The California Water Board and PFAS
In March 2019, the California Division of Drinking Water ordered testing of 600 water system wells throughout the state. To view the results, the Water Board directs the public to this difficult-to-navigate interactive map on PFAS. To find the entire PFAS database in excel format, the public must know how to look for it on this site or be directed by staff. The result is that the public is deprived of an accurate picture of the overall levels of contamination across the state. See “PFAS Monitoring np TP.” The spreadsheet contains 9,130 rows of data, making it nearly impossible for the water-drinking public to decipher.
We have reformatted the water board's spreadsheet with all of the data statewide. We've also added totals for the systems that tested positive for the contaminants. See: First round of PFAS sampling for CA Public Water Systems - April 1st to June 30th 2019
Meanwhile, an interactive map incorporating the Water Board’s findings by the LA Times only presents data on PFOS/PFOA while failing to address contamination by other dangerous varieties of PFAS. Although PFOS and PFOA are the most notorious varieties of PFAS, other PFAS chemicals may be even more harmful to human health in some respects. The results show California tested 568 wells for PFOS and PFOA, along with these 16 chemical variations of PFAS:
PERFLUOROBUTANESULFONIC ACID (PFBS)
PERFLUOROHEPTANOIC ACID (PFHpA)
PERFLUOROHEXANE SULFONIC ACID (PFHxS)
PERFLUORONONANOIC ACID (PFNA)
N-ETHYL PERFLUOROOCTANESULFONAMIDOACETIC ACID
N-METHYL PERFLUOROOCTANESULFONAMIDOACETIC ACID
PERFLUORODECANOIC ACID (PFDA)
PERFLUORODODECANOIC ACID (PFDoA)
PERFLUOROHEXANOIC ACID (PFHxA)
PERFLUOROTETRADECANOIC ACID (PFTA)
PERFLUOROTRIDECANOIC ACID (PFTrDA)
PERFLUOROUNDECANOIC ACID (PFUnA)
HEXAFLUOROPROPYLENE OXIDE DIMER ACID (HFPO-DA)
9-CHLOROHEXADECAFLUORO-3-OXANONE-1-SULFONIC ACID
11-CHLOROEICOSAFLUORO-3-OXAUNDECANE-1-SULFONIC ACI
4,8-DIOXA-3H-PERFLUORONONANOIC ACID (ADONA)
The consumption of these chemicals in drinking water at the tiniest levels may mean your unborn child will be defenseless against asthma or suffer from severe developmental or behavioral issues. Drink water laced with these chemicals and it might contribute to testicular, liver, and kidney cancer, or reduced immunity to several deadly diseases.
So it was disheartening to see the LA Times offer statistics to the public through an interactive map that only displays totals for PFOS/PFOA.
Of the 568 wells tested, 308 (54.2%) were found to contain a variety of PFAS chemicals. 19,228 parts per trillion (ppt) of the 18 kinds of PFAS tested were found in those 308 wells. 51% were either PFOS or PFOA while the remaining 49% were other PFAS listed above that are known to have negative impacts on human health.
Pick your poison.
The U.S, Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA) has a non-enforceable Lifetime Health Advisory of 70 parts per trillion for PFOS/PFOA. When PFOS/PFOA levels top 70 ppt, wells are shut down in California, although other PFAS chemicals are not subjected to these limits. Environmentalists warn that the EPA’s voluntary threshold is too high, claiming that drinking water should never exceed 1 ppt of any PFAS chemicals.
In the absence of a proactive federal EPA, states across the country are rushing to establish mandatory maximum contaminant levels (MCL’s) for various PFAS in the 10 ppt to 20 ppt range in both groundwater and drinking water.
The LA Times website instructs the public to enter the name of their town into a search bar. Doing so for Burbank yields the following map:
In March 2019, the California Division of Drinking Water ordered testing of 600 water system wells throughout the state. To view the results, the Water Board directs the public to this difficult-to-navigate interactive map on PFAS. To find the entire PFAS database in excel format, the public must know how to look for it on this site or be directed by staff. The result is that the public is deprived of an accurate picture of the overall levels of contamination across the state. See “PFAS Monitoring np TP.” The spreadsheet contains 9,130 rows of data, making it nearly impossible for the water-drinking public to decipher.
We have reformatted the water board's spreadsheet with all of the data statewide. We've also added totals for the systems that tested positive for the contaminants. See: First round of PFAS sampling for CA Public Water Systems - April 1st to June 30th 2019
Meanwhile, an interactive map incorporating the Water Board’s findings by the LA Times only presents data on PFOS/PFOA while failing to address contamination by other dangerous varieties of PFAS. Although PFOS and PFOA are the most notorious varieties of PFAS, other PFAS chemicals may be even more harmful to human health in some respects. The results show California tested 568 wells for PFOS and PFOA, along with these 16 chemical variations of PFAS:
PERFLUOROBUTANESULFONIC ACID (PFBS)
PERFLUOROHEPTANOIC ACID (PFHpA)
PERFLUOROHEXANE SULFONIC ACID (PFHxS)
PERFLUORONONANOIC ACID (PFNA)
N-ETHYL PERFLUOROOCTANESULFONAMIDOACETIC ACID
N-METHYL PERFLUOROOCTANESULFONAMIDOACETIC ACID
PERFLUORODECANOIC ACID (PFDA)
PERFLUORODODECANOIC ACID (PFDoA)
PERFLUOROHEXANOIC ACID (PFHxA)
PERFLUOROTETRADECANOIC ACID (PFTA)
PERFLUOROTRIDECANOIC ACID (PFTrDA)
PERFLUOROUNDECANOIC ACID (PFUnA)
HEXAFLUOROPROPYLENE OXIDE DIMER ACID (HFPO-DA)
9-CHLOROHEXADECAFLUORO-3-OXANONE-1-SULFONIC ACID
11-CHLOROEICOSAFLUORO-3-OXAUNDECANE-1-SULFONIC ACI
4,8-DIOXA-3H-PERFLUORONONANOIC ACID (ADONA)
The consumption of these chemicals in drinking water at the tiniest levels may mean your unborn child will be defenseless against asthma or suffer from severe developmental or behavioral issues. Drink water laced with these chemicals and it might contribute to testicular, liver, and kidney cancer, or reduced immunity to several deadly diseases.
So it was disheartening to see the LA Times offer statistics to the public through an interactive map that only displays totals for PFOS/PFOA.
Of the 568 wells tested, 308 (54.2%) were found to contain a variety of PFAS chemicals. 19,228 parts per trillion (ppt) of the 18 kinds of PFAS tested were found in those 308 wells. 51% were either PFOS or PFOA while the remaining 49% were other PFAS listed above that are known to have negative impacts on human health.
Pick your poison.
The U.S, Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA) has a non-enforceable Lifetime Health Advisory of 70 parts per trillion for PFOS/PFOA. When PFOS/PFOA levels top 70 ppt, wells are shut down in California, although other PFAS chemicals are not subjected to these limits. Environmentalists warn that the EPA’s voluntary threshold is too high, claiming that drinking water should never exceed 1 ppt of any PFAS chemicals.
In the absence of a proactive federal EPA, states across the country are rushing to establish mandatory maximum contaminant levels (MCL’s) for various PFAS in the 10 ppt to 20 ppt range in both groundwater and drinking water.
The LA Times website instructs the public to enter the name of their town into a search bar. Doing so for Burbank yields the following map:
The LA Times graphic shows ten wells in Burbank with no PFOS/PFOA contamination, leading many to believe the well water is OK. The LA Times fails to provide the public with access to contamination caused by other PFAS chemicals found in well water.
Few seem concerned with these "non-PFOS/PFOA" PFAS chemicals and that’s largely because the industry-friendly EPA has demonstrated little concern. California must take the lead in protecting the health of its citizens from PFAS in water supplies and its off to a rocky start with the delivery of this data.
Although these chemicals escape public scrutiny they are are dangerous, and their levels ought to be closely regulated and reported to the public by all states and the federal government.
The Europeans are ahead of the US in recognizing the potential lethality of these substances. Studies submitted to the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee of the Stockholm Convention, a treaty the U.S. has not ratified, report these finding for PFHxS, a chemical found in Burbank's water
- PFHxS has been detected in umbilical cord blood and is transmitted to the embryo to a larger extent than what is reported for PFOS.
- Studies have shown an association between serum levels of PFHxS and serum levels of cholesterol, lipoproteins, triglycerides and free fatty acids.
- Effects on the thyroid hormone pathway have been shown for PFHxS in epidemiological studies.
- Prenatal exposure to PFHxS is associated with occurrence of infectious diseases (such as ottis media, pneumonia, RS virus and varicella) in early life.
And that is just one of the "non-PFOS/PFOA" PFAS chemicals in Burbank's water. See the toxicological profiles for: PFHxA, PFBS and PFHpA that folks in Burbank are likely drinking.
Burbank’s well water is poisoned. The story is too inflammatory for the commercial media so folks don't know they're water is unsafe to drink.
If someone lives close to wells with high levels of PFAS it doesn’t necessarily mean their tap water comes from that source, although it probably does. Also, if tap water comes from a utility with several wells, the public may not know the exact source of the water they’re drinking. People should begin communicating with their water service providers and pregnant women should never drink tap water with the tiniest amounts of any variety of PFAS. Most home water purification systems cannot filter out these carcinogens.
The California State Water Resources Board tested civilian airports, municipal solid waste landfills, and drinking water sources within a 1-mile radius of wells already known to contain PFAS. The military was not a focus of this investigation, although one base, Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake detected groundwater wells at 8,000,000 ppt. for PFOS/PFOA, according to the DOD. The 568 wells tested - it must be restated - contained 19,229 ppt of all varieties of PFAS found. Meanwhile more than 5,000 additional varieties of the chemicals were not tested.
Furthermore, the DOD reports that California has 598 military installations with 5,819 contaminated sites, although data for PFAS contamination at most of these sites is unavailable to the public.
In August 2019, California’s Division of Drinking Water established notification levels for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) (6.5 parts per trillion for PFOS and 5.1 parts per trillion for PFOA). Notification levels are a non-regulatory, precautionary health-based measure for concentrations in drinking water that warrant notification and further monitoring and assessment. Public water systems are encouraged to test their water for contaminants with notification levels, and in some circumstance may be ordered to test. If the systems do test, they are required to report exceedances to their governing boards and the State Water Board and are urged to report this information to customers.