Goodyear, Litchfield Park to monitor, filter out PFAS pollution per EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency implemented a new national standard limiting "forever chemical" PFAS in drinking water, which requires utilities like Goodyear Water Services and Liberty Utilities in Litchfield Park to reduce these chemicals to the lowest level they can be reliably measured.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the blood of nearly all Americans is contaminated with PFAS. Studies also show exposure to very low levels of PFAS can increase cancer risk and harm fetal development.

The new EPA standard is four parts per trillion for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, better known as PFAS.  Years prior, the standard was 40 ppt and before that, 70 ppt. The standard continually lowered each year with advanced testing and study on the impacts of the chemical.

Under the new EPA guidance, water systems will have three years to monitor water supplies and identify any deficiencies. Following this, stakeholders will have two additional years to purchase and install the necessary equipment to effectively filter out PFAS.

Barbra Chappell, Goodyear Water Services Director, said the city has been monitoring PFAS for years but stopped short of saying the city is to the new standard.

“PFAS compounds accumulate in the environment over time as they do not break down easily, which is why they are often referred to as ‘forever chemicals.’ The city of Goodyear has been monitoring PFAS in its water system under EPA’s Unregulated Contaminate Monitoring Rule for years while the EPA evaluated the health effects at varying levels. The establishment of the new maximum contaminant level for drinking water is a step in the right direction for public health,” she said.

Liberty Utilities, which services water in Litchfield Park, said it’s considering adding infrastructure and seeking grants to help implement those improvements.

“At Liberty, we monitor our water sources for PFAS. Liberty will develop a plan to comply with the new, more stringent requirements announced by the EPA,” said Senior Communications Manager Allison Vai. “Liberty is exploring infrastructure improvements to add treatment processes that remove PFAS from water, examining the potential impacts on the cost of delivering water to our customers, and identifying grants and other potential funding sources to help offset these necessary costs.”

Funding

In 2023, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a bipartisan appropriations bill earmarking $5 million in funding for PFAS research and cleanup.

"ADEQ’s work plan for the $5 million includes funding for public outreach, hydrogeologic investigations in counties with higher PFAS detections, water quality sampling, and treatment construction assistance for both large and small water systems in targeted areas with PFAS contamination concerns," wrote ADEQ in a statement to the Daily Independent. 

According to sources, this funding won't be sufficient to address new EPA standards for the state.

The state and U.S. Air Force are still investigating which water wells are not up to standard.

According to state records, five Goodyear and Litchfield Park area water wells exceed Environmental Protection Agency standards for the cancer-causing “forever chemical.”

The Agua Fria School District governing board recently approved a motion to add a PFAS monitoring well to Millennium High School in Goodyear. That specific well is tied to the federal investigation of PFAS groundwater contamination.

In November, Kimberly Horsley, restoration project manager for the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, told the Goodyear Independent the base could categorically tie firefighting training and a training area to PFAS spread throughout the West Valley area to a watershed.

“We have a surface water runoff as a mechanism from the firefighting training area. That's where a lot of the training activities occurred, where a lot of the (agent) would have been released to the environment during the '80s and '90s. We have mechanisms to explain that,” she said. “It could have gotten to the wastewater treatment plant on Glendale and El Mirage Road. It could have gone south to the water features south of the base as surface runoff.”