West Des Moines Water Works joins class-action suit to tackle PFAS in drinking water
West Des Moines Water Works is joining more than 70 utility companies already talking legal action to tackle a harmful contaminant in its drinking water.
The utility company's board of trustees voted unanimously to join a multi-district class action lawsuit on PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, West Des Moines Water Works officials said in a news release Tuesday.
Manufacturers like the 3M Company and DuPont are facing lawsuits around the country for making the chemicals which are used, among other things, in consumer products and firefighting foam.
The group of utilities is pursuing PFAS manufacturers — including 3M and DuPont — and direct sources of the emissions in the local area is difficult to determine, West Des Moines Water Works General Manager Christina Murphy told the Des Moines Register.
“We may never know which companies contributed to the PFAS contamination in West Des Moines,” she said.
PFAS are known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t naturally break down in the environment. They come from manmade chemicals used in manufacturing products such as carpeting, cookware coatings and food packaging, according to the release.
The chemicals have been linked to cancer, birth defects and other health problems.
More: Iowa DNR finds traces of long-lasting chemicals in treated West Des Moines water samples
The West Des Moines utility treats up to 10 million gallons of water per day, sourced from a combination of four deep wells and 17 shallow wells. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources found traces of PFAS in three of its wells late last year.
PFAS contains several hundred compounds, four of which carry an EPA health advisory: perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), hexafluoropropylene oxide (HFPO or also known as GenX), and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS).
Initially, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said the threshold of concern for two of the compounds was generally considered to be 70 parts per trillion. Levels in West Des Moines were found to be just 2.9 and 2.4 parts per trillion last December, although one well contained chemicals at 29 parts per trillion, causing the utility to limit its use. But in June the EPA revised its health advisory to significantly lower amounts — 0.004 parts per trillion for PFOS and 0.02 parts per trillion for PFOA.
Recent testing in West Des Moines showed no detectable amounts of these compounds, but current detection limits are limited to 1.9 parts per trillion, according to the release.
"The EPA’s recently announced health advisories with much lower detectable thresholds mean that even a trace amount of PFAS is too much when it comes to protecting our drinking water," Murphy said in a statement. "We anticipate that addressing PFAS will be challenging, protracted and costly, and the trustees agreed that we need to avail ourselves of any and all resources that will help address the effects to our drinking water infrastructure, including legal action."
The utility signed a legal services agreement with multiple firms with the goal of reaching a settlement and mitigating PFAS substances, officials said in the release. The firms are working on a contingency basis, so the utility pays no out-of-pocket fees.
Virginia Barreda is a trending and general assignment reporter for the Des Moines Register. She can be reached at vbarreda@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @vbarreda2.
Chris Higgins covers the eastern suburbs for the Register. Reach him at chiggins@registermedia.com or 515-423-5146 and follow him on Twitter @chris_higgins_.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: West Des Moines Water Works joins class-action suit to tackle PFAS in drinking water
