A new study revealed there could be tens of thousands more drinking water sources contaminated with high concentrations of PFAS, known as forever chemicals.
Why It Matters
PFAS are classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and studies have continued to reveal their potential health risks, including thyroid disease, liver disease, and many others.
Despite their risks, PFAS chemicals are highly favored in many industries for their long-lasting nature, featuring in many consumer products and even smartwatch wristbands.
What To Know
The study, published in Environmental Science and Technology, reported 2,219 drinking water sources across the U.S. are contaminated with levels of PFAS chemicals at concentrations higher than the Environment Protection Agency’s (EPA) 4 parts per trillion (ppt) maximum contaminant level (MCL).
The researchers at the PFAS Project Lab predicted there are 79,891 additional likely drinking water sites, up from the 57,412 sites initially reported, with levels of PFAS higher than the EPA’s MCL.
This study comes alongside a number of other reports revealing the wide-reaching spread of PFAS contamination in drinking water sources.
“Our findings show the need to turn off the tap of PFAS emissions from its sources,” Kimberly Garrett, a professor at the CUNY School of Public Health and lead author of the study, told Newsweek.
“The U.S. has been slow to hold polluters accountable for contamination, shifting the burden to municipal utilities and individual consumers,” she added.
An EPA spokesperson told Newsweek that the agency “is not familiar with the study and cannot comment on its findings.”
They pointed to the author’s note that “no nationwide site testing and source identification exists, and nationwide drinking water testing is limited since federal MCLs were only finalized in 2024 and will not be implemented until 2029 or later.”
The spokesperson said the “EPA would like to note that one important and ongoing activity is monitoring for 29 PFAS chemicals in drinking water under the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule,” something Newsweek has covered.
Known Sites Contaminated With PFAS
The sites refer to groundwater, which can be used for drinking water, and researchers said that 94 percent of site detections exceeded the EPA’s PFAS MCL.
“This is very concerning given how much water we consume over the course of a lifetime, and the regulatory limits are set to a threshold of an excess cancer incidence on the order of 1 out of 10,000 people,” Graham Peaslee, a professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, who was not part of the new study, told Newsweek.
“If 200 million people are drinking PFAS concentrations above this limit, that means these chemicals are causing at least an additional 20,000 cancers, and quite likely a lot more since some of the concentrations are significantly above the drinking water limits of 4 part per trillion,” he added.
Sites Likely Contaminated With PFAS
The lab first developed its Presumptive PFAS Contamination model in 2022, with the “aim of identifying locations that are likely to be contaminated with PFAS based on land use,” Garrett said.
This model provides “a more realistic picture of where PFAS contamination is across the U.S,” she added, as the map of known PFAS contamination “is limited because we only know about PFAS contamination where it’s been identified.”
The data for presumptive sites was based on locations of military sites, incidental aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) releases, major airports, and certain industrial sites, places where “there is ample high-quality evidence of PFAS use and emission,” Garrett said.
Across both maps, there is a higher concentration of contaminated sites in the Eastern side of the country.
Peaslee said this is “expected,” given that PFAS chemicals are used where people are, so the maps look “very much like population density maps across the U.S,” he said.
“Forever chemicals in our water arise mainly from firefighting foam use, and firefighting foams were used primarily at military bases, airports and municipal fire stations,” he said.
Peaslee said these airports and municipal fire stations are “linearly related to the density of people living in the area, thus PFAS follow human activities closely.”
What People Are Saying
The EPA told Newsweek: “The agency is committed to addressing PFAS. The vast majority of EPA’s current PFAS work started under the first Trump Administration and that work is continuing under Administrator Zeldin’s leadership. On April 28, the agency announced a suite of actions the to address PFAS, including in water. On May 14, 2025, EPA announced its intent to retain the existing Maximum Contaminant Levels for PFOA and PFOS, two of the most studied PFAS chemicals.”
Peaslee told Newsweek: “PFAS contamination of our water is likely to be the most expensive environmental problem we have faced to date, with the possible exception of global warming. This is a global problem, but can be ameliorated by local actions. If we can stop using PFAS where it isn’t essential, we could get rid of more than 90 percent of these “forever chemicals” that we are currently putting into the environment.”
“It will take a concerted effort to find out where they are currently used, and to find alternatives that people prefer. Then in a few generations, we will end up burying a layer of PFAS in our soils and eventually it will be a problem largely solved. But until then, we are continuing to create molecules that will hang around and pollute our environment and ourselves, all with terrible health consequences.”
Susan Richardson, a professor of chemistry at University of South Carolina, told Newsweek: “What was surprising to me was the upper range of contamination in ground water. If I did my math right, it looks like it can reach 10 to 50 ppm for the sum of PFAS and about 10 ppm for PFOA and PFOS. This is crazy high. I did not realize it could reach those levels. 10 ppm is about 2.5 million times the 4 ppt coming regulation.”
“If any of these contaminated groundwater sites serve as a source for drinking water that belong to a public water system, levels will be controlled through EPA’s new regulations. For any people who are on their own private wells or want to do something before the new regulation is in place, activated carbon filters that are certified to remove PFAS can be used.”
What Happens Next
As more data is released regarding PFAS concentrations in water, it is expected that more drinking water sites will be found to have levels of PFAS chemicals higher than the EPA’s MCL. “Even if we stop all PFAS production and emissions today, we have a substantial amount of cleanup to do,” Garrett said.
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