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Presentation of PFAS Overview and Current Activities
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EXPLANATION AND SUMMARY:
The Town of Vienna provides water service to residential and commercial customers located within our water service area. The Town distributes treated surface water from the Potomac River and Occoquan Reservoir, which is supplied through Fairfax Water and the Army Corps of Engineers.
This presentation by Fairfax Water provides an overview and current activities regarding Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS). PFAS are a group of more than 6,000 man-made chemicals that have been manufactured and used in home consumer products such as carpets, clothing, food packaging, and cookware since the 1940s. Two of these compounds-perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS)-have been the most extensively produced and studied, and there is evidence that exposure to elevated levels of PFAS can lead to adverse health outcomes in humans. Water utilities are "passive receivers" of PFAS. They do not produce or manufacture PFAS. Instead, these chemicals are present in source waters that are treated to produce drinking water.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for setting regulatory limits under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. Currently, there are no approved federal water quality regulations for any PFAS compounds; however, the EPA has taken some recent steps toward possible future regulation of PFAS. On March 14, 2023, the EPA announced its proposed national drinking water standards for 6 types of PFAS including proposed Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for PFOA and PFOS. Fairfax Water data show PFOA and PFOS results for Potomac treated water are less than the proposed MCL of 4.0 parts per trillion (ppt). PFOA and PFOS results for Occoquan treated water have been slightly above the proposed MCL of 4.0 ppt. One ppt corresponds to one penny in $10,000,000,000. It is expected that the EPA will make further PFAS...
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