PFAS Detected in Hampton Roads Water System Norfolk Virginia Beach Chesapeake Hampton Newport News Portsmouth Suffolk

WHRO News Posted:  This message came from an Instagram post:

“Department of Environmental Quality found dozens of sites in Virginia that contain harmful chemicals in drinking water. Sampling detected PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” in water all around the state, including the Poquoson River, near the Great Dismal Swamp and in the Pungo area of Virginia Beach. Three spots in Hampton Roads are considered high priorities for further investigation. That’s Lee Hall and Harwoods Mill in Newport News, and the Moore’s Bridges water treatment plant in Norfolk.”

What are “Forever Chemicals”?  “Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances, or PFAS, are a class of persistent synthetic chemicals used worldwide in many consumer products, including shampoo, paints, fast food packaging, firefighting foam and non-stick cookware, among others. Manufactured beginning in the 1940s, PFAS include a group of more than 4,700 chemicals that are used in a variety of applications. EPA has reported that exposure to PFAS could lead to adverse health effects. “ (Link to Know your H20 )

In trying to get more background information, the Virginia Department of Health has been working on this issue since prior to 2020. We found a copy of a presentation titled “Funding to Address Per & Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Virginia Drinking Water”  that is dated February 27, 2024 that provides some critical information.

Geographically, the Hampton Roads region of Southeastern Virginia encompasses the following cities: Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Portsmouth, and Suffolk.

Drinking Water (Get Educated)

The Virginia Department of Health Office of Drinking Water (ODW) working with Virginia Per and Poly Fluoroalkyl Substances (VA PFAS) work group conducted an initial assessment (Phase I) in 2020 – 2021 (2020 Acts of Assembly Chapter 611 (HB586)) and then a Phase 2 assessment in 2022- 2023. The following is a Web-based GIS Map for the study results. The sites with a red “Circle”, “Square”, or “Triangle”  are above the MCL of the specific screening parameter.   You can click on the individual symbols and see the source and the water quality data.   Upon looking at the map, you can see there are clusters in the northern, eastern, and western portion of the state, see Table 1 below.  (https://virginiahealth.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=b7fe9eed1a784c029269db6be231787b)  

Table 1.  Summary of Phase 1 and Phase 2 Drinking Water Testing Results.

In summary, the Phase 1 and Phase 2 sampling  identified approximately 26 water systems that may have a problem “forever chemicals”.

We recommend the following:

1. Find your appropriate location on the map and click on the nearest symbol.   This should tell you the sample source and a summary of the available water quality data.   If the symbol is red, you may need to prepare to take some action.

2. Get a copy of the consumer confidence report from your public water supplier and run a Neighborhood Hazard Report if you are in an Industrial Area or Use Well Water.

For the Hampton Roads Area of Virginia:

City of Norfolk Water Quality Reports

City of Virginia Beach Water Quality Reports

City of Chesapeake Water Quality Reports 

City of Suffolk Water Quality Reports

City of Portsmouth Water Quality Reports: (not a secure site) 

City of Hampton Water Quality Reports

City of Newport News Water Quality Reports

Note that although the reports above apply to the Hampton Roads area located in Southeastern Virginia – City Water Systems are required to report their water quality data by the Environmental Protection Agency. You can find yours with a quick Internet search with “Your City/Town Name” and “Water Quality Report” in the search string.

3. Action 1:   You may want to get your city drinking water or private well tested.

4. Action 2:  Depending on the results you may want to consider installing a point-of-use water treatment system that can manage “forever chemicals” or maybe a counter top "Clean Water Machine". 

5. Make a lifestyle change by attempting to break the cycle and attempt to remove these forever chemicals from your home, consumer products, cookware, hygiene products, and your life. We recommend this site (https://www.ewg.org/consumer-guides ) to help you find answers about products you use in your everyday life.

Environment (surface water, fish, and sediment)

We then discovered this dashboard: Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Virginia Dashboard 

Addressing PFAS has been an active and ongoing priority for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and DEQ.  Since 2021, DEQ has been monitoring PFAS in streams, rivers, and reservoirs across the Commonwealth to understand the prevalence of these substances and to identify potential locations where PFAS concentrations are elevated relative to baseline concentrations.  DEQ maintains a dashboard that presents the results of these PFAS samples for surface water, fish tissue, and sediment.

The “Surface Water”, “Fish Tissue”, and “Sediment” pages each include a summary of results for those specific sample types.  The data presented here are comprised of surface water, sediment, and fish tissue samples that were collected between 11/09/2021 and 10/08/2024.  This dashboard contains the results of 996 samples from 503 sites collected by 8 sampling programs. Samples were analyzed for 40 distinct PFAS analytes using EPA Draft Method 1633. Results indicate that at least one of these analytes was detected above the minimum level of quantitation (ML) at least once at 55% of sites (n = 274) and for 50% of samples (n = 498). The primary problem with the available data is that it provided the testing results, but does not provide much information about the level of concern for each sample type.  

For example, fish tissue samples ranged from non-detectable  to over 98,450 ppt or 0.09845 ppm with the Middle Chickahominy Study having the highest results, but what might be considered safe? 

Fish – we did find some ”Fish Advisories for Virginia”, but this was limited to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) or mercury and we found a paper titled “Policy Memo:  ​Setting PFAS-Based Fish Consumption Advisories for Virginia Waterways (April 2024)”.  Using Option 1 from this report and assuming 2, 8-ounce servings a month, they recommend a fish advisory screening value for PFOA and PFOS would be about 200 (0.0002 ppm) and 550 ppt (0.00055 ppm), respectively”.

We recommend the following:

1. Find your appropriate location on the map and click on the nearest symbol.   This should tell you the sample source and a summary of the available water quality data.   If the symbol is light blue or dark,  you may need to prepare to take some action.

2. Get a copy of the consumer confidence report from your public water supplier and check with about the local fishing advisories