What are ‘forever chemicals?' What to know about PFAS, private wells and your tap water

You won’t taste, smell or notice any change to the color of your water if per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are present. To date, there are no nationwide requirements to test private well water for PFAS, which comprise a class of thousands of compounds that have seen widespread use in industrial processes and consumer products, such as Teflon pans, since the 1950s.

Even in minuscule quantities − a few parts per trillion − long-term exposure to PFAS can increase cholesterol levels, damage the immune system, cause cancers and disrupt thyroid function, among other ailments, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency implements new, nation-spanning regulatory action on PFAS, the USA Today Network's Midwest community papers are exploring the impact these changes and years of pollution have had on Midwestern states, cities and towns.

For this article, the USA Today Network took a look at what private well users need to know about PFAS pollution, testing and water treatment.

While the federal government works to rein in PFAS pollution across the nation’s public drinking water supply with first-of-their-kind standards and billions in funding, experts have also warned private well owners to reduce their risk of exposure to the toxins.

And that risk of exposure for private well users is about the same, statistically speaking, as their public supply counterparts, according to a 2023 study published by the U.S. Geological Survey.

One in five tap water samples collected from private wells by USGS researchers between 2016 and 2021, the most recent collections cited in the USGS Tap Water Survey, tested positive for at least one PFAS compound – including in Midwestern states such as Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Iowa.

Overall, the study found similar rates of PFAS contamination in tap water samples traced to both public and private supplies. However, well users don’t benefit from the mandated PFAS testing that many large public water systems currently employ.

Sources of PFAS pollution vary, experts say, and can be difficult to track and trace.

“With drinking water, going back to that kind of historical legacy of use, these types of chemicals were and still are to some extent widely used in firefighting foams,” said Jonathan Meiman of the Wisconsin Division of Public Health. “And when those foams are applied outside, they can end up seeping into groundwater and affecting wells.”

More: 'Forever chemicals' lurk in Midwest soil and drinking water, can lead to health problems

What to know about PFAS regulations and private wells

In June, the EPA announced for the first time that it would limit contamination from six of the most toxic PFAS compounds in public drinking water by requiring water utilities to test for their presence and then take action to remove the toxins if contamination is detected above extremely low levels.

The EPA standard for PFAS in drinking water is now 4 parts per trillion, down from 70 ppt. The concentrations are so small that chemists testing water for PFAS often have to remove their makeup because beauty products can contain enough PFAS to throw off a test’s accuracy.

“Exposure to PFAS has been linked to deadly cancers, impacts to the liver and heart, and immune and developmental damage to infants and children,” the EPA wrote in an April announcement detailing new policies. “This final rule will reduce PFAS exposure for approximately 100 million people, prevent thousands of deaths, and reduce tens of thousands of serious illnesses.”

More: Here's how to find out if your drinking water meets the EPA's new standards for PFAS toxins

But the standards, which come under the purview of the Safe Drinking Water Act, do not apply to private wells. It’s a problem the agency hopes to address through grants and collaboration with states and local governments.

For now, testing and treating well water for PFAS is largely up to individual well owners.

What to know about testing for 'forever chemicals'

Regulations governing water quality testing in private wells vary from state to state. The Indiana State Department of Health recommends bacteria and nitrate testing every five years and urges well owners to test for fluoride, arsenic, lead and copper after conducting major well maintenance.

But what about PFAS? According to the EPA, well owners should conduct regular testing “for information on the overall quality of the water and whether it contains PFAS.”

“Contact your state environmental or health agency for detailed advice or to obtain a list of state-certified laboratories using EPA-developed testing methods in drinking water,” agency guidance states. “The National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Management System website may also be helpful in finding a laboratory to test for PFAS.”

The EPA has approved four methods to analyze 29 specific PFAS compounds in drinking water. According to a review of EPA-approved PFAS tests, they typically cost several hundred dollars. That’s because the tests are technically complex and aim to detect PFAS at extremely low concentrations.

Microbac Laboratories, a Pennsylvania-based environmental, food and life sciences testing company, is one of many firms offering PFAS testing services to Midwestern customers, from public water utilities to private consumers. Anthony Canter, who directs Microbac's Marietta, Ohio, facility, said the market for PFAS testing has grown in recent years alongside bolstered state and federal regulations.

"You see this all the time, the testing just increases with regulation," Canter said.

The Microbac laboratory Canter directs sits just up the Ohio River from Parkersburg, West Virginia, a town of less than 30,000 residents that has often been described as an epicenter of the movement to clean up PFAS pollution. Parkersburg was the focus of the feature film "Dark Waters" and the Netflix documentary "The Devil We Know," both of which review the community's struggle with rampant PFAS pollution traced to local manufacturing of the compounds.

Canter, who grew up in the area, said Microbac and other testing companies provide consumers with detailed information about what tests to purchase, how to collect samples and how to send those samples in for testing.

Precautions must be taken to avoid PFAS contamination from the likes of beauty products, certain clothing items and other household wares, all of which can contain PFAS, when collecting a sample. Canter said Microbac provides customers with a "clean" bottle of water that the company knows is free of PFAS alongside an empty sample bottle.

While performing the test, the customer opens the clean bottle and pours that water into the empty bottle. Then they collect their sample. The switch helps Microbac technicians ensure the sample is not contaminated.

"That's one thing we do for accuracy, and that's all part of the instructions," Canter said.

PFAS tests that claim to offer results within minutes or at home should be avoided, according to Canter and Professor Mark D. Krahling, an analytical chemist at the University of Southern Indiana who, alongside students, has tested Ohio River water for PFAS compounds.

"It's just a different world from when you're trying to figure out the pH of your swimming pool," Krahling said. "When you're trying to look for things that are present at such a smaller concentration, it's just much, much more challenging."

In February 2023 the federal government announced a $2 billion effort to combat “emerging contaminants” − such as PFAS − in disadvantaged communities, and the EPA says that program offers grants “to help owners of private wells address PFAS contamination,” which includes testing and removal.

What to know about at-home filters

Even relatively cheap filters can remove PFAS from tap water, studies show, but their effectiveness can vary. At-home filtration solutions can cost as little as $20, but as feature sets and capabilities grow, so does the cost. According to the EPA, there are three primary filter types used to remove PFAS from drinking water:

• Activated Carbon Treatment: This class includes the popular, handheld Brita water filters.
• Reverse Osmosis: High-pressure membranes remove PFAS from water while allowing minerals to pass through.
• Ion Exchange: Uses positively charged resins to remove negatively charged pollutants, such as PFAS.

Manufacturers offer filters of all three types in a range of sizes, from handheld pitchers to whole-house filtration systems, according to NSF International, a product testing, certification and inspection organization. Point-of-use systems treat the water where you use it, such as a filter pitcher. Whole-house or point-of-entry systems treat the water as it enters a home or building.

The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization that has extensively monitored PFAS pollution, issued filter recommendations to consumers last year after testing 10 commonly used at-home, point-of-use water filters for 25 individual PFAS compounds, including two of the most common and potentially harmful: perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS. 

Sydney Evans, a senior analyst at Environmental Working Group, said the organization tested the filters based on three criteria: “How well do they actually filter out PFAS? What’s the life of the filter? And how much is it going to cost you over the course of a year?”

What the EWG found is that filters’ effectiveness at reducing PFAS in tap water varied. Here’s how some of the most popular filters stacked up in EWG’s tests.

• Travel Berkey: 100% removal of PFAS; eight-year filter life. Listed Price: $362
• Zero Water: 100% removal of PFAS; short filter life. Listed Price: $24.99
• Clearly Filtered: 100% removal of PFAS; large container size for handheld filter. Listed Price: $90
• Epic Water Filter: 98% removal of PFAS; easy filter replacement. Listed Price: $55.20

A popular Brita filter and an Amazon Basics filter pitcher tested by EWG reduced PFAS contamination by 22% and 54%, respectively.

According to EPA researcher Thomas Speth, activated carbon filters − like those found in popular point-of-use and whole-home systems − can be “100 percent effective” at removing PFAS from drinking water assuming the filter has not expired and that the water in question has already undergone some form of treatment to remove large particles and other contaminants.

But filtering PFAS at the point of use or even with a whole-home filtration system amounts to a “Band-Aid” for the broader PFAS problem, Evans said. The long-term goal is to remove the pollution at the source, but experts say it could take years of expanded testing to adequately trace sources of PFAS pollution nationwide, especially among private wells.

Complicating the issue of PFAS cleanup, water filters do not destroy the PFAS they remove, and that has led to questions about how best to manage an ever-growing supply of discarded pollutants as public water systems and private citizens alike step up PFAS testing and filtration.

The pollution became a problem in the first place because the compounds do not break down naturally in the environment.

“PFAS are essentially being concentrated,” the Indiana Department of Environmental Management explained, with regard to filters. “And the waste stream will have to be properly disposed of as a hazardous waste.”