A New Year, A New Opportunity To Fight PFAS

We need to hit the new year with some enthusiasm and positivity, but also a dose of reality. The problems our country faces, that our world faces, aren’t going to be addressed by turning the calendar from a dreadful and traumatic year to a fresh start. The challenges we are facing are systemic and generational. The solutions need to be equally impactful, sweeping, and comprehensive. No one politician, no one organization, and no single year will be enough to tackle our deficiencies in access to healthcare, to social equality, to economic justice, to climate change, or to providing clean and safe drinking water to millions of Americans.

But it’s going to take one of those entities to start it all.

When it comes to PFAS specifically, there is no easy way to undo decades of contamination. Millions of Americans have been exposed to contamination in our food, packaging, and cookware, and others have seen contamination sites caused by firefighting foam and industrial waste in their communities and even in their own backyards. Identifying these sites is the first step, and if the past two years have taught us anything, it’s that when you look for PFAS, odds are you’re going to find it.

So, when a contamination site is spotted, what happens next? Most often, the immediate response is to give local communities access to safe drinking water, often by implementing either sewage and infrastructure changes at the municipal level, or by delivered bottled water to homes for personal use.

But thinking more broadly, the first real action needs to come from the federal level, and it starts with money. In 2020, the FDA operated with a budget of $35 million to fight PFAS, while the Department of Defense set aside a further $40 for PFAS research. Of course, those are paltry sums in the broader context of federal expenditure and barely put a dent into the needs of communities affected. There is also the element of accountability, and that’s been sorely lacking at the federal level, especially since 2016. There is hope, though. Michael Regan, President-Elect Joe Biden’s pick to head the EPA, has a history of fighting PFAS and is expected to keep the issue a priority.

The most common method of cleaning up PFAS is called Granular Activated Carbon, or GAC. It’s a costly process that involves pumping contaminated groundwater to the surface and running it through tanks containing activated carbon. PFAS sticks to the carbon, and the residue is then either incinerated or transported to hazardous waste landfills. It’s an expensive, slow, and largely inefficient method but one that seems to be actionable in most situations.

There is plenty of on-going research to find ways to effectively and safely destroy PFAS in water, thereby offering clean water more quickly and without the need to store the residue. Some of the most important methods are focused on finding a microbial answer to breaking down PFAS, though at this time, many of these methods are unable to completely remove PFAS particles, though they are effective at greatly reducing the parts per trillion count, which could at least bring water supplies within relatively safe drinking ranges. Bill Gates, for example, has focused on bioremediation as a long-term solution and has invested heavily in companies conducting this research.

There are many ways to move forward, but the key is to take the first step. We cannot expect the calendar to change and bring change with it, nor can expect a single administration to tackle the immense problems we’ve carried with us for generations. When it comes to PFAS, we need to start now and start by investing in better ways to clean up contamination, as well as giving federal, state, and local agencies the ability and firepower to hold polluters accountable morally and financially for the harm they’ve caused.