How did PFAS get into the drinking water of some parts of Orange County?
Chemical manufacturers are the original source of PFAS chemicals. PFAS have been detected in Orange County Groundwater Basin, which provides 77% of the water supply to north and central Orange County, via flows into the basin from the Santa Ana River. PFAS in the Santa Ana River come from treated wastewater discharges and stormwater runoff from upstream communities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
Is my water safe to drink?
Tap water provided by local water providers in Orange County is routinely tested and meets all state and federal drinking water standards. Orange County water providers have voluntarily shut down wells with the highest PFAS concentrations, though there are currently no legal limits for PFAS chemicals in community water in California.
In 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established a non-enforceable health-based advisory level of 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for the combined sum of two individual PFAS chemicals (PFOA and PFOS). In June 2022, the EPA health advisory values were updated to 0.02 ppt for PFOS and 0.004 ppt for PFOA, and new EPA health advisory values of 2000 ppt for PFBS and 10 ppt for GenX were established. Separately, during 2019 to 2021 the State of California established health-based notification levels of 6.5 ppt for PFOS, 5.1 ppt for PFOA, and 500 ppt for PFBS. Exceeding a notification level in supplies provided to the public requires water providers to notify their local governing body (e.g., local city council or county Board of Supervisors). The state has also set Response Levels for these three PFAS contaminants, which are advisory thresholds over which the state recommends water not be served to the public: 40 ppt for PFOS, 10 ppt for PFOA, and 5000 ppt for PFBS.
Although no served drinking water in Orange County currently exceeds the state Response Levels, some Orange County water supplies may exceed the state notification levels or the EPA health advisory values for PFOA or PFOS. You can find information about these PFAS levels in your water by requesting a copy of your water provider’s annual water quality report, also known as a consumer confidence report. You can also have your blood tested for PFAS chemicals by participating in the UCI PFAS Health Study, to find out if your blood PFAS levels are higher than expected, and to help researchers better understand the potential effects of PFAS exposure.
What is being done to remove PFAS from drinking water?
Orange County Water District (OCWD) is proactively addressing PFAS in the basin. In order to meet California’s advisory Response Levels for PFAS in drinking water, dozens of affected wells have been taken out of service. In December 2019, OCWD launched the nation’s largest pilot project in conjunction with a planning study to develop and implement effective treatment technologies for removing PFAS, with the goal of getting local groundwater supplies back online as soon as possible. Water suppliers building PFAS treatment facilities include the cities of Anaheim, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Orange, Santa Ana, and Tustin; Serrano Water District; East Orange County Water District; Irvine Ranch Water District, Golden State Water Company; and the Yorba Linda Water District. The first of these facilities went online in June 2021.
If I join the study, what will be done with my blood and urine sample?
Your samples will be tested for common PFAS chemicals, cholesterol, triglycerides, uric acid, creatinine, thyroid hormones, glucose, insulin, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), C-peptide, pro-insulin, Alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), γ-glutamyltransferase (GGT), direct bilirubin, albumin, and cytokeratin-18 (CK-18), various hormones, and a variety of antibodies. Adult samples will also be tested for cytokines and adipokines (e.g. IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-12, MCP-1, TNFα, leptin, adiponectin, resistin, PAI-1).
Are there any risks of participating in the study?
You will not be given any medications or medical treatments as part of this study, so the only risks are potential soreness or minor swelling from the blood draw, and unintentional disclosure of personal information. Only our study team at UCI and the CDC will have access to your personal information, and we will do everything possible to ensure that your information remains private.
Is PFAS a concern in other parts of the country?
The UCI PFAS Health Study is part of a national multi-site study to better understand PFAS exposure and its possible health effects. Some of the other locations in the multi-site study have had much higher levels of PFAS in drinking water, compared to Orange County. By comparing exposures and health-related measurements for different people in Orange County and at other study sites in different states, researchers will learn more about this important topic. Additional PFAS studies are taking place across the country, and around the world.
What’s a newborn blood spot, and how would researchers get it?
When your child was born, a small amount of blood was taken from their heel to test for certain rare disorders. This blood was put on filter paper referred to as a “screening collection card,” and has been stored at the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) since then. If you sign up for our PFAS Child Immune Study, we will ask your permission to access your child’s stored blood spot. This means that a hole will be punched in the screening collection card and sent to a lab that will measure PFAS chemicals in the dried blood spot. We will not ask for any new blood samples for this study, only permission to access your child’s stored screening collection card for PFAS testing.