By Phil Brown, Alissa Cordner and Lauren Richter, SSEHRI; David Andrews and Olga Naidenko, EWG
Research from Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the PFAS project at Northeastern University's Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute (SSEHRI), helped map the contamination crisis with the toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS, now recorded at more than 1,400 sites in 49 states. This joint project attracted significant public, media, and legislative attention to the issue of widespread PFAS contamination. As of 2017, this joint project has resulted in more than 600 news stories and more than 860,000 map views.
EWG was an early leader in PFAS research and advocacy. In 2002EWG has begun publishing reports on the toxicity of the fluorinated compound PFOA, based on documents made public through the environmental lawyer project Rob Billotwho brought a federal lawsuit against DuPont for polluting local water supplies in West Virginia and Ohio The lawsuit led to larger epidemiological study on the health effects of PFOA, an 8-carbon PFAS, on human health. The study found a possible link between PFOA exposure and high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, testicular cancer, kidney cancer and pregnancy-induced hypertension.
Over the next decade, the EWG wrote reports, tested and found cord blood contaminated with PFAS, asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor Americans for PFAS, and warned of widespread contamination of water and food. In 2015, EWG published a county in the US Map which recorded hundreds of known PFAS detections in drinking water.
SSEHRI's interest in monitoring PFAS contamination began in 2015, when there were only a few known contamination sites. Of particular interest was the observation that much of the knowledge about PFAS contamination came from the public voicing their concerns. From Tenant farm in West Virginia in its discovery PFOA Contamination in Hoosick Falls, New York, concerned Americans have led investigations into PFAS contamination, often against considerable opposition and technical obstacles.
The collaboration between EWG and SSEHRI helped elevate PFAS contamination from a local and personal concern to the realization that it was a national crisis. In the absence of rigorous monitoring and testing by government agencies, we have collectively gathered data to illuminate the extent of this problem in real time.
The mapping project documented publicly known PFAS contamination in public water systems and on or near military bases, airports, industrial facilities and landfills, and firefighter training areas. Initial data on PFAS in drinking water came from two sources: tests mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency Monitoring program for unregulated pollutants in 2013-2015; and of SSEHRI PFAS Contamination Site Monitoring, which collected data from community groups, government reports and the NEWS media. Since then, testing at many more locations and with increasingly sensitive analytical detection methods has documented that the extent of PFAS contamination is much more widespread than previously thought.
Our collaborative mapping project was released publicly at the First National PFAS Conference in 2017, hosted by SSEHRI and organized by a committee including activists and scientists. EWG President Ken Cook gave a keynote address to unveil the map, which at the time detailed how PFAS-contaminated water in 27 states was in the water supplies for 15 million Americans.
Through periodic updates to the map over the past three years, EWG and SSEHRI added hundreds of additional sites using publicly available government testing data, previously unknown PFAS levels revealed by documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, community and social information movements and news coverage by the media.
With significant news media attention and website traffic, the map has undoubtedly contributed to greater awareness of the PFAS contamination crisis. In addition, the map's prominence has led to dozens of data requests for SSEHRI's Contamination Site Tracker, helping academic researchers and students from state governments.
The map has also been used to argue for greater regulation of PFAS. For example, Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, created an oversized version of the map and showed it at a hearing in March 2019.
Today we are proud that communities across the US are responding to the PFAS contamination crisis by organizing and advocating for safe drinking water. Sometimes the source of PFAS contamination is known, such as an upstream discharge of PFAS from industrial sources, as documented in North Carolina Cape Fear River
watershed or groundwater contamination from past PFAS disposal practices. Other times, determining the source or sources of PFAS contamination is more difficult. To protect public health from PFAS, ensuring clean drinking water is essential, and mapping areas of PFAS contamination brings us closer to that goal.
The EWG and SSEHRI work on PFAS mapping will now be split into two separate projects.
- EWG will continue map updates, with an emphasis on documenting the extent of PFAS water contamination as documented by states, the Department of Defense, and EWG's own water sampling projects. EWG is also launching one PFAS Atlas which combines the water contamination map, a map of suspected industrial effluents, and a map of PFAS pollution on US military bases.
- SSEHRI's data will be merged with Silent Spring Institute's PFAS exchange Map
which is part of a collaborative project funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. This map helps affected residents and community groups access information about data in their states and learn how to connect with other activists working on PFAS issues.
Our two organizations are grateful for the opportunity to combine our time and skills for an effective public intervention in the global PFAS crisis.