On October 27, 2020, a California water PFAS lawsuit was filed by the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency against several companies, in which it is alleged that the companies are responsible for PFAS water contamination in southern California.
A new venture backed by billionaire Bill Gates is trying to make sure that “forever chemicals” don’t really last that long.
Allonnia LLC, which launched Thursday with $40 million in Series A funding, is working to engineer microbes to get rid of pollutants in wastewater and soil. It’s starting with PFAS, an insidious class of chemicals that are widespread in U.S. drinking water and have otherwise proved resistant to breaking down, earning them the “forever” moniker.
A subset of so-called forever chemicals, used to make thousands of industrial and consumer products, can’t be deemed “low-concern” despite chemical manufacturers’ arguments, a group of international scientists said in a paper released Tuesday.
Sixty percent of California’s public water supply wells that were tested for so-called forever chemicals contain those compounds, according to research that the State Water Resources Control Board released Wednesday.
That same investigation into contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances also found that groundwater and surface water sampled at airports far exceeded the concentrations detected in water near landfills and public supply wells.
Dozens of House lawmakers asked the Trump administration yesterday to demand protections against per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, in school drinking water.
In 2014, residents of Horsham Township, near Philadelphia, learned that their water had been contaminated with potentially toxic chemicals linked to an array of health problems, including learning delays in children and cancer. Those residents include Frank and Lisa Penna, who allege in a lawsuit that their water was among the contaminated supplies.
The City of Anaheim, California, has enlisted Brown and Caldwell to provide owner advisory services for the design-build delivery of multiple groundwater treatment plants. The new facilities will play a key role in Anaheim’s compliance with recent state Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances regulations and ensure water supplies continue to meet state and federal quality standards.
North Carolina, the EPA, and an international standards organization want to use a method for detecting known and unknown “forever chemicals” in water that the chemical industry opposes for being too broad. The test they want to use measures total organic fluorine amounts in water and can provide a broader picture of all per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in a sample instead of testing for one or a few substances at a time.
Monday at midnight marked the deadline for California lawmakers to pass bills out of the Legislature. But in a session replete with the COVID-19 pandemic, racial justice and wildfires, numerous bills were left to die on the cutting room floor.
Among them was the majority of the environmental agenda in what some legislators, environmentalists and public health advocates labeled a disappointment.
Environmental watch groups, legislators, the media, and litigators have all squarely focused on PFAS contamination in one primary source – water. More specifically, drinking water. Environmental groups test local water supplies and report PFAS counts, politicians introduce bills at the state and federal levels to regulate the amount of PFAS permitted in drinking water, the media gives citizens daily news updates on PFAS in drinking water, and lawsuits are increasingly filed for both personal injury and remediation costs.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
