The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said federal regulators are committed to finalizing national drinking water standards for PFAS by the end of the year.
In March, the federal agency proposed regulations for six PFAS or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The EPA is planning to set individual limits for the two most widely studied PFAS chemicals — PFOA and PFOS — at 4 parts per trillion. That's more than 17 times lower than Wisconsin's drinking water standard for PFAS of 70 parts per trillion. The EPA wants to regulate a mix of four other PFAS, including PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS and GenX chemicals.
EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said during a stop in Eau Claire on Wednesday that the harmful so-called "forever chemicals" exist in many places where they shouldn’t be found, but the agency doesn’t want to set regulations that appear to target farmers and water systems.
"As we design health-based standards to protect public health and the environment, we're also going to use our discretion to ensure that we focus on those who have put this pollution in the environment, not on our farmers and not on our water utilities," Regan said.
"Farms across the state provide the ability for municipalities to spread municipal (sewage) sludge. Those PFAS are not produced on the farms, but farmers can carry a big risk for that PFAS," Krentz said. "Not holding farmers liable for that PFAS is extremely important moving forward as well."
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has said around 60 percent of 580 municipal wastewater facilities spread sewage sludge, known as biosolids, on land in any given year. The agency's interim strategy for the material states around 85 percent of all biosolids generated are reused on land for nutrients.
As the EPA finalizes limits for the chemicals, water groups have highlighted concerns over the cost of complying with more stringent standards. The American Water Works Association estimates treatment of PFAS in drinking water could cost up to $38 billion. In small communities, advocates for rural Wisconsin water systems say the cost to replace a contaminated well may run up to $2 million, and treatment may be even more costly.
"It should come down to the manufacturer or the user if they knew there was PFAS in the products," Groh said. "Everything we've seen, as far as getting into the water streams or water utilities, has come from outside sources like industrial use or the firefighting (foam) use or things like that. It's nothing brought on by or used by water utilities, so it’s not fair to ask them to pay for removing it."
Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state's largest business group, declined to comment on the EPA’s regulations Thursday. The group has previously said the agency's proposed standards appear to "go far beyond any reasonable criteria for regulating PFAS."
Communities across Wisconsin have been struggling with PFAS contamination in public and private wells. They include the towns of Peshtigo and Campbell along with the cities of Marinette, Eau Claire, Wausau, Madison and Milwaukee. The DNR has identified PFAS contamination at nearly 100 sites where cleanup of the chemicals is ongoing.