Massachusetts' limit on PFAS in drinking water is one of the strictest in the country. Removing the chemicals from drinking water can cost millions, and so far, communities have footed most of the bills. With new regulations expected this year, the costs may get much higher.
Littleton's new water treatment plant is not, shall we say, a head-turning architectural marvel. It's a large, unadorned brick building resembling a fieldhouse. Or perhaps an overgrown shed."A thing of beauty!" Lawler, the general manager of the Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments, said. "It's not the outside that matters — it's what's inside."
"They go down into the basement," Godfrey said, peering down a still-unfinished hole. He said each tank will be filled with 20 tons of activated charcoal."That’s the carbon you need to remove the amount of PFAS we have." "All the other drinking water standards for all the other chemicals are in the concentration range of parts per billion or parts per million.That gives you a sense of really how toxic these chemicals are," said Wendy Heiger-Bernays, a toxicologist at the Boston University School of Public Health.PFAS chemicals were invented in the early 20th century.
Cleaning up PFAS in drinking water is rarely a one-and-done solution. Take Littleton, for instance. When the utility discovered PFAS contamination in its Spectacle Pond reservoir, Lawler considered expanding an existing treatment plant to add PFAS filters. But it turned out to be cheaper to build a $3.2 million pipeline and send the water to the big brick plant under construction, four miles away.
To date, 170 water systems in the state have found PFAS levels over the legal limit. Almost all have found ways to mitigate the PFAS contamination, either by adding filters, finding a new water supply, or blending the polluted water with another source. "If they say we have to remediate that site, I couldn't even guess what that would cost," Dembkoski said."And we have some huge ticket items here in town, including a bridge. We have a dam that has to be replaced. We're about to embark on a new library project. So we'll go through the process and see what the costs are."The Environmental Protection Agency currently does not regulate PFAS in drinking water, but is expected to announce draft regulations in March.
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