Philadelphia Congressman, Brendan Boyle, on Thursday reintroduced a Bill that will set a national Drinking water standard for the now widespread perfluorinated compounds — a common drinking water contaminant that poses a grave public health risk, The Intelligencer has reported.
Perfluorinated compounds include hundreds of chemicals, but PFOA and PFOS are the two of the best known as they have recently been detected in drinking water sources serving 15 million people across the United States.
The Safe Drinking Water Act's Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) currently requires the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to test drinking water across the country for up to 30 unregulated drinking water contaminants and no more, every five years.
The PFCs, PFOS and PFOA, were included on the list of unregulated contaminants to be tested for in the third UCMR testing program conducted by the EPA, which resulted in their being discovered in many drinking water supplies between 2013-2015. As there is currently no drinking water standard set for these contaminants, the EPA has set a drinking water "health advisory limit" of 70ppt for these contaminants. But according to Boyle, this limit isn't enough.
"Every day we continue to learn more about the scope and seriousness of perfluorinated compounds across the country. It's past time we address these contaminants with the seriousness they merit," Boyle said.
Although brief, the bill introduced by Boyle, H.R. 3106, stipulates that the EPA introduce a drinking water standard for chemicals in the perfluorinated compound family, including PFOS and PFOA within two 2 years of the bill being passed.
The bill, which is co-sponsored by congressmen Patrick Meehan of Upper Darby and Brian Fitzpatrick of Middletown, and by D-N.Y. Rep. Paul Tonko and D-N.J. Rep. Frank Pallone, forms part of a broader spectrum of bills put forward by Pallone in an effort to update and redefine the Safe Drinking Water Act to in fact make drinking water safer for consumers to drink.
"All Americans deserve to have confidence in the safety of their drinking water, no matter what state they live in or what activities have taken place in their communities," Boyle added.
Yet even though this is well overdue, it's highly unlikely that the bills will go unchallenged. Both Pallone and Boyle introduced similar bills in 2016, which ultimately were not passed. And while Boyle's current bill has gained some support from both within and outside his party, Pallone's bill H.R. 1068, is currently not as well supported.
While politicians do their thing behind the scene, people across the country are still being exposed to unsafe levels of PFCs in their drinking water. But consumers can be proactive and take measures to remove contaminants such as these from their water by investing in a good quality drinking water filter, such as a filter from the Berkey range, that is capable of removing PFCs from the water they drink.
