Maryland issues reassuring report on PFAS in public drinking water systems
State says 2 of 130 systems tested exceed federal advisory level.
Analyzing the data using lower thresholds in force in many states, however, shows a much greater risk to public health than that being portrayed by Maryland; the state is slow to examine causes of the contamination.
What’s in your water, Maryland?
On July 1, 2021 the Maryland Department of the Environment released a long-awaited report, Understanding the occurrence of Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in Maryland’s Public Drinking Water Sources - Phase 1. The MDE report is actually misnamed. Instead, it ought to be called, “Understanding the occurrence of PFOS and PFOA in Maryland’s Public Drinking Water Sources.” The report is fixated on just two types of PFAS.
The Carroll County Times and outlets across the state relayed the MDE Press release, “After the Maryland Department of Environment sampled 130 drinking water treatment plants in the state, it found Westminster and Hampstead were the only locations to have levels of synthetic chemicals known as PFAS above an advisory level.”
It sounds like the state is doing a pretty good job! The MDE explained, “One of the primary goals of this initial sampling effort was to identify and reduce unacceptable PFAS exposure risk by assessing the occurrence of PFOA + PFOS in those community water systems that MDE identified as having the highest relative risk.” The state is implying there’s not much of a concern for water contaminated with more than 8,000 other chemical formulations that make up the PFAS family.
For instance, the folks at Benjamin’s Village Homestead Mobile Home Park in Cecil County (shown above) are drinking water containing 61.5 parts per trillion (ppt) of PFHxS (along with other PFAS chemicals.) and the state’s OK with that. In the tiniest amounts the chemical is linked to childhood diseases and a host of cancers. Several states limit it, along with PFOS, PFOA and other varieties of PFAS, to a total of 20 ppt. Maryland looks the other way. The fire training area of the former superfund site Bainbridge Naval Training Center is located near the Susquehanna River 1.5 miles southwest of the trailer park.
Using the EPA’s advisory of 70 ppt in drinking water, Maryland’s results don’t appear to be that bad. A closer look at the data using lower thresholds used by other states shows a much greater risk to public health than that being portrayed by the MDE.
Maryland set the limbo stick too high for PFOS + PFOA. They tested 130 drinking water treatment plants serving 4.3 million people, or about 70% of the state’s population, and only two systems (Hampstead and Westminster) showed levels greater than the EPAs health advisory level for those compounds. They’re wizards with the data.
There are 3,257 public water systems in Maryland, meaning the state has completed testing for less than 4% of its water systems. By comparison, Massachusetts has tested all 13,102 of its public water systems.
Maryland Environment Secretary Ben Grumbles says, “Maryland is committed to reducing the risks of PFAS chemicals in our state and continuing our close coordination with scientific, local, state and federal partners.” It’s boilerplate language. If this is the case, the MDE ought to get to business setting stringent maximum contaminant levels (MCL’s). The EPA does not regulate these chemicals. They simply advise water systems to try to keep levels below 70 ppt for the combined total of PFOA and PFOS while these levels are too high to protect public health. Public health officials around the country are calling for 1 ppt as the total concentration for the sum of all PFAS in drinking water. 75% of the water samples tested by the MDE crossed that threshold for PFOS + PFOA.
Over half of the states have already set enforceable standards - or are on their way to doing so. Not Maryland, although the state talks a good game.
Unexplored role of the military
Lee Currey, Director of the Maryland Department of the Environment’s water and science division, told the Baltimore Sun in June, 2020 that “Only limited information may be released publicly about where drinking water testing ultimately is conducted.” He said the state keeps secret the locations of drinking water supplies out of what he called “homeland security concerns."
The data released by MDE included test results for areas near three military installations: Bainbridge, Aberdeen Proving Ground (PFOS - 14.4 ppt; PFOA - 8.28) and Fort Detrick, which deals primarily with biological weapons, had no detections.
Maryland, California and Vermont
California is taking this a lot more seriously than Maryland. There, the state issues notification level warnings at 5.1 ppt for PFOA and 6.5 ppt for PFOS. Notification levels are health-based advisory levels established for contaminants in drinking water. The levels are intended to protect against cancer and noncancer effects, including effects on the liver and the immune system. If concentrations top 10 ppt for PFOA and 40 ppt for PFOS wells are shut down.
In Maryland wells are shut down when the total of the two chemicals together exceeds 70 ppt., the federal advisory.
The list below shows the systems and their wells that would enter the regulatory process if Maryland adopted California’s regulations. 35 wells in 16 Maryland cities would receive Notification Levels under California’s law.
System Name, PFOS, PFOA
TOWN OF HAMPSTEAD 270 13.7
CITY OF WESTMINSTER 172.9 20.54
TOWN OF HAMPSTEAD 235 14.3
CITY OF WESTMINSTER 136 18.93
TOWN OF HAMPSTEAD 231 9.37
HOMESTEAD 2.84 5.23
TOWN OF POOLESVILLE 22.95 15.29
TOWN OF POOLESVILLE 14.45 10.97
TOWN OF POOLESVILLE 13.63 10.63
TOWN OF ELKTON 6.88 22.9
TOWN OF THURMONT 35.3 11.6
TOWN OF THURMONT 35.88 11.02
TOWN OF THURMONT 34.5 11
TOWN OF ELKTON 7.03 20.19
ELKTON WEST 3.09 23.98
CITY OF WESTMINSTER 7.29 8.16
CITY OF ABERDEEN 14.4 8.28
TOWN OF MANCHESTER 5.83 7.87
TOWN OF UNION BRIDGE 16.43 4.86
MD AMERICAN WATER CO 8 8.22
TOWN OF THURMONT 19.7 5.7
TOWN OF HAMPSTEAD 4.42 7.63
TOWN OF HAMPSTEAD 3.62 8.77
TOWN OF MYERSVILLE 9.53 5.72
CITY OF TANEYTOWN 7.99 6.58
TOWN OF MYERSVILLE 7.45 6.22
CITY OF SALISBURY 7.19 7.53
CITY OF TANEYTOWN 14.93 3.6
TOWN OF MOUNT AIRY 3.05 9.1
TOWN OF HAMPSTEAD 4.83 6.29
TOWN OF MOUNT AIRY 7.47 4.94
TOWN OF HAMPSTEAD 5.89 7.15
TOWN OF MANCHESTER 6.53 8.2
TOWN OF THURMONT 9.06 10.6
TOWN OF POOLESVILLE 6.02 5.35
Maryland isn’t California, so people consume more PFAS.
The chart below shows Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCL’s) in various states. An MCL means that wells are taken offline when concentrations of PFAS exceed the limit. Vermont shuts down wells when the sum of 5 types of PFAS (PFHpA, PFHxS, PFNA, PFOS and PFOA) exceeds a total of 20 ppt.
California 5.1 ppt PFOA (Notification)
Michigan 6 ppt PFNA (MCL)
California 6.5 ppt PFOS (Notification)
Michigan 8 ppt PFOA (MCL)
New York 10 ppt PFOA and PFAS (MCL)
New Hampshire 11 ppt PFNA (MCL)
New Hampshire 12 ppt PFOA (MCL)
New Jersey 13 ppt PFNA and PFOS (MCL)
New Jersey 14 ppt PFOA (MCL)
Minnesota 15 ppt PFOS (Guidance)
New Hampshire 15 ppt PFOS (MCL)
Michigan 16 ppt PFOS (MCL)
New Hampshire 18 ppt PFHxS (MCL)
Massachusetts 20 ppt (6 PFAS Substances combined -- PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFNA, PFHpA, and PFDA) (MCL)
Maine 20 ppt (5 PFAS substances combined: PFNA, PFHxS, PFDA, PFOS and PFOA) (MCL)
Vermont 20 ppt (5 PFAS substances combined: PFHpA, PFHxS, PFNA, PFOS and PFOA) (MCL)
Ohio 21 ppt PFNA (Guidance)
Minnesota 35 ppt PFOA (Guidance)
Minnesota 47 ppt PFHxS (Guidance)
Michigan 51 ppt PFHxS (MCL)
Source JD Supra https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/state-by-state-regulation-of-per-and-82542/
When levels exceed 70 ppt the EPA suggests drinking water systems may shut down contaminated wells or blend water from less contaminated sources to bring the level under the 70 ppt threshold. Blending waters allows contaminated communities to consume PFAS, just at a lower rate per day. It’s not a good way to do business considering that the chemicals bioaccumulate in our bodies. That means the levels just grow and grow every day.
The EPA also recommends treatment of source water with activated carbon or reverse osmosis to remove PFOA and PFOS. It’s extraordinarily expensive but communities must learn to budget for it.
40% of the wells tested by Maryland had PFAS levels exceeding 10 ppt., while 78% of all water samples had PFAS.
A closer look at Hampstead
Hampstead Well 24, in ppt.
PFOS 270
PFOA 13.7
PFBS 5.48
PFHpA 12.7
PFHxS 53
PFHxA 17.7
PFNA 3.4
Total 375.98 ppt.
The water in Hampstead has likely been poisoned for two generations. The state ought to be testing residents’ blood, although that would involve the Maryland Department of Health, which has been on the sidelines regarding PFAS.
Hampstead well 24 was drilled in 1996 and has a relatively shallow well depth of 174 feet, according to the water source assessment by the MDE in October, 2002.
Jay Apperson, the MDE apparatchik, told the Carroll County Times, “It is important to note that while there is an EPA health advisory level, there are currently no federal, enforceable regulatory drinking water standards for PFAS.” Apperson explained, “Both municipalities have been very cooperative, and this is a good example of responding to reduce risk exposure when sampling results above the health advisory level are found.”
The state is putting lipstick on the PFAS pig.
Stories like Hampstead appeared in other states like New Hampshire seven years ago, when that state’s regulatory process sprang into action after PFAS was discovered in the drinking water at Pease Air National Guard base. Only now is Maryland responding to the smelling salts.
Apperson also said the MDE is looking into the sources of contamination, specifically firefighting foam, as a potential source. “However, we have not confirmed that as the source in either of the municipalities’ water systems,” he said.
The state doesn’t want to implicate itself.
When the news broke in January this year on PFAS in Hampstead’s well, the town’s manager suggested the high levels of contamination could have been due to the local firefighter training facility. Presumably, she was referring to the Carroll County Public Training Center, located two miles south of Westminster, and ten miles from Hampstead. The facility is affiliated with the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute, MFRI. The institute is believed to have trained firefighters in the use of PFAS foams to extinguish petroleum-based fires across the state. The Westminster facility is located adjacent to Middle Run, a stream that flows to Beaver Run, which empties into Liberty Reservoir.
Back in 2002 the MDE identified potential sources of various kinds of contamination in Hampstead. The only superfund site was the Black & Decker manufacturing plant in town. The 2002 report named Black & Decker as a likely source of contamination in Hampstead’s water.
Another MDE report in 2006 said the facility contaminated groundwater with high levels of cancer-causing chemicals. Tetrachloroethylene was found at 910 parts per billion (ppb) and Trichloroethylene was discovered at 240 ppb.
The Black & Decker plant had 9 wells that were permitted to draw up to 720,000 gallons per day. A lot of that water was presumably contaminated through manufacturing processes and sent back to the ground and into surface waters. That’s what we have in America with no grownups in the room.
The company currently has 90 employees at Hampstead and operates a powdered metal components manufacturing facility containing 84,000 square feet (almost 2 acres). Black & Decker enjoys some political cover with 2,230 employees in Maryland.
Powdered metal components manufacturing may involve the use of PTFE, or Polytetrafluoroethylene, a kind of PFAS. Stanley Black & Decker has used massive amounts of PFAS in its industrial processes over the years. The company manufactures Stanley, Dewalt, Black & Decker, and Craftsman tools. Black & Decker merged with Stanley Works to become Stanley Black & Decker.
PTFE is commonly known as Teflon and it coats machine tool parts. PTFE is used for plain bearings, gears, slide plates, seals, gaskets, bushings, and other machine parts. PTFE is used as a lubricant for machinery. PTFE reduces friction, and energy consumption. PTFE has fantastic electric insulation properties and thus it is used to insulate cables and connector assemblies. Think of the insides of a Black & Decker power tool or a simple frying pan.
PTFE was universally manufactured using deadly PFOA until 2006 when major U.S. manufacturers voluntarily agreed to gradually phase out production by 2015. The industry simply swapped in another similarly toxic chemical called GenX, a variety of PFAS. It is a Chemours trademark name also known as hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-D). Gen X went into production around 2010 as an alternative to PFOA.
The MDE reported that none of 130 wells tested in the state contained HFPO-DA while 106 wells contained PFOA. PFOA is likely to have been used, and/or discarded in several locations around Hampstead dating back to the 70’s. It may be that the HFPO-DA will take a few more years to penetrate to the levels of municipal wells around the state.
The safety threshold for PFOA in drinking water should be as low as .1 part per trillion, according to Linda Birnbaum, former director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences. “If you look at the data, pancreatic tumors are present at very, very low concentrations from PFOA,” Birnbaum explained.
Where else is it coming from?
The MDE should be testing the influent and effluent for PFAS at wastewater treatment plants (WWTP’s) throughout the state. The Hampstead Wastewater Treatment Plant, like all treatment plants across Maryland, releases toxic wastewater containing PFAS into the environment. The Hampstead WWTP dumps its toxins into Piney Run, within the headwaters of Loch Raven Reservoir. The Hampstead plant generates approximately 943 wet tons of sludge per year. Dry sludge is taken to the Carroll County Northern Landfill for disposal while dewatered sludge is hauled for composting to McGill, Virginia, according to the Carroll County Water and Sewer Master Plan. The Manchester WWTP also sends its sludge to the Northern Landfill.
Landfills create leachate, which is any liquid that has percolated through solid waste or another medium and has extracted, dissolved, or suspended materials from it - which may include high levels of PFAS. Carroll County’s Northern Landfill is about 7 miles from Hampstead.
All airports throughout the state are likely to have used or handled Class B aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) containing various PFAS chemicals and the Carroll County Regional Airport is no exception. It’s about 8 miles from Hampstead.
The Hampstead Volunteer Fire Engine & Hose Company No. 1 on North Main Street has likely used PFAS-laced firefighting foam.
The MDE could google “PTFE manufacturers Maryland” to start looking for more clues to what’s making us sick. The MDE ought to test soil, water, and wildlife at all locations in the state that have ever appeared on the Defense Logistics Agency’s Qualified Facilities List
Finally, and most importantly, the MDE must test the water near the state’s 90 current and former military installations. Think of the trailer park near shuttered Bainbridge. The Navy is not going to protect public health.
Maryland’s failure to protect public health is symptomatic of a broken regulatory system at the federal and state levels across the country. Daily life subjects us to poisons in our food and water from hundreds of toxic sources. We’re poisoning our water and ourselves and we’re not doing much to stop it.