Study finds elevated levels of forever chemicals in rivers near Western Pa. wastewater plants

Wastewater treatment plants in Western Pennsylvania are dumping what’s known as forever chemicals into Pittsburgh’s rivers, a new study shows.

The report from the nonprofit Women for a Healthy Environment focuses on per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS), man-made chemicals used in many industrial and consumer products. It found a higher concentration of the chemicals where wastewater is discharged from a plant into a river, compared with lower levels just upstream of the discharge sites.

“It’s confirmation of another source of exposure and contamination,” said Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis, executive director of Women for a Healthy Environment.

PFAS chemicals have been linked to adverse health effects including compromised immune systems, cancers, poor reproductive health and child developmental issues, thyroid disease, liver damage and digestive conditions.

Because they have strong chemical bonds that prevent them from naturally degrading completely in the environment, they are often referred to as forever chemicals. The study focused on the connection between the chemicals and wastewater treatment plants.

John Rumpler, clean water director and senior attorney for the Denver-based advocacy group Environment America, said the study highlights the need to stop using PFAS in manufacturing.

“The real significance of these findings is a reminder of how pervasive the use of PFAS is in our economy,” Rumpler said.

“It’s coming from all of the places that the wastewater treatment plants receive their inputs, whether that’s from our homes, and the sewage system, whether that’s industrial upstream dischargers, whether that’s stormwater runoff,” he said. “The only way we’re going to solve this problem is to stop using these toxic chemicals in the first place.”

While the study focused on wastewater and not drinking water, Rumpler said pollution in rivers and other bodies of water can have ripple effects. PFAS can build up in the wildlife food chain, get into agriculture if the water is used for irrigation and impact well water.

Elevated levels

The study tested for the presence of PFAS in the area of three of Allegheny County’s 24 major wastewater treatment plants: Alcosan in Pittsburgh, McKeesport’s wastewater treatment plant and the Allegheny Valley Joint Sewage Authority in Harmar. They discharge directly into the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers.

The study found PFAS levels were higher where wastewater exits the three plants — an area known as the mixing zone — than they were upstream. At the Harmar plant, the mixing zone contained 12 PFAS chemicals measuring at 36.1 parts per trillion, compared to just 1 PFAS chemical measuring at 1.2 parts per trillion upstream of the facility, the study said.

Similarly, PFAS measured at 26.3 parts per trillion in the mixing zone of the McKeesport plant compared with 3.4 parts per trillion upstream, while they measured at 15.3 parts per trillion in Alcosan’s mixing zone compared with 3.7 parts per trillion upstream, the study showed.

The federal Clean Water Act does not include standards for PFAS allowances in wastewater discharges. The study team instead stacked the sample results against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water regulations.

All three facilities’ samples exceeded the EPA’s lifetime health advisory for drinking water, a guideline for the level of PFAS that can be consumed over one’s lifetime without elevating the risk of PFAS-related health problems.

“Though the mixing zone samples are not drinking water samples, they represent the influence that wastewater treatment plants have on water bodies that serve as our drinking water source,” the study said. “These sample results show that all our mixing zone results … are above the health advisory for these substances.”

Industry’s impact

It is not certain how the chemicals make their way into wastewater, but landfill leachate, consumer products going down the drain, stormwater and industrial wastewater are likely culprits.

“Due to the pervasive nature of PFAS compounds, even those removed from manufacture in the U.S. decades ago can still be detected” in test samples from waterways, the study said.

Morgan Suntken, a graduate student from the University of Michigan who led the study, said the results were “not a surprise at all.”

“We figured that PFAS levels would be elevated in the mixing zone, because wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove PFAS from the water (they) treat,” she said.

Some PFAS chemicals are regulated by the EPA. Additional regulations on PFAS in drinking water were put in place in Pennsylvania in 2023, but PFAS wastewater testing is not required to be collected in Pennsylvania.

In response to the study, Alcosan said in a statement that it “supports regulatory agency efforts to address the presence of PFAS in the environment.”

“We are committed to serving our customers and will continue to comply with our wastewater discharge permit issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection,” Alcosan said.

Tim Kephart, manager at Allegheny Valley Joint Sewage Authority, said he did not know of any wastewater treatment plants in the region that treat their wastewater to remove PFAS.

“This is all something that is going to be a new treatment process in the future, many, many years down the road,” he predicted.

A spokesman for Pennsylvania American Water, which operates the McKeesport plant, did not comment specifically about the McKeesport plant or PFAS in wastewater.

“American Water supports the U.S. EPA’s efforts to protect the quality of drinking water and Pennsylvania American Water’s annual water quality reports show our commitment to protecting our customers and the communities we serve by meeting or surpassing required federal, state and local drinking water standards,” spokesperson Gary Lobaugh said.

Cleanup challenge

Naccarati-Chapkis said more studies and research about PFAS are needed in Western Pennsylvania and beyond.

The study team recommended a number of potential state policy changes, including requiring wastewater treatment plants to test the waste they receive and what they discharge for PFAS.

“Pennsylvania needs to take the initiative to remove PFAS from the supply chain and the environment,” she said.

Matthew Junker, spokesman for the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, said the cleanup of PFAS can be pricey. He’s wary of pushes to make wastewater treatment plants liable for PFAS, because they can’t always control what comes into their plants.

“It’s very expensive to treat for, if you are over the proposed maximum contaminant limit,” he said.

The authority recently opted to continue with litigation against several chemical companies over PFAS rather than accept a settlement.

The road ahead

There has been some recent legislative movement regarding PFAS.

At the start of this month, the EPA proposed adding nine PFAS compounds to a list of substances to be considered when evaluating or investigating facilities. It also would change the definition of hazardous waste when it comes to cleanups at hazardous waste facilities.

Additionally, U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County was among several Washington lawmakers to reintroduce the PFAS Accountability Act at the start of the month. It would allow victims of significant PFAS exposure to bring civil claims against manufacturers, while incentivizing funding for PFAS safety research and allowing courts to award medical monitoring for PFAS contamination victims.

Pittsburgh nonprofit Three Rivers Waterkeeper is interested in further examining PFAS in a local context.

The nonprofit helped Suntken conduct sampling by providing boats to access hard-to-reach areas. The group started doing PFAS testing in 2021 on the Allegheny River and has taken 30 samples since, said Jess Friss, director of community programs.

The group found PFAS in about 70% of the samples, with higher levels in Montour Run near Pittsburgh International Airport and around the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill in Rostraver, which was cited for a leachate spill in 2022. The levels around the landfill decreased a year later.

Friss said the group is concerned about the lack of regulation around PFAS in waterways and hopes to see changes moving forward.

“It becomes a burden of the ratepayers, who pay for the water treatment to clean the PFAS out of the water so that it meets the strict drinking water regulations,” Friss said. “It should be on the industry that is putting water back into the waterways to clean it before it goes back into the river.”