University of Cincinnati investigates potential PFAS contamination in local groundwater

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - The first national standard was set to limit so-called forever chemicals or PFAS found in nearly half of the United States drinking water.

Water utilities will have to filter out five types of the chemicals.

Several water works utilities such as Greater Cincinnati Water Works, the city of Hamilton and the city of Middletown pulled some or all of its water from underground.

Now, University of Cincinnati researchers investigated whether cancer-causing forever chemicals are in Cincinnati's groundwater.

The researchers focused on how toxins like PFAS from factories end up in the underground aquifer.

PFAS were used to make things like Teflon-coated pots, pans and in wrinkle-free pants and shirts, among many other products.

The scientists worked with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to study chemicals in UC’s groundwater observatory along the Great Miami River.

A report from the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) showed PFAS were found along the entirety of the Ohio River.

While the chemicals are banned in U.S. manufacturing, products made with them can still be imported.

"The more [PFAS] we produce, the more we put into those ecosystems, the more they accumulate and have the potential to have detrimental impacts on every level," said Annette Rowe, an UC Assistant Professor.

The chemicals were found in other aquifers around the country.

The Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer is a source of drinking water for more than two million people in western Ohio.

Scientists want to understand what happens to toxins like PFAS that leach into groundwater.

"We're just trying to understand what's going on and how big of a problem it is. I think every researcher's hope is that then will lead us to help fix these problems, how do we mitigate these issues," said Rowe.

One way they do this is by looking at how microbes interact with the chemicals.

Microbes can bond with other harmful chemicals and make them inert. But right now, Rowe said it's not known if they bind to the forever chemicals.

"How well [PFAS] bind to different materials that might be present in ground water and how that's mediated by what microbes are doing is something that can give us a really important sense of how dangerous things like PFAS are in groundwater systems," said Rowe.

PFAS are not only dangerous, but they are also expensive to remove from water supplies.

Greater Cincinnati Water Works will need to spend more than a hundred million dollars to upgrade one of its filtration systems that pulls water from the Great Miami River.