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PARKERSBURG - The Parkersburg Utility Board had detectable levels of PFOA, also known as C8, in its treated water when it was tested in August.
The concentration of 12 parts per trillion was below the 2016 threshold of 70 parts per trillion, but nonbinding health advisories issued Wednesday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pushed the risk threshold to nearly zero.
The new lifetime drinking water advisory, "at or below which adverse health effects are not expected to occur," according to an EPA document, is 0.004 parts per trillion.
"We're going to have to do something, but there's nothing in place yet," PUB Manager Eric Bennett said. "We have no treatment process that removes it. That's what we have to get."
The PUB did not have the concentration levels negotiated in an EPA consent order that resulted in DuPont and then its spinoff Chemours installing carbon filtration systems in some area water plants to address C8 contamination from use of the product
in the Teflon-manufacturing process at the local Washington Works facility. PUB officials had been looking at applying for federal funding made available under the new infrastructure law specifically to address PFAS and other contaminants in water, Bennett said.
"The hope is that we can get it to move quicker" as a result of Wednesday's announcement, he said.
Bennett said he had no recommendation for what water customers should do based on the new information.
"I would say it's their personal choice," he said, noting the advisory is based on a lifetime of exposure.
The EPA also issued a final health advisory of 10 parts per trillion on GenX chemicals in drinking water. That includes the hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid and ammonium salt used by Chemours with a patented technology platform to replace C8 at Washington Works.
GenX has been detected in some area water systems, including that of the Little Hocking Water Association. Levels of GenX and C8 have remained non-detectable in treated water there.
David Altman, an attorney representing Little Hocking Water in matters related to C8, said he was glad to see the federal government "getting on board" with the standards some states have been using in recent years.
"The government is now reflecting the science that we've known about … for some time," he said.
Chemours officials questioned the GenX guidance from the EPA in a statement provided Wednesday, saying they support regulation based on the best available science and that's not the case here.
"Nationally recognized toxicologists and other leading scientific experts across a range of disciplines have evaluated the EPA's underlying analysis and concluded that it is fundamentally flawed," the statement said. "The agency disregarded relevant data and issued a health advisory contrary to the agency's own standards and this administration's commitment to scientific integrity."
Chemours utilizes state-of-the-art technology to abate emissions of GenX and remediate prior releases, the statement said.
"We are evaluating our next steps, including potential legal action, to address the EPA's scientifically unsound action," it said.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., a ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said the proposed new lifetime health advisory levels will cause confusion and concern while providing no useful tools for measuring or addressing PFAS substances in drinking water or the environment.
"As one of the leaders in the Senate on PFAS, I am extremely disappointed EPA has decided to act so radically and rashly on such a bipartisan issue," she said in a statement issued Wednesday. "Let's be clear: No technologies exist for water systems to detect PFOA and PFOS contamination at the infinitesimal levels EPA has set in its proposed lifetime health advisory levels.
"EPA's announcement will only increase confusion for water systems' compliance efforts and further complicate risk communication to the public," she said. "Setting these impossible levels misleads the public into thinking their water isn't safe, even when that may not be true."
However, Capito said she was encouraged the EPA will begin distributing $5 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for PFAS and other emerging contaminants in drinking water.
City editor Jess Mancini contributed to this story.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com