BUFFALO (WKBW) — A new national study serves as a wake up call when it comes to widespread PFAS pollution in our surface waters both across the United States, and here at home in Western New York.
"It's a concern when you have a data set that shows that amount of positive response," says Jill Jedlicka, the Executive Director of Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper.
The new study released on Tuesday was a national effort carried out by 113 Waterkeeper groups across the country. A total of 228 samples were collected in 34 states during the late spring and early summer of 2022.
The results showed that 83 percent of the samples taken included detection of at least one PFAS compound.
You can see a map of the contamination sites here.
That includes PFAS toxins being found in several Western New York waterways.
"Here in Western New York we sampled 10 locations throughout our region and unfortunately we had a 100 percent detection rate of PFAS chemicals in our waterways," says Jedlicka.
Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper tested the Niagara River, Buffalo River and Scajaquada Creek. And that testing found the highest levels of PFAS pollution in Cayuga Creek in Niagara County, downstream from the Niagara Falls Airport.
"Cayuga Creek is a tributary to the Niagara River," says Jedlicka. "The Niagara River is a Class AA stream and it provides drinking water to people. It's obviously a concern anytime you find contamination in a tributary that links to drinking water."
What are PFAS toxins?
PFAS is a class of chemicals, organic chemicals that are man made. They are often called "forever chemicals" because they don't breakdown, are difficult to remove from our waterways and environment, and are dangerous for humans.
PFAS are found in everyday products including non-stick cooking ware and water-resistant clothing.
"The dangers with PFAS chemicals is that they are cancer causing. They have been proven and linked to causing cancer in lab animals," says Jedlicka.
PFAS toxins have also been found to disrupt reproductive health, liver and kidney functions.
You can learn more about PFAS here.
What can be done?
Waterkeeper groups are asking Congress and the EPA to act with urgency to control and remediate PFAS contamination across the country including the passage of the Clean Water Standards Act.
"The strongest thing people can do is advocate to their leaders that we need meaningful action," says Jedlicka.
"We need to test more, we need to track down, but we also need to accelerate our approaches to managing and regulating these substances."
Jedlicka says the data from the recent study will also go a long way in addressing PFAS contamination.
"There are things that we can do just by having this data. Having this pollution does not mean that we give up and say everything is contaminated. Why bother? We can fix this. We need to fix this."
