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4 hours ago
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Raw drinking water sources across England are polluted with toxic forever chemicals, new analysis has revealed, prompting the water sector to demand that ministers ban the substances and polluters pay for the astronomical cleanup costs.
The areas covered by Affinity Water and Anglian Water were found to be particularly badly affected, and experts have said they fear “we are drastically underestimating the size of the problem”.
There are more than 10,000 PFAS in use, known as forever chemicals because they do not break down in the environment. Two of the substances, called PFOS and PFOA, are now banned after they were linked to cancers, thyroid disease and immune and fertility problems, and little is known about the toxic effects of the others. PFAS are used in a huge range of consumer products and industrial processes as well as firefighting foams, and pollution is now widespread in air, soils, water, wildlife and even human blood.
In an unprecedented move, the industry body Water UK has said it “wants to see PFAS banned and the development of a national plan to remove it from the environment which should be paid for by manufacturers.”
It described PFAS pollution as a “huge global challenge” and said: “The UK’s tap water is rated as the safest in the world, and companies are already taking action to reduce PFAS levels further.”
In an attempt to tackle the problem, the EU is considering a proposal to regulate all 10,000 or so PFAS together, but the PFAS industry is lobbying against it and the UK has no plans to follow suit.
Major sources of PFAS pollution are airports, military sites, chemicals manufacturers, sewage treatment plants, fire stations and fire training facilities, metals companies, pulp and paper mills, leather and textiles manufacturers, energy and industrial facilities, and waste sites, including historic and permitted landfills. It can also get into soil and water from contaminated sewage sludge spread on farmland. A report for the Environment Agency suggested there could be as many as 10,000 hotspots across the country.
Analysis of sampling data from water companies, the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), obtained by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations, shows PFAS are contaminating untreated drinking water sources across the country.
In 2023, 278 untreated drinking water samples were found to be above 100 nanograms per litre for individual PFAS, the DWI’s maximum acceptable threshold in guidelines for treated tap water.
Water is then treated or blended with clean water to ensure it does not reach taps at this level.
The samples included 214 of Anglian Water’s samples and 54 of Affinity Water’s samples. Northumbrian Water, South East Water, Southern Water, Severn Trent Water, Thames Water and Wessex Water all had at least one sample above the threshold. Anglian Water took about 220,000 samples, which was the most of all the water companies, followed by Southern Water with 75,000.
Anglian Water supplies parts of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hartlepool, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Rutland and Suffolk. The DWI has flagged that without the preventive action taken by Anglian Water, “there is or has been a significant risk of supplying water from” its works at Ulceby, Parsonage Street in Halstead, Barrow and Warren Hill, adding that without such action, the water “could constitute a potential danger to human health or could be unwholesome”.
Ulceby and Barrow in Lincolnshire are both close to a large industrial area home to oil refineries and other heavy industry, and Humberside airport is nearby. At Ulceby, a number of PFAS were found at high levels, including one called 6:2 FTS, which is used in firefighting foams and was found at 1,270ng/l. The banned carcinogens PFOS and PFOA were both found above the DWI threshold, and a source at near Barrow reached 332ng/l PFAS last year.
A very high concentration of 1,670 ng/l of PFOS was detected at Anglian Water’s raw water source at Beck Row, next to RAF Mildenhall in West Suffolk, and up to 211ng/l of PFOS was found at a source close to RAF Marham, Norfolk, although the bases may not be the cause of the pollution.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said:“Ensuring the safety of our staff, personnel and the public is our number one priority and that’s why we are complying with the relevant legislation and regulations. As understanding of these chemicals has changed, we have responded accordingly. We have prioritised a programme of investigation of our sites, which has been agreed with the Environment Agency.”
In 2022, Watershed and the Guardian revealed that Duxford airfield in Cambridge, formerly an RAF base that used PFAS-laden firefighting foams, was probably the cause of PFAS-polluted drinking water supplies for South Cambridgeshire, supplied by Cambridge Water. Now owned by the Imperial War Museum, the site is being investigated by the Environment Agency.
Affinity Water supplies parts of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Surrey and various London boroughs. High concentrations of PFOS have been found in its sources at Letchworth, Baldock and Wheathampstead and a source at Denham has been taken out of service all together. It too has been served with DWI notices relating to five of its treatment works.
United Utilities, South West Water, Severn Trent Water, Wessex Water, and South Staffordshire Water have all received similar notices from the DWI.
In the US and some countries in Europe, the safety thresholds for PFAS in drinking water are much more restrictive than in the UK. The US has proposed a limit of 4ng/l in drinking water, compared with 100ng/l in the UK.
“Drinking water is a major source of exposure to PFAS,” said Dr Shubhi Sharma from the charity Chem Trust. “We must have stringent safety standards for PFAS in drinking water to protect people’s health, but the standards currently in place in the UK are outdated and not protective enough.”
Stephanie Metzger, a policy adviser at the Royal Society of Chemistry, said the industry has been asked to monitor for a limit of 100ng/l for 48 types of PFAS but said: “We shouldn’t stop there. No one chooses the water that comes out of their tap, so we want to see statutory PFAS limits for UK drinking water that are clearly and transparently defined and legally enforceable. We need to translate this new guidance into legislation that gives the regulator Ofwat defined criteria – and the power – to hold water companies to account.”
The forensic environmental scientist Dr Dave Megson, from Manchester Metropolitan University, says he “fears we are currently drastically underestimating the size of the problem” because the Environment Agency is not looking for enough types of PFAS.
“Current PFAS monitoring efforts are predominantly geared towards targeted assessments which involve looking for a specific number of PFAS – for drinking water it’s 47 compounds from 10 classes. Alternative testing methods that use a non-targeted approach are showing that this targeted approach only tells a fraction of the story,” said Megson.
“We recently calculated that only approximately 18% of PFAS contamination at a site in Lancashire would have been detected by relying on targeted methods alone.”
The Environment Agency said it was undertaking a number of catchment investigations, including at Barrow and Beck Row. It said it works collaboratively with the UK Health Security Agency, Food Standards Agency and DWI. The government said it was assessing levels of PFAS occurring in the environment, their sources and potential risks to inform its future policy and regulatory approaches.
