It’s been a little over a year since the Environmental Protection Agency rolled out the first legally-enforceable limits on some PFAS chemicals in drinking water.
The regulation came after years of research tying the human-made chemicals to a range of health issues. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says certain levels of exposure can lead to decreased fertility, prostate, kidney and testicular cancers, and weakened immune systems.
There are thousands of different types of PFAS, and they’re used in a range of consumer and industrial goods. Whether it’s a takeout box or the waterproof jacket in your closet, chances are all of us use products containing the chemicals every day.
But, they don’t break down naturally. That means by now, they’re also found in water, soil and animals. The CDC estimates nearly every person in the U.S. has some level of PFAS in their blood.
“These are chemicals that often once you drink them, half of this molecule is going to still be in your system a year later, or more,” said Dan Jones, a professor of biochemistry at Michigan State University who specializes in PFAS. “So these are things you can’t just say, 'well, I’ll just flush it out of my system, it’ll be gone in no time.'”
Last April, the Biden administration’s EPA introduced formal limits on six of the most pervasive types — including PFOS and PFOA. Jones calls those legacy compounds because they’ve been around for decades, used in things like a special firefighting foam known as Aqueous Firefighting Foam, or AFFF.
The substance has been used to fight high-heat jet engine fires at airports and airbases.
Shutoffs
Tucson Water Director John Kmiec has been tracking the impact of AFFF on the city's groundwater.
“So this well here in this area was one of the Tucson Water production wells that we turned off I believe in 2017, when we started screening for PFAS,” Kmiec says.
We’re standing in front of a gated-off well site that’s sandwiched between a quiet neighborhood and a bustling street in the northwestern-most corner of Tucson. AFFF used at military sites and airports south of here seeped into groundwater and contaminated wells.
The city has had to shut off about 40 wells as a result.
“So we do want to get some of these wells back and that’s one of the reasons we’re standing here today, because this is one of the wells we plan to bring back, though with advanced treatment from funding that we were able to secure in the last couple years,” Kmiec says.
Under the EPA’s first formal limits last year, drinking water can have no more than four parts per trillion of the PFAS listed. That’s about one drop in five Olympic-sized pools.
Tucson is already in compliance. But Kmiec estimates the city has spent some $70 million of its own money to get there. Additional federal funding came down for communities nationwide last year — including a roughly $33 million for Tucson. That’ll be used to build a new treatment plant Kmiec says will bring a handful of wells back online and some 3.3 million gallons of drinking water back into the system.
“We’re in a strong position. We think the projects that we put forward and were accepted, and were signed and contracted are all in place,” he said.
Walking on eggshells
But some things are changing now, under the Trump administration. A directive released by the EPA in May drops four out of the six compounds listed in 2024. Only PFOA and PFOS will remain regulated for now.
An EPA spokesperson said the other four will undergo additional evaluation and could be re-listed later.
"The agency determined that the process by which it promulgated the preliminary regulatory determinations simultaneously with the proposed regulation was inappropriate and may not comply with the statutory requirements of Safe Drinking Water Act," the spokesperson said in an email.
Still, Jones, the biochemistry professor, said while the EPA's decision to review some regulation may not directly impair PFAS research, it could destabilize ongoing efforts.
He says a colleague who’s studying how PFAS end up in food supplies has already seen his EPA funding disappear. Mass layoffs are also underway at federal agencies doing that research.
“I think anyone who’s doing research on environmental contaminants is sort of walking on eggshells at the moment,” he said. "I don't know what other individuals have had grants cancelled, but my expectation is that a lot of funding for for research and trying to find solutions to these problems is at least questionable."
Some 2,400 CDC employees were laid off in April, though some have since been asked to return to their posts. About 840 employees at the EPA were also laid off, according to a count by the New York Times.
Meanwhile, the new directive gives water utilities more time to come into compliance. They now have until 2031. The EPA estimates between 6% and 10% of public water systems around the U.S. have PFAS levels higher than the Biden-era limits, and the extension will help them avoid fees and violations. The agency also says it'll partner with states and public utilities to fast-track the cleanup.
"So by delaying, you’re really delaying cleaning up the water system,” Jones said. “Of course, there are cost-benefits to utilities, but it means the consumers are really paying the price. Not financially, but in terms of the potential health effects.”
Data from the EPA and Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) shows 82 small utilities with PFAS levels higher than the Biden-era EPA standards — in addition to 19 large utilities.
“The challenge with emerging contaminants is they could take all your time and resources, like we could devote all our time and resources to PFAS, because it’s that big of an issue,” said Trevor Baggiori, water quality division director of ADEQ.
Baggiori says ADEQ’s been investigating PFAS contamination in drinking water for years. But the lack of federally-enforceable limits curtailed their authority.
“We could go sample for [PFAS], we could identify what the challenges were, but we had no legal ability to require water systems to take action,” he said.
Baggiori says ADEQ is working with utilities to bring their systems into compliance with the new rules — either by rerouting where groundwater is extracted or setting up treatment facilities. This summer, researchers will also do additional testing on surface water, wastewater and even fish tissue to understand the scale of contamination and where it comes from.
He says the agency hopes to get water utilities in compliance ahead of the 2031 deadline.
“The immediate need is to fix drinking water systems and make sure they’re meeting standards," Baggiori said, "but how do you prevent PFAS from getting to a public water system to begin with?”
Answering those questions is what ADEQ hopes to tackle next. But, PFAS isn’t the first water contaminant to impact Arizona communities.
‘We’ve lived it’
It’s just past 8 o’clock on a hot June morning, and Roberto Jaramillo is already well into his walk on a paved pedestrian path along the Santa Cruz riverbed in Tucson’s southside.
Jaramillo spends most mornings here. He’s in his 70s now, and he grew up a few miles away.
“Well you know what? This is my backyard, we used to play in here when we were kids. So, you know, it brings fond memories,” he said.
But, he says, this place also carries pain. Decades ago, a jet engine cleaner used at nearby military bases and weapons manufacturers was dumped in the area and seeped into soil and groundwater. The cleaner, called trichloroethylene, or TCE, is now known to cause several types of cancer and other health issues. Jaramillo’s family was one of hundreds engulfed in a roughly 5-mile long contamination plume caused by the chemical. He’s watched a lot of people get sick.
“You know, we’ve lived it, we’ve seen it, the cause and effects,” he said. "It's mental, too, because it has this effect on you, like, 'hey, when is it going be my turn?' As you see your friends and family members passing away."
The contamination led to the EPA’s Superfund site designation for this area over 40 years ago — which allowed the agency to identify the parties that caused the contamination and make them responsible for the cleanup. Southside neighborhoods impacted by the contamination now drink Colorado River water, rather than groundwater, as a result.
That history is apparent along the stretch of Santa Cruz River path, where Jaramillo stops to point out three big metal tubes that stick out on the horizon.
“The three stacks that are right there? That’s the original TARP facility,” he said.
Officials built the Tucson Airport Remediation Plant, or TARP, in the '90s as part of the superfund agreement to help clean up TCE. You can hear the rush of treated water making its way through another collection of metal pipes. A shock of greenery marks the place where it drains into the Santa Cruz riverbed and creates a small flow.
It’s cleaner water, but not clean enough to drink. That’s because over the years, officials have detected more contaminants, including PFAS. That contamination comes from AFFF, used at the some of the same facilities that once used TCE.
Officials have had to add new technology to the TARP plant to remove the additional compounds, but contamination from PFAS is still too high in this area to put the water back into the drinking water system.
For Jaramillo, it feels like history repeating itself, over and over.
“That contamination’s been there for quite some time, it didn’t just happen overnight, if it’s being detected over here, right? So I feel, we possibly drank that as well,” Jaramillo said.
The road ahead
Both Tucson and Arizona have filed suit against 3M, the manufacturer of the firefighting foam. Those suits and hundreds of others across the country are before a single federal judge.
Attorney James Ferraro is representing some of the plaintiffs, including local governments and individuals dealing with health issues from PFAS — like firefighters.
“3M is by far and away the largest defendant in the case. Dupont is also a very important part of the story. Why? Because they created these chemicals going back to the '30s and '40s,” he said.
The goal is for plaintiffs to get help paying for medical expenses and for public utilities like Tucson Water to get funding to treat their water. Ferraro says under ongoing agreements, 3M and other companies will eventually pay billions. Still, with contamination so widespread, even that is a drop in the bucket.
“You know, these funds will help. But definitely for a lot of folks, a lot of public water systems, this is not going to cover all the expenditures related to this,” he said.
Meanwhile, researchers are still trying to understand the chemicals and their impact. Kate Ellingson is an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Arizona. Her recent study found elevated PFAS levels in health care workers statewide.
“So we know that high levels of PFAS are associated with certain types of cancer, higher cholesterol, in some cases, poorer outcomes with pregnancy, and infant birth weight, response to vaccines,” she said.
Ellingson says the next question is figuring out what leads to more exposure, and how much is too much.
“And the truth is, we really don’t know yet.”
Those are questions Jaramillo wants answered in his community.
“We know the root cause, we know the effects, we know what they’re doing to try to correct it. But we’re still dealing with the health effects, and it’s a generational thing,” he said. “My biggest fight right now is, how do we get blood testing for our community members?”
Just like what’s happening with PFAS now, Jaramillo says he watched people join legal settlements for TCE contamination years ago. But, he says, that didn’t stop them from getting sick and needing care. Decades later, many don’t have the money to pay for it.
That’s why, this time around, he wants something more long-term.
“I don’t want any money, I want a facility in place that’s going to take care of the folks that are ill, at no cost. OK? I don’t think the government should pay for it, I think the culprits should pay for it,” he said. "And we have to be concerned about our future generations, because they're the ones that are going to have to be drinking that water, not me."
So, he says, he’ll keep pushing for those solutions, as long as he can.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to the spelling of Roberto Jaramillo's name.
