NC is crawling toward stricter rules about two kinds of forever chemicals
North Carolina could soon regulate one kind of forever chemical in groundwater for the first time and stiffen its rules for another.
Monday, the N.C. Secretaries’ Science Advisory Board considered a rule recommendation that would see the state tighten groundwater standards for PFOA and PFOS, a pair of PFAS chemicals often referred to as “legacy compounds” because they have been in use longer than other similar substances.
The proposed rule would make the state’s rules significantly more protective, with a combined allowed level of PFOA and PFOS of 70 parts per trillion in groundwater. Right now, there is no such standard for PFOS, and the interim standard for PFOA is 2,000 ppt.
“N.C.’s groundwater standards are used to identify unsafe levels of groundwater contamination; set goals for groundwater remediation; and advise well owners on use of water from affected wells,” Robin Smith, an environmental attorney and former North Carolina assistant secretary for the environment, wrote in a 2016 blog post. Often, Smith added, the state standards align with federal drinking water standards, but North Carolina has occasionally adopted groundwater rules even where there has not been a federal drinking water rule.
North Carolina does not have a drinking water standard for either chemical. The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that it intends to pursue a federal standard, or enforceable rule, for both of the legacy compounds.
The Science Advisory Board is made up of experts throughout the state and provides advice to the Department of Environmental Quality and Department of Health and Human Services. Originally, the board was set to vote on the recommended groundwater standard Monday, but chairman Tom Augspurger decided the board would vote on email because several board members calling in could not be heard in the Archdale Building hearing room.
Should the board approve the recommendation, it would head to the state Environmental Management Commission, undergoing a lengthy rule-making process before it could become effective.
PFOA, which has been phased out, is also known as C8. It is frequently associated with Teflon, waterproof clothing and other uses. PFOS is historically associated with Scotchard, but is still used in many firefighting foams and food packaging.
PFOA and PFOS tweaks
Detlef Knappe, the N.C. State environmental engineering professor whose lab discovered the PFAS compound GenX in Wilmington’s drinking water, suggested tweaking the wording of the Science Advisory Board’s recommendation during Monday’s meeting to clarify that it only applies to PFOA and PFOS.
North Carolina groundwater standards state that if there is not enough information to establish a standard for a substance, then any detection above the practical quantitation limit, or the lowest level at which a lab can find the chemical, is a violation.
“I don’t want this to be misinterpreted as saying the (practical quantitation limit) concept is something that we don’t enforce at all. ... We have a concept in place that is protective to impacted communities,” Knappe said.
Augspurgur agreed to add Knappe’s suggested wording, making it clear that science exists to establish a standard for PFOA and PFOS.
Jamie DeWitt, an East Carolina University toxicology professor, successfully requested that epidemiological data be included in the information considered when updating the standard now and in the future.
“All of these (values) are dynamic, given new information that we get,” DeWitt said. “So if we have new information from epidemiological studies that characterizes the hazard or points to a risk, then we would be remiss if we didn’t consider how those data may influence a health protective value.”
During Monday’s meeting, Augspurgur also said he intends to give a presentation to the Environmental Management Commission at its March meeting to both describe the advisory board’s process and seek clarity on the role the management commission sees the advisory board playing.
Part of that conversation, Knappe suggested, should be how the Environmental Management Commission intends to regulate PFAS compounds moving forward. Regulating the chemicals as a class, Knappe said, may be a more simple approach than taking six months to a year to review all of the science on a given perfluorinated substance.
“It would be a little different,” Knappe said, “but I think it’s very challenging to do the science-based, one-chemical-at-a-time kind of approach when we deal with a large number of compounds like PFAS.”
The Science Advisory Board has previously weighed in on other chemicals such as GenX, where it said the state’s provisional drinking water health goal of 140 ppt was appropriate based on the available data. Furthermore, Augspurger said, the board intends to revisit its recommendations any time new research comes out.
EPA moving on PFOA, PFOS
The EPA announced last week that it intends to set a drinking water standard for PFOA and PFOS. It did not provide any indication about what that level will be, but in 2016 the agency established a lifetime drinking water health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion for the chemicals, either individually or combined.
Both PFOA and PFOS were included on the EPA’s Contaminant Candidate List, a list of unregulated contaminants believed to be found in drinking water systems across the country that the federal agency must release every five years. The agency must then decide whether to regulate at least five of the chemicals on the list.
During Monday’s meeting, Connie Brower, DEQ’s water quality standards coordinator, addressed the EPA’s action, noting that she had been in touch with an EPA official about the determination. The standard will be based in part, Brower said, on information published since the 2016 health advisory was established.
After the EPA’s announcement, an environmental advocacy group warned that states should forge ahead with their own standards to protect citizens while the grinding federal rulemaking process plays out.
In a prepared statement following the EPA statement, Melanie Benesh, the legislative attorney for the Environmental Working Group, said, “States should not wait for the EPA to act. It will be years — if ever — before a final drinking water standard is set. States should continue to set their own standards to protect Americans from toxic PFAS.”
This reporting is financially supported by Report for America/GroundTruth Project and The North Carolina Local News Lab Fund, a component fund of the North Carolina Community Foundation. The News & Observer maintains full editorial control of the work. To support the future of this reporting, subscribe or donate.
This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "NC is crawling toward stricter rules about two kinds of forever chemicals."