A total of 262 Georgia systems - which serve more than 9 million people - are required to report their results by 2025.ĮPA published the first batch of test results last month.

The Georgia tests were conducted this year by water systems and reported to EPA as part of the agency’s periodic screening for unregulated contaminants in drinking water. “That cost should be borne by the companies that manufactured, used and profited off this chemistry,” said David Andrews, a senior scientist with the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization that encourages regulation of PFAS. Explore Chemical firms sue Rome and AJC to block PFAS settlement terms releaseĪdvocates say the industries that created PFAS chemicals and released them into the environment should pay the cleanup costs - not taxpayers and water utility customers. That means the cost could fall to water customers in the form of higher rates. But the cost of the upgrades needed to bring many water systems into compliance with the new federal standards is expected to far exceed the available funding. In addition to unprecedented federal funding for PFAS mitigation, dozens of manufacturers that create or use PFAS have already agreed to pay billions to settle class-action lawsuits. “It does matter where PFAS are coming from so that they can be remediated and/or contained.”

“There should be no PFAS in drinking water, so any level indicates industrial contamination of drinking water,” Jamie DeWitt, an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at East Carolina University, wrote in an email. In Clayton County alone, officials estimate it will cost $450 million. is astronomical, expected to far surpass the more than $9 billion in federal funding from bipartisan infrastructure legislation to address the issue. The cost of upgrading water systems to remove PFAS from drinking water around the U.S. Widespread PFAS contamination of drinking water systems has been found in recent years around the United States - including in Georgia - since EPA issued health advisories based on new studies showing the chemicals are more toxic at lower levels than scientists previously thought. Environmental Protection Agency.Ĭlayton County, Austell and Covington are among 11 water systems out of 52 tested so far that reported contamination by so-called “forever chemicals,” also known as PFAS, the acronym for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. A new round of testing has revealed toxic chemicals linked to cancer and impaired immunity, including in children, in the drinking water of nearly a dozen systems across Georgia, according to the U.S.

Columbus water works grease take back