Remediating groundwater to the point where you can drink it safely is becoming more challenging for water treatment districts, as various states raise regulatory targets for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The patchwork of inconsistent targets add to other more technical challenges when it comes to implementing PFAS-targeting technology at a large scale, say the first keynote presenters of the RemTEC and Emerging Contaminants Summit in Westminster on Oct. 4.
In the states where the targets are voluntary, like Illinois, townships with known PFAS issues like Freeport have installed new equipment to lower concentrations to acceptable levels, anticipating they’ll be required to do so eventually when interest rates are less advantageous – either at the state level, or through long-awaited maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) from the EPA on PFAS. Freeport is an outlier though, and there remain glaring issues like PFAS contamination in rainwater around the world and high-concentration areas like the Great Lakes region.