NEWS NOTES ON SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES Groundwater Contamination Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances From Firefighting and Domest...
NEWS NOTES ON SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES Groundwater Contamination Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances From Firefighting and Domestic Wastewater Remain in Groundwater for Decades https://toxics.usgs.gov/highlights/2017-04-12-pfas_in_groundwater.html ; Contamination of groundwater resources by organic and inorganic chemicals is an issue of national importance because groundwater sources provide drinking water supplies for millions of people in the United States. Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are commonly present in the environment because of their widespread use in consumer and industrial applications, such as protective coatings, and as a major component in aqueous film-forming foams. PFASs are widespread groundwater contaminants because they are highly mobile and resistant to microbial and chemical degradation once released into the environment. Understanding how PFASs get into groundwater and how they move in the subsurface is important for understanding human exposure through drinking water consumption. The relative contribution of two independent PFAS sources was characterized by using state-of-the-science analytical measurements and visualization techniques to examine the PFAS distributions in the complex, overlapping groundwater contamination plumes. Although the fire training area was decommissioned about 30 years ago (1985) and remediated in 1997, and the wastewater facility was decommissioned about 20 years ago (1995), both sites continue to be sources of PFASs to the groundwater. This study will also be linked on the 2017 Reports and Publications Page of the Sustainable Water Resources Site at https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ">https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ; Tim SmithSustainable Water Resources CoordinatorGovernment Web Site, https://acwi.gov/Sustainable Water Resources Site, https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ">https://sites.google.com/site/sustainablewaterresources/ ;