FILE - Vials containing samples of forever chemicals, known as PFAS, sit in a tray, April 10, 2024, at a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lab in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File)

PARKERSBURG — Local water officials are assessing the Environmental Protection Agency rolling back some of the rules governing forever chemicals in drinking water.

Parkersburg Utility Board Manager Eric Bennett said some of the things he has seen indicate the level for PFAS will remain at 4 parts per trillion, the lowest level at which it can be detected. The deadlines for compliance was pushed back from 2029 to 2031.

The EPA will go through a public comment period and other steps before the rule is adopted by the organization which Bennett believes will happen in later 2025 or early 2026.

Bennett doesn’t see any impact on the utility board, as their planned filtration system is already designed to handle these chemicals.

“We will continue to move forwards,” Bennett said.

Though not required to, the PUB has long tested for the presence of C8, which was used for years in the Teflon-manufacturing process at the Washington Works plant, formerly owned by DuPont and now its spinoff, Chemours.

DuPont and Chemours paid for the installation of carbon filtration systems in a number of local water systems, but Parkersburg’s never reached the levels to make it eligible.

Rocky McConnell, manager at Lubeck PSD, said he could not comment until they see the official numbers on what is being implemented. He is not expecting to get those numbers until early June.

The manager at the Little Hocking Water Association was not available to comment on the situation Wednesday.

Among the standards being scrapped and reconsidered by the agency are limits on GenX, which replaced C8 at Washington Works and has also been detected in local water supplies.