The Environmental Quality Board Tuesday voted unanimously, after a lengthy discussion, to accept for study a rulemaking petition submitted by the Delaware Riverkeeper asking the Board to adopt a maximum contaminant level for perfluorooctanoic (PFOA) in the Delaware River.

DEP said it would come back to the Board in June of 2018 with a recommendation on whether or not to move forward to actually develop an MCL for PFOA.

PFOA, a highly toxic perfluorinated compound (PFC), is not currently regulated at the federal or state level, but is widely distributed in the environment.

Sampling done in Warminster, Warrington and Horsham townships reported that the groundwater that feeds public and private wells for at least 70,000 people was found to be among the worst in the nation, most all in the vicinity of the former Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base at Willow Grove, the current Horsham Air Guard Station in Horsham and the site of the former Naval Air Warfare Center in Warminster.

As a result of the use of firefighting foams at these military facilities in Bucks and Montgomery Counties, people have been exposed for many years to dangerous concentrations of PFOA in their drinking water.

DEP has never set its own drinking water MCLs, but rather adopts those put in place by the federal Safe Drinking Water Program.  The reason is simple, the breadth and depth of the human health and environmental studies required to study a chemical and adopt an MCL cost millions of dollars and years to complete to be scientifically credible. 

DEP is now struggling to meet its basic, minimum Safe Drinking Water Program inspection and other requirements.

Also on the agenda and approved by the Board were--

-- Final Regulation Changing Stream Designations For Certain Watersheds In Berks, Chester, Monroe, Northampton and Susquehanna Counties; and

-- Recommendation For No Change In Stream Designations For Certain Watersheds In Allegheny, Chester and Pike Counties.

For more information and copies of agenda items, visit the Environmental Quality Board webpage or contact: Laura Edinger, 717-772-3277, edinger@pa.gov.

NewsClips:

PA Environmental Regulators To Consider Drinking Water Limits For PFOA

In A Surprise, DEP Says It Will Study PFOA In Drinking Water

Sen. Greenleaf Introduces PFOA Bill To Help Towns With Contamination Costs

McKelvey: Drinking Water Protection Still A Problem For Cash-Strapped PA

Related Story:

Delaware Riverkeeper Petitions EQB For Drinking Water Standard For Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA)

[Posted: August 15, 2017]

8/21/2017