EPA Research Partner Support Story: Mapping PFAS levels

Partners: NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, Town of Pittsboro, Fayetteville, NC State Highway and Public Works Commission
Challenge: Mapping PFAS levels across an entire river basin
Resource: Methods development and laboratory analyses
Project Period: 2015 – Present

Because of concerns about long-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which persist in the environment, their use began being phased out in 2006. In 2007, EPA ORD began a first-ever effort in the U.S. to map PFAS levels in an entire watershed, focusing on North Carolina’s Cape Fear River Basin. This mapping effort demonstrated that there were multiple sources of many different PFAS throughout the basin, suggesting that since the basin is a major drinking water resource, it could potentially be responsible for human exposures to PFAS throughout the entire region. As part of this effort, EPA ORD also developed research-based methods to measure PFAS in drinking water and detect novel PFAS using high resolution mass spectrometry non-targeted analysis approaches.

“We are extremely grateful for EPA ORD’s work as we analyze these chemical compounds. EPA’s analyses will be crucial to our efforts in protecting public health and the environment as we learn more about these emerging substances.” – NC DEQ former Assistant Secretary Sheila Holman

EPA ORD’s PFAS research in the Cape Fear Basin has continued to evolve. Having largely addressed PFAS wastewater discharge to the Cape Fear River, attention has turned toward air emissions, fate, transport, deposition, and resulting land and surface water contamination down wind of the Chemours plant. EPA ORD is working with Region 4 and NC DEQ to test and deploy air sampling methods including the application of non-targeted analysis to comprehensively characterize air emissions. NC DEQ is also sampling and making available rainwater for testing. This work is being done cooperatively with Chemours to evaluate air emissions control technology that they are considering. These efforts are expected to provide solutions for reducing exposures to these potentially hazardous chemicals.

Access EPA publications related to PFAS research in North Carolina.