Editor’s Note: Does your drinking water come from a private well? If so, did you know that New Jersey now requires you to test it for the presence of two, potentially harmful chemicals — PFOA and PFOS? We learned this–and more–when we read the informative alert below.
New Jersey Publishes Formal Stringent Drinking Water Standards for PFOA and PFOS
BY CHRISTOPHER J. CAVAIOLA, Gibbons
On June 1, 2020, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) officially published health-based drinking water standards for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS). These chemicals have received serious attention from the environmental community in the last several years due to increasing science that has confirmed the harmful impact of PFOA/PFOS on human health and the environment.
These new more stringent rules, published in the New Jersey Register, set maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) at: 14 parts per trillion for PFOA and 13 parts per trillion for PFOS. The DEP also added PFOA and PFOS to the state’s list of hazardous substances. Site remediation activities and regulated discharges to groundwater of PFOA and PFOS will now have to comply with these new standards. These new formal standards establish a regulatory framework that will provide consistency in remediation activities statewide.
It is important to note that PFOA and PFOS are just two of potentially thousands of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (or PFAS). To date Vermont and New Hampshire are the only other two states to set MCLs for PFAS. New York is working on similar standards. New Jersey issued a standard of 13 parts per trillion for perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) in 2018.
The federal government has not yet established MCLs for PFAS. While there are treatment technologies in existence that effectively remove PFAS from drinking water, there are concerns with how effective these technologies are in remediation scenarios. The rules will require that all water systems in New Jersey begin monitoring for PFOA and PFOS within the first quarter of 2021. As many as 1,000 water systems already report levels of PFOA and PFOS in the state.
