Analies Dyjak  |  Hydroviv Policy Analyst

Updated 3/13/2024

What Is Groundwater?

Groundwater is submerged water located among soils, cracks and pores, beneath the surface of the earth. Groundwater travels down a gradient through geological formations and is stored in aquifers. Aquifers act as holding tanks for readily available drinking water. Rain patterns, hydrology, and ice/snow melt are the primary factors that affect how quickly a groundwater supply is replenished, also known as recharge. The recharge rate is how quickly aquifers are able to replenish the groundwater level after an influx of water.

Why Is Groundwater So Important?

It’s simple: It supplies drinking water to millions of Americans whose municipalities draw from groundwater sources (e.g. Miami, Tucson, Lincoln), as well as the 15% of people living in the U.S that use private wells as their drinking water source. In fact, the US Geological Survey estimates that 140 million people, or about 40% of the nation's population get their drinking water from groundwater sources, which include both municipal (city) water and private wells. Groundwater is also a major supplier of surface water in oceans, lakes, streams, ponds and wetlands. Crucial habitats and ecosystems are dependent on an influx of healthy groundwater, as well as surface water for public drinking water usage.

How Can Groundwater Become Polluted?

There are two major ways that groundwater can accumulate toxic chemicals:

1. Natural-occurring chemicals: In some regions of the country, things like arsenic, radium, and uranium are naturally found in the rocks that come in contact with groundwater. 
2. Man-made Pollution: Groundwater can also become contaminated by human activities including: agriculture, industry, landfills, localized pollution, and anything that involves discharging effluent into a surrounding waterway. Polluted water seeps through soil until it reaches the water table, where it can travel freely depending on the hydrology and permeability of an aquifer. Contaminants that are particularly soluble in water (such as PFAS and 1,4-dioxane) can migrate into groundwater aquifers that serve as drinking water sources. Polluted groundwater then slowly travels through aquifers until reaching nearby surface water or being pumped through a well and consumed as drinking water.

Are There Federal Regulations That Protect Groundwater?

The Ground Water Rule was created in 2006 by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency to improve and inspect drinking water sources that may be potentially polluted by fecal contamination. This rule does not address human-made toxic and carcinogenic groundwater contamination. Additionally, the Ground Water Rule is specific to public water systems and excludes private wells.

The Federal Government does not oversee or have anything to do with regulating private wells. In fact, private wells aren’t even regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act. This means that it’s at the discretion of the homeowner to determine if their private well water is safe for consumption. Testing private well water is extremely expensive and at times ineffective if the contamination type and concentration is continuously changing. Additionally, The Federal Government doesn’t regulate many of the contaminants in questions today.

How Can I Learn More About My Water?

If you have any questions about groundwater and regional water information, we encourage you to take advantage of Hydroviv’s “Help No Matter What” approach to technical support, where we will help you, even if you have no desire to purchase one of our water filters. Truth be told, we have access to a much larger pool of water quality data than is easily accessible to the general public. You can reach our water nerds by emailing hello@hydroviv.com or opening a Live Chat window in the bottom corner of this screen.

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Analies Dyjak  |  Policy Nerd 

Our blog has been following PFAS contaminants such as the GenX chemical for months now, often reporting on new developments before mainstream news.
Today marks an important milestone: EPA has released a draft toxicity profile for GenX. This long-awaited toxicity report contains critical information for many states who have been seeking answers on this harmful contaminant.

EPA’s Draft Toxicity Assessments for GenX and PFBS:

EPA determined a candidate Chronic Reference Dose of 0.00008 mg/kg-day. A reference dose is the daily oral intake not anticipated to cause negative health effects over a lifetime. A reference dose is not a carcinogenic risk factor, however, EPA states that the toxicity data for GenX are “suggestive of cancer.” According to the draft report, oral exposure in animals had negative health effects on the kidney, blood, immune system, developing fetus, and liver. The draft toxicity report also provided information on PFBS, which is a replacement chemical for PFOS. The candidate Chronic Reference Dose for PFBS is 0.01 mg/kg-day, and there was insufficient data to determine its carcinogenic potential.

What Is GenX?

GenX is part of a category of contaminants called PFAS, or per and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The GenX chemical linked to cancer has gained national attention since being discovered in the Cape Fear River in June of 2017.
PFAS have historically been used in consumer products like Scotchgard, Gore-Tex, Teflon, and even the inside of popcorn bags. PFAS are also used in firefighting foam, which is the major source of its pollution in waterways across the country.

Background:

The Chemours plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina produces refrigerants, ion exchange membranes, and other fluoroproducts. They have been discharging liquid effluent into the Cape Fear River for years, which has contaminated drinking water for the entire area. GenX is the replacement chemical for PFOA. After PFOA was discovered to be toxic, manufacturers addressed the issue by making an equally-as toxic replacement. Manufacturers of PFAS have been doing this for years, which is why there are so many different variations present in the environment.

Is GenX Federally Regulated By EPA?

No. This means that municipalities are not required to test for PFBS or GenX in water. Additionally, this draft toxicity level is not a lifetime health advisory level, which states would be more inclined to follow.

When Will A Drinking Water Standard Be Determined?

Don’t hold your breath on anytime soon! The regulatory process can take decades, especially for such a persistent contaminant in the environment. This is more than enough time for adverse health effects to set in, and we recommend consumers do everything they can to learn about their water and protect themselves, rather than wait for the government to step in.

What Does This Mean For Me?

EPA is in the very early stages of determining a regulation or even health advisory for GenX. This draft toxicity level needs to go through public comment so that states, tribes, and municipalities can offer input and recommendations. If you want to see third-party data on filters that remove GenX in water and other PFAS, click HERE. 

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GexX Update From January 25 Town Hall Meeting With H2GO 

Stephanie Angione, Ph.D.

Updated 1/29/2020 to include new data.  

What Are Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs)?

Fluorinated substances include a diverse range of chemical compounds that all contain at least one fluorine (F) atom. These substances vary in the amount of fluorine atoms they contain, and those that are highly fluorinated, or contain many F atoms per carbon (C) atom are referred to as perfluoroalkyl substances. These highly fluorinated substances are unique in their hydrophobic (water repellent) and lipophobic/oleophobic (fat/oil repellent) properties, as well as their general chemical and thermal stability.

These properties have made PFAS substances common in many types of applications, including creation of non-stick cooking surfaces, stain and water resistant coatings on fabrics, creation of oil/fat resistant food packaging and also in foam materials used to fight and prevent fires. Additionally, the automotive, aerospace, and construction industries have widely used these fluorinated substances for various applications due to their low friction properties.

Common PFASs include perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), which have been used in the production of Teflon and Scotchgard respectively. The manufacturer 3M phased out the production of PFOS in 2002 and the EPA helped manufacturers of PFOA phase out production completely in 2015.

How Do PFAS Substances Contaminate the Environment?

PFASs are deemed “emerging contaminates” by the EPA; meaning that they are chemicals or materials thought to pose a potential threat to health and the environment, but haven't yet been regulated. PFASs contribute to environmental contamination largely due to the fact that they are highly resistant to degradation processes, and thus persist for many years in water, air and can enter the food chain via bioaccumulation in certain animal species.

The primary sources of human exposure to PFAS include:

• Consumption of contaminated drinking water
• Consumption of food that is packaged in materials containing PFASs, which have included fast food containers, microwave popcorn bags. (Most food manufactures have stopped using PFASs in these types of packaging.)
• Consumption of food that contains PFASs, including fish and shellfish
• Contact (hand to mouth) with clothing, carpets or other fabrics that have been treated with PFASs. (Skin exposure to PFASs on their own does not cause significant absorption into the body.)

What Are the Health Effects of PFAS?

The discovery of persistent contamination of drinking water sources with PFOA in West Virginia and Ohio prompted a large epidemiological study called the C8 Health Project. The study included nearly 70,000 individuals who had elevated PFOA levels in blood – approximately 500% higher than the representative population. The study found statistical correlation between elevated blood concentrations of PFOA with ulcerative colitis, impaired thyroid function, high blood cholesterol, testicular cancer, kidney cancer and preeclampsia.

How Do Polyfluoroalkyl & Perfluoroalkyl Substances Contaminate Drinking Water?

In 2016 the EPA released a lifetime health advisory for PFOA and PFOS in drinking water. This advisory indicates that the individual or combined concentration of PFOA and PFOS in water should be less than 70 parts per trillion (ppt). This EPA guideline is not an enforced limit – it simply provides guidance to local public health officials. However, under EPA guidelines issued in 2012, water systems are required to monitor levels of PFOA and PFOS. The results of this monitoring effort can be found on the National Contaminant Occurrence Database. Together with data collected under the monitoring effort and established assessments of human health effects, the EPA will make a regulatory determination to include PFOA and PFOS in national drinking water regulations.

Communities that have sources of drinking water contaminated with PFASs are typically localized and associated with a specific industrial facility or area used for firefighting. Both PFOA and PFOS have been found in drinking water systems due to this kind of localized contamination. A 2016 study of drinking water in the U.S. found unsafe levels of PFASs at the EPA minimum level of 70 ppt in 194 out of 4,864 water sources in 33 states. More recently, a 2020 study has shown that PFAS contamination is more widespread than originally thought.  Water sources with the highest levels of PFAS contamination were near industrial sites and military bases, and one of the major contributing sources was found to be firefighting foam.

How Can I Remove Polyfluoroalkyl & Perfluoroalkyl Substances From My Drinking Water?

Some public water systems employ methods (like granulated or powdered activated carbon) to reduce PFOA and PFOS at the municipal level, but these systems do not remove shorter-chain PFAS, like GenX. Hydroviv water filters use a blend of highly-porous active media including carbon, specialized ceramics, and ion exchange media to provide broad protection against PFASs (short and long chain) from drinking water (3rd party test reports for Hydroviv products can be Viewed HERE and HERE) . Water filtration systems that use reverse osmosis systems can also be effective, but you'll want to contact the manufacturer and ask for 3rd party test results against PFAS (not just PFOA/PFOS, which are easy to filter).  

Hydroviv makes it our business to help you better understand your water. As always, feel free to take advantage of our “help no matter what” approach to technical support! Our water nerds will work to answer your questions, even if you have no intention of purchasing one of our water filters. Reach out by dropping us an email (hello@hydroviv.com) or through our live chat. You can also find us on Twitter or Facebook!

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