City of Delray Beach, Florida is not telling the whole story on PFAS contamination of drinking water
The city publicly says PFAS concentrations total 42.2 ppt while tests they commissioned show concentrations of 114.65 for the chemicals.
Independent testing shows levels of 659.5 ppt.
The science suggests people are getting sick.
By Pat Elder
April 7, 2022
Delray Beach has high levels of PFAS in tap water.
The City of Delray Beach’s drinking water wells are more heavily contaminated with PFAS than the city is publicly acknowledging.
The city says PFAS levels in Delray Beach’s drinking water average 42.2 nanograms per liter. (42.2 ppt) This level, they correctly state, “is well below the Environmental Protection Agency’s health advisory threshold” of 70 ppt. The city says it is pleased to inform the public of these levels.
They shouldn’t be pleased and they ought to be ashamed for hiding the full results. Delray Beach’s public relations campaign fails to protect the public from the hazards of these chemicals.
The city announced “42.2 ppt of PFAS” but they are only referring to PFOS and PFOA, just two of the 9,000 PFAS compounds known to exist. These two analytes were phased out of production many years ago but have been replaced by other varieties of the toxins that are proving to be just as harmful to health. The city doesn’t address these.
A recently released report by Pace Analytical Services completed on behalf of the city shows the average well sampled on June 9, 2021 had concentrations of 114.65 ppt of total PFAS. Recent testing by CycloPure shows levels of 659.5 ppt.
There are currently no established federal limits for any kind of PFAS in drinking water. This is criminal negligence on the part of The United States of America and the state of Florida. Instead, the EPA has established a non-binding “Lifetime Health Advisory” of 70 ppt for PFOS and PFOA. The agency claims anyone who drinks up to two liters of water a day with water containing concentrations up to 70 ppt of PFOS and PFOA for a lifetime should not experience health problems. The scientific community overwhelmingly acknowledges human health is threatened at these levels.
Although refusing to establish mandatory limits on two types of PFAS, the EPA now says safe levels of exposure to these two compounds should be thousands of times lower than the advisory it proposed in 2016! Go figure.
Linda Birnbaum, the nation’s former top toxicologist, argues the limit for PFOA in drinking water ought to be .1 ppt. Research indicates that PFOA in the tiniest levels is linked to pancreatic cancer. According to the city, Delray Beach’s water averages 14.15 ppt of PFOA, more than 140 times over Dr. Birnbaum’s limit.
There are 143 doctors for Pancreatic Cancer in Delray Beach, according to Healthgrades. Find the best for you.
The Environmental Working Group says all PFAS compounds should be regulated as a class of chemicals and together kept under 1 part per trillion in drinking water. In the absence of federal regulations many states have established mandatory drinking water standards for PFAS that are lower than the EPA’s 70 ppt.
States with enforceable drinking water standards include MA, MI, NH, NJ, NY, VT, and ME; and states with proposed standards include AZ, IA, KY, and RI. Other states have adopted guidance and/or notification levels for PFAS in drinking water. These states include AK, CA, CO, CT, DE, IL, MN, NC, NM, and OH. Florida is not in the game, although the state claims it is a national leader in response to PFAS concerns.
Many states are keeping a basket of 5 or 6 compounds under 20 ppt. For instance, Massachusetts has a maximum contaminant level (MCL) for PFAS in drinking water at 20 ppt. The MCL applies to six PFAS: PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS, PFNA, PFHpA, and PFDA. The combination of the six can’t exceed 20 ppt.
The MCL is an enforceable standard. All of the state’s public water systems must keep the total “MA PFAS 6” under 20 ppt. If they fail, the wells are treated or shut down. Using this criterion, every one of Delray Beach’s wells would be shut down - and this is based on just PFOS and PFOA, two of the six compounds regulated in Massachusetts.
The only argument the City of Delray Beach has is that the EPA only regulates two compounds and it’s OK if they’re under 70 ppt in drinking water. So much has been learned since the advisory levels were determined in 2016! So much so that it is ludicrous to be referring to them as safe. The EPA has been resoundingly repudiated on PFAS. It is responsible for a public health epidemic caused by these chemicals.
This graphic shows the partial results made public by the City of Delray Beach.
PFOS+PFOA averaged 50.4 ppt in the wells tested on June 9, 2021.The average well contained 69.1 ppt of the MA PFAS 6, more than three times higher than what Massachusetts allows. PW #36, the least contaminated well in Delray, had 35.76 ppt of PFOS/PFOA which is still higher than 20 ppt allowed in Massachusetts and lots of other states.
Four of the Delray Beach’s wells have concentrations of the two compounds above the 70 ppt EPA advisory. They ought to be shut down.
Blending PFAS
The discredited EPA says drinking water systems may be able to reduce concentrations of per- and poly fluoroalkyl substances, including PFOA and PFOS, by blending water sources. In other words, people may consume the water coming from a highly contaminated well containing 92 ppt of PFOS+PFOA if it is blended with water from another well to arrive at a concentration under 70 ppt. Rather than blending, the City of Delray Beach and jurisdictions throughout the Sunshine State ought to filter the water using a granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration system or low-pressure reverse osmosis. That’s what they’re doing up north. It protects human health, but it’s expensive.
Denise Trabbic-Pointer, CHMM Emeritus, Chemical Engineer, and Toxics and Remediation Specialist for Sierra Club, is skeptical of blending. She said, “I see fairly extreme variability in groundwater samples, especially when they are grab samples like these. Their thinking that they will dilute the higher levels by blending may backfire and instead might be more additive than diluting.”
This may partially explain the recent CycloPure results from tap water at Tropic Isle in Delray Beach. That sample showed 459.5 ppt of total PFAS with 116 ppt of PFOS and 32.9 ppt of PFOA. The PFOS/PFOA totals are twice the EPA advisory. The Tropic Isle water contained a staggering 369.6 ppt of total MA PFAS 6 compounds, 18 times over the Massachusetts limit. The Tropic Isle water contains 208.3 ppt. of PFHxS alone, a very troubling level.
The results from Pace Analytical Services commissioned by the city showed there were differences of PFAS concentrations based on the depth of the well. For instance, the six wells with depths of 100’ and less averaged 170 ppt of total PFAS. Meanwhile, eight wells with depths of 165’ and over averaged 82 ppt of total PFAS for the analytes tested. It’s pretty scary because it means the same dynamic is likely in play throughout much of South Florida’s East Coast Surficial Aquifer. South Florida’s shallow aquifer is not suitable for human consumption without treatment. Where’s the state? Where’s the federal government?
All of Delray Beach’s wells draw from the East Coast Surficial Aquifer, except for Well 25 that draws from the Biscayne Aquifer.
The science tells us people could be getting very sick while the state of Florida and Delray Beach likely know it and allow it.
Although this 2020 graphic from the Environmental Working Group only shows totals for PFOS and PFOA, it puts Delray Beach’s average well total of 50.4 ppt into perspective. Only three jurisdictions nationwide topped Delray Beach: Brunswick County, NC, Quad Cities, IA, and Miami, FL.
Delray Beach’s average well totals 50.4 ppt for PFOS + PFOA. The city has a bigger problem than it is admitting. Graphic by Environmental Working Group
Let’s look at Delray Beach’s most contaminated well. People are drinking this water!
Although it’s not as catchy as Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this wall,” how about, “Mayor Petrolia, Shut down this well!”
Let’s look at a few of these chemicals and their concentrations in the city’s water that public health scientists across the nation tell us we shouldn’t be consuming.
Source: Pace Analytical Services for the City of Delray Beach
PFBA - 96 ppt A Danish study found that people with elevated levels of PFBA were more than twice as likely to develop a severe form of Covid-19. The research involved 323 patients infected with the coronavirus.
PFBA was developed by 3M. It is used in firefighting foams. It passes through the blood quickly, but it builds up in the lungs, which are threatened by Covid. Harvard’s Philippe Grandjean, the principal author of the study, sounded a warning about PFBA, “It’s probably what’s in the lungs that counts because that’s where the big Covid battle is fought,” he said.
Maryland's Blue Crabs are loaded with the stuff. It’s likely the same with the seafood in Delray Beach.
PFBS - 15 ppt In laboratory animal studies, effects of PFBS exposure included developmental effects (e.g., lower body weight, delayed development) and female reproductive effects in offspring of mothers exposed during pregnancy as well as changes in thyroid hormone levels and cellular changes to the kidneys.
The EPA says, “If you are concerned about PFBS in your drinking water, EPA recommends you contact your local water utility to learn more about your drinking water and to see whether they have monitoring data for PFBS or can provide any specific recommendations for your community.”
Is this some sort of joke?
PFHxS - 16 ppt Males have higher blood levels of PFHxS than females. Scientists believe this is due to expelling PFAS during menstruation and lactation in women. PFHxS has the longest estimated half-life (up to 35 years), compared to PFOS and PFOA. Studies show associations between PFHxS exposure and liver damage and decreased antibody response to vaccines. People in Delray Beach are likely suffering the consequences of lax enforcement that has gone on for years.
The city is not addressing compounds other than PFOS/PFOA. They're referring to the results of PFOS/PFOA as simply, "PFAS." They aren't paying attention to emerging health information on the other PFAS compounds, like PFHxS, which the Cyclopure test found to contain a concentration of 208.3 ppt.
Here are the CycoPure results from the tap water I collected on Tropic Isle on February 20, 2022. You can order a CycloPure test kit for $79. Send the mayor your results.
Delray Beach Totals for the six compounds regulated by Massachusetts
PFOS 116.0
PFOA 32.9
PFHxS 208.3
PFNA 2.1
PFHpA 10.3
PFDA 0
Total 369.6 ( Overall 459.5)
(EPA’s advisory is 70 ppt for combined total of PFOS and PFOA)
Residents must ask the city if they’re willing to state in writing that the PFOS, PFOA, PFBS, PFBA, PFHxS and the other compounds in their drinking water pose no threat to human health. Residents and vacationers to this wonderful beach town must be warned not to consume the water. They must be told cooking with it is dangerous and that boiling doesn’t “kill” it. They must know the daiquiris along Atlantic Avenue may be toxic. Women who are pregnant or may become pregnant must be warned not to drink the water in Delray Beach. Everyone ought to be warned.
Please help us pay for water testing in South Florida.
Pat Elder
pelder@militarypoisons.org