'Forever chemicals' in drinking water: 7 Long Island districts above federal limits, working on treatment

A year after the Biden administration set strict drinking water limits for "forever chemicals," seven of the 36 Long Island districts that have submitted data reported annual averages that exceeded the limit, according to a Newsday analysis.

Water suppliers, many of which are installing treatment systems, have until 2029 to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s new rule about the six chemicals, so these results don’t yet amount to a violation.

But the drinking water standards are being challenged in a lawsuit filed by chemical manufacturers and water providers, which could render that deadline irrelevant. The Trump administration is weighing whether to defend the limits, and must respond to the lawsuit by Monday.

If the federal standards are overturned, New York’s own drinking water standard would remain in effect, but the state limit is less strict and applies to just two PFAS compounds, not six.

That could leave Long Islanders' and other New Yorkers' drinking water with PFAS contamination levels that federal regulators and health experts say are not safe, the federal data shows.

Without federal limits, some Long Island communities' water "may no longer get treatment," said Scott Faber, head of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, an environmental health nonprofit based in Washington. Faber noted that PFAS treatment technologies remove other chemicals as well.

Only 11 states have set their own PFAS limits, so people in most of the country would be altogether without protections from these toxins.

Federal limits on PFAS in drinking water

Every five years, the EPA requires water providers to test for about 30 contaminants, to gather data on where these contaminants are lurking and whether the government should regulate them. The samples are drawn from water after it has run through the treatment technologies the wells may have, similar to what comes out of taps.

A previous round of sampling a decade ago led the EPA to adopt strict limits on six PFAS chemicals in drinking water, alone or in combinations. For the two most studied ones, PFOA and PFOS, the federal limit is 4 parts per trillion; for the others the limit is 10 parts per trillion.

Although these are very tiny concentrations — 1 part per trillion is the equivalent of roughly 30 seconds in a million years, or 7 square feet in the state of Texas — scientists have found long-term exposure to PFAS, even in tiny amounts, increases the risk of prostate, kidney and testicular cancers, developmental problems in infants and children and other health problems. As the EPA noted in announcing the new regulation in April 2024, "there is no level of exposure to these contaminants without risk of health impacts, including certain cancers." The EPA said the rule would reduce exposure for 100 million people and "prevent thousands of deaths."

In this round of sampling, providers are again testing for the six newly regulated compounds, as well as 23 unregulated PFAS, plus lithium. A Newsday analysis of the sampling published in April found 19 Long Island water suppliers detected unregulated chemicals, which can be more difficult to remove. There's no drinking water standard for these particular chemicals yet, because their health effects are still being studied by scientists, though water providers have already started to test effective treatments for them.

Many Long Island water suppliers have been treating their water for PFAS for several years, usually with granular activated carbon systems, to comply with New York’s standard, which was established in 2020. That rule — the first state standard in the nation for PFAS in drinking water — set a limit for PFOA and PFOS at 10 parts per trillion. 

The carbon systems — which work a bit like a huge Brita filter — effectively remove PFOA and PFOS to levels well below the state’s "maximum contaminant level." 

Some local water districts emphasize that once they start treating for PFAS, they aim to treat until the levels are undetectable. "When we see something, our goal is really to have nondetect everywhere," said Tom Schneider, director of water quality at the Suffolk County Water Authority.

Joseph Corbisiero, director of plant operations at the Water Authority of Western Nassau, said whether the rule is 10 ppt or 4 ppt, "the ultimate goal is nondetect."

Still, getting to zero or near zero requires suppliers to change the filtering medium more frequently, and that gets expensive. 

Percent of readings above limit

The EPA requires water districts to submit multiple samples from their wells over the course of a year, then gathers the individual readings and calculates annual average. The data collection continues through 2025, with a total of 44 Long Island water districts required to report.

Out of the 36 districts that submitted data so far, 17 had at least one sample that tested above the maximum contaminant level for at least one of the chemicals. The great majority of the samples from Long Island tested below the federal standard. Out of 4,986 total samples submitted so far by Long Island water suppliers, only 70 tested above the federal limit, or 1.4%.

One high reading could be an outlier, but a high annual average suggests a more persistent presence of a contaminant. So it's the annual average that the EPA will use to determine if a water supplier is in compliance with the limit. 

The seven Long Island districts that had annual averages exceeding the federal limit are Garden City, Glen Cove, Locust Valley, Suffolk County Water Authority, Water Authority of Western Nassau, Westbury and Williston Park.

Seven out of 36 is just slightly above the national average for similarly sized water districts — 19% versus 15%.

Since those samples were taken, all the water district managers who responded to Newsday's question said they've added treatment systems.

At the Suffolk County Water Authority, for example, a sample taken in 2023 at the Station Road well field had 17.4 parts per trillion of PFOS, more than 4 times the federal limit.

All three wells at that site now have granular activated carbon systems — the most recent were installed just last month, according to Jeff Szabo, CEO of the water authority.

Some other wells in the district are due to have treatment systems installed in the future, according to Schneider, the district's water quality director.

"We're very confident we'll be fully compliant long before 2029," Szabo said.

Fifteen water districts reported individual readings above the federal limit of 4 parts per trillion but below the state standard of 10. Should the federal regulations not go into effect, people served by those districts could be exposed to higher levels of PFOS and PFAS. However, these districts that responded to Newsday also said they have already installed treatment systems on the wells that had high readings, or in some cases are designing or constructing treatment systems. Several said their aim was to bring the contaminants to nondetectable levels.

Uncertain EPA position 

Even if the Trump administration does not back the PFAS regulation, it cannot legally rescind the EPA’s rule, according to Erik Olson, a lawyer and senior strategist at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council. The Safe Drinking Water Act — the law that authorizes the EPA to set the limits — includes an "anti-backsliding" rule, Olson explained, which says any revision must provide equal or greater protections to public health. "So it’s going to be a real problem if they try to take the rule back and then weaken it."

Last month, the EPA announced the agency would "address the most significant compliance challenges" to "drinking water regulations for certain PFAS." Experts told Newsday it was difficult to parse what that might mean in practice, and the EPA statement did not elaborate.

The biggest threat to the EPA limits is the legal challenge from PFAS manufacturer Chemours and trade groups representing the chemical industry and water suppliers nationwide, who filed lawsuits in June seeking to overturn the regulations. The EPA after Trump's inauguration asked for a stay on the suit to decide how to proceed; the stay expires on Monday. The EPA said in an emailed statement to Newsday: "New EPA leadership is in the process of reviewing the PFAS drinking water rule and the issues presented in the litigation in the current case around it, and developing its position on how to proceed." EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, a former Shirley congressman, has said the EPA will fulfill its "core statutory obligations" of providing clean air, land and water.

Even if Trump allows the litigation to proceed, Olson said, the administration could still effectively undermine clean water regulations by withholding EPA funds.

Zeldin has said he would cut the agency's budget by 65% over the next few years and last week said he would dissolve its research and development office, where research on PFAS and other water and air pollutants is conducted. Those cuts could make it impossible for the EPA to enforce the law "or to help water systems comply," Olson said. "It basically stops the program in its tracks."