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Responding to Emerging Contaminant Impacts: Situational Management
Author(s) -
Suthersan Suthan S.,
Horst John,
Ross Ian,
Kalve Erica,
Quinnan Joseph,
Houtz Erika,
Burdick Jeff
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
groundwater monitoring and remediation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1745-6592
pISSN - 1069-3629
DOI - 10.1111/gwmr.12172
Subject(s) - citation , horst , situation awareness , situational ethics , library science , operations research , history , art history , computer science , engineering , political science , law , geology , paleontology , aerospace engineering , tectonics
In our recent column on the topic of emerging contaminants, we focused on the increasing relevance of two key emerging contaminant types, poly– and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and 1,4-dioxane, and how the ability to characterize and treat them is evolving with time. More recently, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), two important PFAS, have been the focus of increasing media attention with multiple news items every day. This is the direct result of PFOS and PFOA detections in drinking water and the fact that regulation of PFAS are rapidly evolving in the United States. On May 25, 2016, the USEPA (EPA) established long-term health advisory levels (HALs) for individual or combined concentrations of PFOS and PFOA of 70 nanograms per liter (ng/L). While much more scientific work is needed before something regulatorily enforceable is published, this has set the stage for the establishment of very low criteria in the future. This recent development has created a flurry of attention and focus on these compounds. Stakeholders are grappling with the question of how to assess and manage potential liabilities, in addition to the prospect of having to treat water to meet extremely stringent treatment standards indicated by the new HALs. Motivated by “there must be a better way,” scientists and engineers are trying to develop innovative solutions, often overlapping one another, into accepted methods and practice. As a result of all the recent publicity, there is a lot of concern around the topic of PFAS and how to treat them, with a feeling that very little is known. The good news is that while the knowledge base is still evolving, these compounds have been the subject of significant study and regulatory oversight in many European jurisdictions for the past decade or more. While there is a lot of good science available, in the face of the sudden need for detailed understanding of this emerging issue, stakeholders can find it hard to sort through the surge of ideas to find the ones that have real merit. An excellent source of information concerning PFAS can be found in the CONCAWE (CONservation of Clean Air and Water in Europe) document, entitled Environmental fate and effects of Polyand Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) (Pancras et al. 2016 ). In this article, we explore the topic of responding to this rapidly evolving issue based on scientific facts and logic when the public reaction can be emotional at times. We look at this from two perspectives: