You are here:
Mineralogical controls on PFAS and anthropogenic anions in subsurface soils and aquifers
Citation:
Evich, M., J. Ferreira, O. Adeyemi, P. Schroeder, J. Williams, B. Acrey, D. Burdette, M. Grieve, M. Neill, K. Simmons, B. Striggow, S. Cohen, M. Cyterski, D. Glinski, W. Henderson, Y. Kim, AND J. Washington. Mineralogical controls on PFAS and anthropogenic anions in subsurface soils and aquifers. Nature Communications. Nature Portfolio, Berlin, Germany, 16(1):3118, (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58040-w
Impact/Purpose:
The work in this current study highlights key minerals involved in fate and transport of anionic PFAS in the terrestrial subsurface environment decades after PFAS contaminated sludge was applied to agricultural fields in the coastal plains.
Description:
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) migrate into the environment through various means, e.g., soil-amendment impurities and ambient atmospheric deposition, potentially resulting in vegetative uptake and migration to groundwater. Existing approaches for modeling sorption of PFAS commonly treat soil as an undifferentiated homogeneous medium, with distribution constants (e.g., Kd, Koc) generated empirically using surface soils. Considering the limited mineral variety expected in weathered geologic media, PFAS mobility can be better understood by accounting for predictable mineral assemblages that are ubiquitously distributed in US soils. Here we explore the role of minerals and electrostatic sorption in controlling PFAS mobility in subsurface settings at contaminated agricultural sites by measuring geochemical parameters and PFAS, and calculating pH-dependent mineral surface charges through full soil and aquifer columns. These data suggest subsurface mobility of short-chain PFAS largely is controlled by aluminum-oxide mineral(oid) electrostatic sorption, whereas long-chain PFAS mobility is controlled by organic matter and air-water interfacial area.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Mineralogical controls on PFAS and anthropogenic anions in subsurface soils and aquifers
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40169557/