DEP to use $1M EPA grant for pilot project to engage communities in PFAS plan preparation

The United States Environmental Protection Agency on Oct. 24 announced it had selected the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to receive $1 million for the development and piloting of a community engagement process to inform PFAS action plans. The plans will identify and address sources of PFAS in raw water sources of public drinking water systems.

PFAS have been found in drinking water samples from public water systems throughout the state, many at levels far beyond proposed federal standards. PFAS is an acronym for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, man-made chemicals with an especially toxic legacy in West Virginia.

The EPA says the DEP will work with community groups, local businesses, water utilities, county health departments and other stakeholders to design and implement a community engagement process for areas with PFAS contamination.

The $1 million grant is through the EPA’s Environmental Justice Government-to-Government program, which provides funding at the state and local levels to support government activities in partnership with community-based organizations that result in environmental or public health impacts in communities bearing disproportionate environmental harms.

DEP spokesperson Terry Fletcher said the agency will mainly be working with the West Virginia Rivers Coalition to develop the action plans by designing a community engagement process.

Fletcher said that process may include coordinating a design committee composed of local citizens and partners, developing an engagement framework focused on specific strategies for public involvement, outreach, education, and facilitation of community input, deploying community ambassadors, holding public meetings and providing routine updates to project partners.

The community engagement process to be developed is slated to cover 15 PFAS action plans for public water systems in the Northern and Eastern panhandles.

West Virginia Rivers Coalition Executive Director Angie Rosser hailed the EPA grant, calling community members “an important element� in devising localized strategies to reduce PFAS at its source.

“Involving community folks will bring valuable local knowledge about potential sources of PFAS, which is a fundamental building block of the PFAS action planning process,� Rosser said.

In the Eastern Panhandle, the public water systems planned for grant support are Apple Orchard Acres, Blue Ridge Elementary, Blue Ridge Primary School, the Martinsburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Harpers Ferry Campsites-Cardinal (the Mountain Water System), Jefferson Academy (Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy), the City of Martinsburg, Rocky Knoll Elementary, Shenandoah Mini Homes, South Jefferson Elementary and Walnut Grove Utilities.

In the Northern Panhandle, the public water systems planned for grant support are Benwood Water Department, Chester, Follansbee Municipal, Glen Dale Water Works and Weirton Area Water Board.

Fletcher says those 15 public water systems were identified during a U.S. Geological Survey statewide PFAS study.

Recent Geological Survey studies have detected PFAS throughout the state, especially in the Ohio River Valley and the Eastern Panhandle.

The initial study, which Fletcher said was how the 15 systems to be focused on through the EPA grant were identified, found high concentrations of two common PFAS in the Ohio River Valley and the Eastern Panhandle. The former, the study found, is the region most vulnerable to PFAS contamination in West Virginia.

Of the raw water samples collected at 279 public water systems throughout West Virginia from June 2019 to May 2021, nearly a fourth had at least one PFAS detected, 47 of which were in groundwater sources and 20 in surface-water sources.

The Geological Survey report, the first statewide assessment, flagged a “poor understanding� of PFAS distribution in public water supplies across West Virginia, calling it “concerning� and exacerbated by a “paucity� of statewide water quality assessments in general.

Then in May 2023, the state Department of Health and Human Resources and DEP said 27 out of 37 public water systems sampled showed detectable levels of select PFAS in drinking water samples, per results released by the Geological Survey.

Of those 27 systems, 19 had PFAS detections above at least one regulatory standard proposed by the EPA.

Dr. Matthew Christiansen, state health officer and commissioner of the DHHR’s Bureau for Public Health, said a determination of risk couldn’t be made based on the study results.

Water quality advocates viewed the results as evidence that officials need to act quickly to address PFAS.

“The more information a community has about threats to drinking water sources, the more we can all be part of solutions to make our water safer,� Rosser said.

The grant follows up on a state law, House Bill 3189, passed in March that requires the DEP to identify and address PFAS sources in raw water by developing PFAS action plans.

But West Virginia has lagged behind other states in enacting protections against PFAS, which have a toxic legacy in the state.

Other states have enacted their own enforceable drinking water standards and are pursuing or have settled lawsuits against manufacturers of PFAS.

In 1951, DuPont began using perfluorooctanoic acid, one of the most common PFAS, known as PFOA, to make Teflon-related products at its Washington Works facility near Parkersburg. The chemical discharged into drinking water supplies.

People living in the area experienced increased rates of testicular and kidney cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis and pregnancy-induced hypertension.

PFAS discharges from the Washington Works facility have remained an environmental health concern since the Chemours Company took over the plant in 2015 after being spun off DuPont.

In April, the EPA announced the facility was the target of the agency’s first ever Clean Water Act enforcement action to address PFAS discharges.

An EPA consent order filed in April and agreed to by Chemours requires the company to take corrective measures to address discharges of PFAS.

The order cited discharge monitoring reports submitted by Chemours to the DEP showing 69 water pollution control permit exceedances of PFAS from Sept. 30, 2018, through March 31, 2023. Fourteen of the water pollution control permit exceedances were of 1,000% or more.

Rosser said success through the project would look like effective PFAS action plans reducing toxins in water, stronger public relations with the DEP and a replicable blueprint for productive community engagement on a wide range of environmental concerns across the state.