https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/09/12/g-s1-22291/pfas-drinking-water-filter

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PFAS filtered from drinking water in Orange County, Calif. : Shots -
Health News Water utilities across the country will have to comply
with EPA limits on "forever chemicals" in drinking water by 2029.
Orange County, Calif., got a head start.
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How a California county got PFAS out of its drinking water

September 12, 202412:48 PM ET
Pien Huang

Pien Huang

Utilities must comply with limits on PFAS chemicals by 2029. Some
have a head start

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John Brundahl (left) production superintendent, Todd Colvin, chief
water systems operator, and Mark Toy, general manager, run the
nation's largest resin PFAS water treatment plant at the Yorba Linda
Water District in Orange County, Calif. The three men stand in front
of large filtration tanks at the treatment plant.

John Brundahl (left), production superintendent, Todd Colvin, chief
water systems operator, and Mark Toy, general manager, run the PFAS
treatment plant at the Yorba Linda Water District in Orange County,
Calif. Pien Huang/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Pien Huang/NPR

Yorba Linda is a small, sunny city southeast of Los Angeles. It's
perhaps best known for being the birthplace of President Richard
Nixon.

But in the past few years, Yorba Linda has picked up another
distinction: It's home to the nation's largest per- and
polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) water treatment plant of its kind, according
to the city.

EPA puts limits on 'forever chemicals' in drinking water

Shots - Health News

EPA puts limits on 'forever chemicals' in drinking water

"This December will be [three] years we've been running, and we're
the largest PFAS treatment plant using resin," says J. Wayne Miller,
former board president at the Yorba Linda Water District, for whom
the plant is named.

Across the country the Environmental Protection Agency estimates
there are thousands of water systems, serving around 100 million
people, that have harmful levels of PFAS in their drinking water.
Under an EPA rule finalized in April, affected water districts will
have to take action to clean their water supplies. In Orange County,
Calif., the Yorba Linda treatment plant and others around it provide
examples of how it can be done.

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The Yorba Linda PFAS treatment plant took over a long, narrow strip
of the water district's parking lot, not quite the length of a
football field. A series of giant tanks sit atop a concrete platform.
"Honestly, they look like large propane cylinders," says Todd Colvin,
chief water system operator for the district.

[]

Tanks to remove PFAS from drinking water at the Yorba Linda Water
District's treatment plant have taken over a strip of the parking
lot. Pien Huang/NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Pien Huang/NPR

Each tank looms about 10 feet tall and can hold around 4,500 gallons.
There are 22 of them, arranged in a double row, painted pristine
ivory white. The tanks are packed half-full with a kind of resin -
special polymer beads - that pull PFAS out of the water. Every gallon
of water pumped from the district's wells now passes through a few of
these tanks for treatment, before going to the homes and businesses
of 80,000 people.

The Yorba Linda Water District built the largest PFAS water treatment
plant of its kind because it had a big PFAS problem. In February
2020, the water district had to take all of its wells offline because
they were drawing groundwater contaminated with PFAS.

PFAS refers to a large class of man-made chemicals used to waterproof
and stainproof manufactured products. Some PFAS chemicals have been
linked with various health problems, such as weakened immune systems,
high cholesterol and certain cancers.

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In Yorba Linda, all 10 of the district's groundwater wells exceeded
California's recommended PFAS levels, which took effect in 2020 - 40
parts per trillion for PFOS and 10 parts per trillion for PFOA, two
common PFAS chemicals. Water providers in the state that exceeded
those limits had to stop using contaminated water or notify the
public.

Those state limits, established four years before the EPA set
national limits, put California's cities ahead of the curve. "I thank
my lucky stars we were on the front end of that," says Mark Toy,
general manager of the Yorba Linda Water District.

Filtration plants are expensive but cost less than imported water

The next city over is Anaheim, home to Disneyland. A few miles from
Space Mountain, a paved industrial lot houses the second-largest PFAS
water treatment plant of its kind. "This would be a little bit larger
than a basketball court," says Mike Lyster, spokesman for the city,
estimating the footprint of the 20 filtration tanks at this site.

Lyster says there was a brief time when Anaheim had the largest PFAS
treatment plant. "Kudos to Yorba Linda," he says, "We're glad to see
somebody else beat it because that means somebody else is addressing
the issue."

Anaheim is a larger city, and the public water utility there can
provide water for upwards of 500,000 people a day. Back in 2020, when
California's PFAS rules came into effect, Anaheim took 14 of its 19
wells offline for excess PFAS.

If high levels of PFAS are found in drinking water, a water provider
can switch to a source without the chemicals in it or filter them
out.

At first, both Anaheim and Yorba Linda swapped mostly to water
imported from northern California and the Colorado River that met the
state standards. But water from those sources can cost twice as much
as local groundwater. Lyster says Anaheim's water expenses went up by
about $2 million a month.

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So Anaheim and Yorba Linda fast-tracked construction of those big
filtration tanks, to get their wells back in action.

The new EPA PFAS standards are even stricter than California's: no
more than 4 parts per trillion each for PFOA and PFOS, and additional
limits for several other PFAS chemicals.

By the EPA's standards, Anaheim's remaining wells are now considered
contaminated. Lyster says the city will expand its PFAS treatment
capacity to comply with the federal rule by 2029. All told, building
PFAS filtration for all 19 of Anaheim's wells is projected to cost
$200 million.

Anaheim and Yorba Linda are part of the Orange County Water District
-- a public agency that manages the region's groundwater and which
helped to design, fund and build the PFAS filtration plants. Across
Orange County, more than 100 wells have exceeded the EPA's new
standards. Fixing the problem in the county is expected to cost $1.8
billion dollars over 30 years, according to OCWD.

Pollution from the past is still present

But where is all this PFAS coming from? In Orange County, one of the
primary culprits appears to be the Santa Ana River.

Almost a hundred miles long, the Santa Ana River flows through
mountains and canyons, the cities and suburbs of San Bernardino and
Riverside. Along the way, it picks up PFAS. "We find it in some of
just the natural runoff that goes into the river during the winter,
during storms," says Jason Dadakis, executive director of water
quality and technical resources at the Orange County Water District.
"We also detect some PFAS coming out of the sewage treatment plants
upstream." There's also the legacy of factories and military bases in
the area.

PFAS is found in runoff that makes its way into the Santa Ana River
during the winter, says Jason Dadakis, executive director for water
quality and technical resources for the Orange County Water District.

PFAS is found in runoff that makes its way into the Santa Ana River
during the winter, says Jason Dadakis, executive director for water
quality and technical resources for the Orange County Water District.
Mette Lampcov for NPR/visual Coverage for NPR Science hide caption

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Mette Lampcov for NPR/visual Coverage for NPR Science

In Orange County - the Santa Ana River's last stop before the Pacific
Ocean - some of the river water gets diverted to ponds where it can
seep into the ground and refill the groundwater, which may have
contributed to the contamination, says Dadakis.

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And while the PFAS problem in Orange County is currently confined to
the northern and central parts of the groundwater basin, Dadakis says
wells that aren't contaminated today could be in the future, based on
how water moves underground. "We know that we may have to be prepared
to install additional treatment on those wells as they become
impacted," he says.

At least Orange County has a head start on solutions. But with the
size of the PFAS problem across the country, its claims on having the
largest PFAS treatment plants of their kind in the nation could soon
be eclipsed.

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