Demonstration of On-Site Field Monitoring for PFAS and AFFF-Impacted Groundwater

Abstract

Remediation processes aimed at removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF)-impacted sites often suffer from delays due to the slow turnaround time of obtaining PFAS results from analytical lab services. This not only extends projects, leading to increased costs, but it also contributes to delays in the fine-tuning of remediation processes, as any modifications are made on outdated data. These off-site analytical monitoring methods are also usually limited to the list of compounds in targeted methods such as EPA method 1633, which does not include some precursors that may convert into more harmful PFAS compounds over time. The FRED-PFAS sensor is a real-time monitoring system that detects the sum of anionic PFAS species (perfluoro- and polyfluoroalkyl, >C4 chain length) present in a sample with similar sensitivity across key PFAS species, as demonstrated with perfluorooctanoic acid, the precursor 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonate, and a commercial AFFF mixture. When deployed at AFFF-impacted groundwater and an upstream aircraft rescue and firefighting PFAS removal project, the FRED-PFAS detector was able to provide actionable same-day data that correlated with EPA 1633 methods and total organic fluorine measurements. This generates actionable PFAS data on-site, enabling faster turnaround times and reduced overall PFAS monitoring costs.