On Wednesday, April 10, the US Environmental Protection Agency implemented new regulatory compliance rules for drinking water in municipal water systems, such as Greensboro’s, and those rules will eventually affect the city’s water filtration practices since there are six new substances to guard against.
The six per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances – also known as “PFAS” and “forever chemicals” – were cited under new federal regulations based on a determination by the EPA that these chemicals could negatively affect human health after very long periods of exposure.
A Wednesday, April 10 press release from the city states, “The new regulatory compliance rule affects up to 6,000 water utilities nationwide, including the City of Greensboro. To date, the City has not detected two … of the six under the new rule. The City’s drinking water has met and continues to meet or surpass all state and federal standards.”
The quality of drinking water in America in general has been a source of major discussion in recent years due to alarming high-profile problems in municipal water systems in Jackson, Mississippi; Baltimore, Maryland; and Flint, Michigan.
Also, a widely publicized Consumer Reports article earlier this year kicked off a lot of discussion by stressing the health threats of municipal systems drinking as well as drinking bottled water – where plastic particles from the bottle can leach into the water.
Seemingly, right now the only completely safe water consumption option left for drinking water is letting it drip directly into your mouth off of the roof of an underground cavern deep in a cave in Fiji.
That’s impractical for most people so the City of Greensboro is making improvements in its filtration system.
In September 2024, the Greensboro City Council plans to approve a contract to design and install a Granular Activated Carbon system at the Mitchell Water Treatment Plant in order to reduce contaminants to below the maximum allowed contaminant levels..
The filtration enhancement is one part of a larger plant upgrade that’s estimated to cost about $170 million.
The Activated Carbon treatment improvements make up roughly a third of that $170 million cost.
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) are members of the PFAS chemical group. The EPA’s new individual maximum contaminant levels of four parts per trillion were established for both. The other four – PFHxS, PFNA, PFBS, and HFPO-DA – have been given a Hazard Index of 1.0.
Greensboro leaders stated Wednesday that the city is “committed to protecting public health and has proactively monitored for PFOS and PFOA since 2014.”
Here are some of the steps Greensboro has taken to address water contaminant concerns over the last decade…
- Completed a watershed study to determine sources
- Changed source water when called for
- Used Powdered Activated Carbon systems to minimize levels in drinking water
- Worked with experts to determine the appropriate technological solutions to issues at filtration plants to reduce contaminant levels
- Conducted bi-monthly analyses to evaluate levels in the city’s source water.
I expect Greensboro to throw loads of taxpayer dollars at any issue especially if the Feds say so. I really question if anyone on council has a clue on this subject matter. Expect higher water bills and taxes. You know how your council is with your money.
I really don’t get it. PFSAs are known as “forever chemicals” because they do not interact with anything so they do not degrade. That’s what makes them “forever.” So why is it that PFSAs at the parts per TRILLION level are a risk? If they are “forever,” they should just pass through the digestive system and end up back in the water supply. It would be interesting to review the EPA studies showing the level of exposure observed to affect human health. It seems like we can now detect what is in the water at parts per TRILLION levels, so EPA feels it should regulate and spend $billions to remove all contaminants that MIGHT show some health effects due to exposure at more than a thousand times higher exposure levels than these limits.
Just to test your logic….LEAD lasts forever too but clearly not a good idea to consume.
Step 1 – stop adding fluoride that we have to pay for twice, once to add and once to filter back out. If you need more fluoride in your body then just swallow some toothpaste (and then call poison control)
Everyone will die of something.
From day one. The goal is improve your life so that you may live better and/or longer. Talk to any 70-80 year old, they’ll tell you all about it. Every health problem I have now is my own fault.
PFAS are in most all canned goods.