Pennsylvania Community Making PFCs ‘Undetectable' In Tainted Systems

Officials from a Pennsylvania county besieged by perfluorinated-compound (PFC) contamination are vowing to take steps to clear the chemical contaminant from their water system.

“Horsham is one of three communities in Bucks and Montgomery Counties where chemicals from firefighting foams used at former naval air bases have leeched into groundwater and community water supplies,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Horsham Councilman Gregory Nesbitt spoke to the public during a recent town meeting.

"We understand that people have lost confidence in our water supply," he said, per the report. "What we're trying to do is restore the public's trust in what we can achieve in the short term.”

Councilman Mark McCouch added: "I think our goal for the future is to be as low as we can go.”

Horsham officials discussed ways they can lower PFC levels below federal guidelines “to an undetectable amount,” according to the report.

Here’s what officials have done so far, per the report:

In Horsham, five public wells have been taken off-line since the contamination was found in 2014, three of them last month, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released stricter standards. Nine wells that remain in use contain lower levels of PFCs, which have been linked to cancers and other health issues. The Navy is paying for carbon filters on the five contaminated wells that are not in use.

Additional steps the community may take:

The township will consider removing the nine remaining wells from use by the end of the year when the Navy-funded filters are in place, in addition to purchasing water from neighboring communities, at an additional cost of up to $3,300 per day.

Here are the treatment methods the U.S. EPA recommends to water utilities facing PFC challenges:

In some cases, drinking water systems may be able to reduce concentrations of perfluoroalkyl substances, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), by closing contaminated wells or changing rates of blending of water sources. Alternatively, public water systems can treat source water with activated carbon or high pressure membrane systems (e.g., reverse osmosis) to remove PFOA and PFOS from drinking water. These treatment systems are used by some public water systems today, but should be carefully designed and maintained to ensure that they are effective for treating PFOA and PFOS. In some communities, entities have provided bottled water to consumers while steps to reduce or remove PFOA or PFOS from drinking water or to establish a new water supply are completed.

The U.S. EPA issued a health advisory in May about PFC exposure as various cities wage high-profile battles against the chemicals, including Hoosick Falls and factory towns across the country. PFCs are industrial chemicals, and research has tied them to cancer, the Associated Press reported.

In Pennsylvania, officials stress that municipal water in local communities is safe, although some private and public wells in the area have had high levels of PFCs, PA Wire News reported.

"Water is a very serious issue, people take it very seriously and the Navy, EPA and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection as well as the municipal townships that are providing water take it very seriously as well," said Gregory Preston, director of the Navy's base closure program management office, per NBC Philadelphia.

To read more about handling PFC contamination visit Water Online’s Drinking Water Contaminant Removal Solutions Center.