the 80,000-person city. These substances, common in industrial and commercial products, are toxic to human health — and they’re showing up in water supplies nationwide.
Initial California State Water Board test results released in October reveal that more than 7.5 million Californians are drinking contaminated water. And that number is about to grow: in January, a state law is supposed to take effect requiring hundreds more California communities to begin testing municipal water supplies for the chemicals and sharing the findings with the public…
In response to C8 Study results, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decided to test for the chemicals in drinking water nationwide. The 2013 Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule study revealed that contamination was widespread across the nation, particularly near landfills, military training sites, and airports.
Despite this new information, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency still did not move to regulate the compounds. Instead, in 2016, the agency set a ‘health advisory level’ for PFAS exposure at just 70 parts per trillion. It maintains this recommendation to this day, despite a 2018 exposure health study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which found that drinking water containing concentrations above 7-11 parts per trillion could have adverse affects on human health…
Experts believe that as California expands its own testing in January, residents of the state are due for their own rude awakening. ‘The more you test for these chemicals, the more you find,’ said Ventura of Clean Water Action. ‘Give it a few months, and the California map will light up.’
California’s testing and regulation efforts are still fledgling. Last July heralded passage of landmark state PFAS monitoring act. Assembly member Cristina Garcia sponsored the bill in response to EPA data showing high detection levels in her Los Angeles County district. Under this new law, effective January, the state will broadly expand its testing efforts, and will require water utilities to notify the public about contamination for the first time.
In August, the state lowered its ‘notification levels’ — the level at which water suppliers have to alert local governments about contamination — from the EPA’s 70 parts per trillion standard to 13 and 14 parts per trillion for PFOS and PFOA, respectively.
Last April, when Pleasanton’s initial tests revealed that Well Eight contained PFAS levels of 108 parts per trillion, the city immediately took the well offline. To make up for the lost water supply, it increased pumping from its other two wells. But those also contained the chemicals: at 35 and 30 parts per trillion of combined PFOS and PFOA, respectively. And when the state lowered its ‘notification levels’ for these substances in August, all three of Pleasanton’s wells dipped into dangerous territory. So the city shifted to a public outreach campaign…
Pleasanton gets its water from two main sources: the city’s wells, and local wholesaler Zone 7 Water Agency. Since the city shut down Well Eight in April, it has relied on pumping more water from its Wells Six and Seven. But Yurchak said this is not intended as a long-term solution. And the city can’t count on alternative water sources: like many California communities, its Zone 7 water allotment comes as part of the California State Water Project allocations, which vary from year to year. At some points between 2013 and 2016, during the height of the drought, the state reduced Pleasanton’s water allotment to zero…
And Zone 7 has contamination issues of its own. The agency blends state surface water with its own local groundwater wells, and the state’s pilot test results revealed that almost all of those wells contained some levels of PFAS. In April, the agency took a well that tested at 101 parts per trillion offline…
And the city still doesn’t know where the contamination is coming from. Because the chemicals have become so ubiquitous and persistent in the environment, high detection levels don’t always point to an obvious polluter, like an industrial facility, a landfill, or an airport…”