Polyfluoroalkyl substances — also known as PFAS — are chemical compounds used in a variety of products, from cookware and clothing to food packaging, paint and ski wax.
Reclamation District General Manager Mike Luers said PFAS are known as forever compounds because they are difficult to break down in nature.
“There's some 15,000 separate compounds, so they're in a lot of things that we use, everything from pizza boxes to popcorn bags,” he said. “Those compounds end up in the wastewater.”
Luers said research related to the negative effects of PFAS compounds, prescription drugs and microplastics in wastewater is all new science.
Testing wasn’t available until the 2000s, Luers said, and some compounds still can’t be tested for.
There are also no state or federal regulations requiring wastewater treatment facilities to sample or treat for PFAS compounds, prescription drugs or microplastics.
“Even though we have two of the most advanced treatment facilities in Utah, here in Park City, our facilities are not designed to remove PFAS compounds, they're not designed to remove all the pharmaceuticals that we all use, they're not designed to remove microplastics,” Luers said.
Luers said regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency are on the horizon.
To contribute to the research, water district scientists have been studying the health impacts PFAS may have on fish in East Canyon Creek.
Using tissue samples from brown trout and model sculpin fish samples leftover from a 2014 study, Luers said the fish were tested for 35 different PFAS compounds.
“We found that the fish contain 20 different PFAS compounds,” Luers said. “Keep in mind, 10 years ago, we did not have the capabilities, from a laboratory standpoint of view, to look at these compounds.”
With no regulatory rules that limit the amount of PFAS compounds in a fish, Luers’ team applied European Food Safety Authority regulations to the East Canyon Creek fish and found if someone ate 2.2 meals of the fish in one week, it would exceed those regulations.
The research also found the PFAS compounds are present downstream and upstream of the wastewater treatment facility, showing how the compounds are ubiquitous. In fact, Luers said it’s nearly impossible to avoid PFAS compounds.
“99.9% of Americans have PFAS in their blood. It's been found, and, you know, unborn babies, it's been found to be spread throughout the body and including our blood banks,” he said.
The team also looked at how PFAS compounds could be removed from wastewater.
“We would oxidize, like use an ozone to break down the pharmaceuticals, and we would use activated carbon to get rid of the PFAS compounds,” he said. “The problem is there are no regulations that give us guidance as to what levels we need to target.”
Luers and his team have submitted their research findings to a scientific journal. He said it’s currently being peer-reviewed ahead of publication.
