Feds: A dozen Iowa water suppliers need to fix ‘forever chemical’ contamination
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is sampling community water supplies for PFAS. (Photo by Jared Strong/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
by Jared Strong, Iowa Capital Dispatch
April 10, 2024
At least 12 community drinking water supplies in Iowa are unacceptably contaminated with enduring chemicals linked to various health ailments, under new restrictions announced Wednesday by federal regulators.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency implemented a new drinking water standard that limits certain perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances — commonly known as PFAS or “forever chemicals” — to almost none.
It’s the first time in more than a decade that the EPA has issued a new regulation that will require Iowa water suppliers to reduce or eliminate a contaminant for public safety, said Corey McCoid, an Iowa Department of Natural Resources supervisor who oversees water supply compliance.
“It’s a big deal,” he said.
PFAS persist in the environment indefinitely and can accumulate in people’s bodies, potentially causing a variety of illnesses and cancers.
They are used in numerous products for their ability to repel oil and water, and the vast majority of Americans are believed to have detectable amounts of them in their blood. Common sources of significant contamination include their manufacturers such as 3M Company, landfills, and airports and other sites where firefighting foam has been used.
The new federal regulation will generally require water supplies that regularly serve at least 25 people to test for PFAS within the next three years and to mitigate its contamination within five years. That can be accomplished by finding alternate sources of water or installing equipment to remove the chemicals.
DNR testing in recent years of water supplies that are most likely to be contaminated has revealed 12 that will be affected by the new rules, McCoid said.
They include utilities that provide drinking water for residents in Buffalo, Burlington, Camanche, Davenport, Dubuque, Muscatine, Osage, Sioux City and Tama.
Also affected is the Kammerer Mobile Home Park and Bayer Crop Science near Muscatine, and a seasonal campground near Bellevue called Peteschs that has some year-round residents.
Several cities with contaminated water have already worked toward fixing the problem, even if their PFAS concentrations are below the new federal threshold, McCoid said. They include Ames, Burlington, Central City, Rock Valley and Tama.
Burlington, which draws water from the Mississippi River, might spend about $20 million on a well field and water treatment improvements, McCoid said.
It’s possible that further testing will reveal PFAS contaminations in other water supplies, he said. There are about 1,100 community supplies in Iowa that are subject to the new federal regulation, and the DNR has not tested about 800 of them. McCoid expects that a handful more might be contaminated.
Billions of dollars of federal funding are available for testing and mitigation, though it’s unclear whether that will cover the costs for all Iowa water supplies, he said.
3M agreed to pay more than $800,000 to install two deeper wells for Camanche, which lies across the Mississippi from one of the company’s sites in Illinois.
Sioux City is part of a pending lawsuit against PFAS manufacturers, said Brad Puetz, the city’s utilities director. The city has a contaminated well that provides drinking water on its south side, and it might cost about $6 million to install a new well, he said. If that’s not possible, it might cost $12 million to update a water treatment facility to remove PFAS.
“We’re just kind of sitting back, waiting to see what our settlement (from the lawsuit) will be and then go from there,” Puetz said.
The new rules limit the two most-prominent PFAS — PFOA and PFOS — to 4 parts per trillion, which is slightly higher than what current testing methods can detect in water. Three other variations are limited to 10 parts per trillion.
The EPA estimates that the restrictions will benefit about 100 million people and prevent thousands of deaths.
State lawmakers consider PFAS disclosure
The Iowa House rejected an effort Wednesday to require manufacturers of commercial fertilizers or soil conditioners to disclose to buyers the results of testing for PFAS chemicals.
Rep. Chuck Isenhart, D-Dubuque, attempted to attach the amendment to House File 2641, a larger agriculture policy bill, citing the new EPA rules.
“Taking PFAS chemicals out of water can be very expensive, it might not surprise you. The easiest way to prevent PFAS in drinking water is to prevent the pollution from getting into the ground and getting into sources of drinking water to begin with,” he said.
Rep. Mike Sexton, R-Rockwell City, the floor manager of the bill, opposed the amendment, saying disclosure on farm chemicals would not solve the problem.
“And I think the problem is, I don’t think the government knows how to handle this situation. And I don’t know that for us to just put it on fertilizer containers is the answer,” he said. “I don’t know what the answer is. But I know that our world is full of PFAS. That’s all there is to it, folks. And until we can wrap our arms around the whole picture, just picking out one thing I don’t think fixes the problem.”
The amendment failed on a vote of 35-62.
— Editor-in-chief Kathie Obradovich contributed to this article.
SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST.
Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on Facebook and Twitter.
