Tracking environmental contamination from multiple sources of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances

Abstract

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widespread environmental contaminants with many sources, including consumer products, industrial discharges from wastewater treatment plants and manufacturing sites, run-off from lands spread with PFAS-laden biosolids, and atmospheric deposition. Central Maine is impacted by all of these PFAS sources and as a result has high levels of environmental contamination in surface water, groundwater, soil and snow. PFAS were found to flow via surface waters from areas with high sludge spreading into nearby towns. Streams had year-round PFAS, but the area's river was contaminated seasonally. The public drinking water supply was impacted, and low-cost and accessible drinking water filtration methods were partially effective at removing PFAS. Restricting one product that contains PFAS, fluorinated ski wax, resulted in an immediate and large decline in snow contamination at a local ski area, one of the first demonstrations of the efficacy of a product ban. This same ski area, however, used contaminated stream water to produce artificial snow in the winter, which contributed to snow contamination and the transfer of PFAS from the stream onto the land.