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ORD Collaborative Projects with States and Tribes Investigating PFAS Occurrence in the Environment
Citation:
Sullivan, Kate. ORD Collaborative Projects with States and Tribes Investigating PFAS Occurrence in the Environment. EPA Tools and Resources Training Webinar Series: PFAS Technical Support and Scientific Advancements, Virtual, August 18, 2021.
Impact/Purpose:
The EPA Tools and Resources Training Webinar Series provides in-depth overviews and step-by-step tutorials on popular EPA science-based models and tools. This presentation shares examples of ORD research projects related to PFAS.
Description:
The versatility of the family of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) for use in many industrial and manufacturing applications as well as consumer products has led to thousands of PFAS compounds being used for decades. These substances are highly persistent, difficult to break down, and bioaccumulate in living organisms over time. There are significant scientific challenges to understanding their distribution in the environment. Foremost is the lack of accredited laboratory methods to measure the presence for all but a relatively few of the PFAS that are in use. Research chemists in EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) have pioneered non-targeted analytical methods (NTA) to identify the presence of a much larger number of PFAS compounds in environmental samples beyond the 30 or so that can be currently quantitated. This webinar shares examples of EPA ORD projects conducted in collaboration with and designed by States and Tribes to use ORD’s expertise to identify and improve the understanding of what PFAS are present within various media in local areas of concern. Projects range from environmental sampling around manufacturing facilities to evaluation of the effectiveness of well and wastewater treatment.