Trahan touts 'forever chemicals' cleanup bill

By Christian M. Wade

BOSTON — Communities would receive money to help clean up the “forever chemicals” contaminating their drinking water and sewage treatment systems under a plan working its way through Congress.

The measure, which recently passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support, seeks to reduce toxic exposure to types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances that are increasingly found in drinking water, soil, air, food and even tests of people’s blood.

The bill calls for federal drinking water standards for the two most common PFAS chemicals within two years. It would also label them as hazardous substances, triggering a process for identifying and cleaning up polluted sites under federal law.

Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Westford, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said the measure is backed by President Joe Biden, and she has urged the Senate to take action.

Trahan told a meeting of the Massachusetts PFAS Interagency Task Force on Tuesday that a history of inaction by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is “what got us to this point” where states have had to step up and write rules limiting PFAS contamination.

The plan being considered by Congress would also provide grants to cities and towns, drinking water systems and sewage treatment plants to cover the costs of detecting and removing PFAS. At least $800 million would be available annually.

Trahan said many communities struggle with the cost of dealing with PFAS.

“Cleaning up these water sources is not cheap,” she said. “If we’re going to make meaningful headway in addressing contamination we’re also going to need investments from the federal government.”

Exposure to PFAS has been linked to various health problems, including high cholesterol, thyroid disease, and testicular and kidney cancer. The substances are called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in people’s bodies and take decades to degrade.

While the federal government has no standards for PFAS in drinking water, current guidelines set a combined limit of 70 parts per trillion. Some states, including New Hampshire and Massachusetts, have set more aggressive standards.

Dozens of states are also weighing plans that would call for the elimination of PFAS from food packaging, firefighting foam and other products.

In Massachusetts, drinking water systems must test for PFAS under rules that went into effect this year. The state requires a plan to remove the contamination if tests for any of six types of PFAS exceed concentrations of 20 parts per trillion.

More than two dozen communities in the state have drinking water systems that exceed those levels and are working to remove the contamination, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.

In Congress, lawmakers are also weighing other bills to limit the use of PFAS in food packaging and regulate discharges of the chemicals into waterways by manufacturers.

Meanwhile, a $1 trillion infrastructure bill being considered by lawmakers would provide $10 billion in additional funding for PFAS testing and remediation.