The North Carolina Division of Water Resources is accepting public comments on a set of requested interim maximum allowable concentrations in groundwater for eight PFAS.
Division Director Richard Rogers intends to establish the interim maximum allowable concentrations, or IMACs, on Oct. 15. The action follows a request by Graham residents Jonathan and Stephanie Gordon, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality said Wednesday.
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The couple’s July request specifically targets the following compounds:
- Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS)
- Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)
- Hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid HFPO-DA (GenX)
- Perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS)
- Perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA)
- Perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS)
- Perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA)
- Perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA)
State groundwater rules grant any person the right to request the water resources director establish an IMAC for a substance for which a groundwater standard has not been set.
In their July 17 request to Rogers, the Gordons wrote that at least a half-dozen drinking water wells in their Alamance County community tested for “extremely high levels of PFAS.”
“Discovering that we have toxic PFAS in our drinking water wells has been stressful and frightening, and the response from government has been disheartening. Issuing an IMAC will only be one step towards the relief we need, but it will at least give us greater clarity about the risk we face and the eventual obligations for unknown responsible parties to address the contamination they have visited upon us,” they wrote.
The IMACs would replace the practical quantitation limit, or PQL, as the standard for groundwaters that naturally contain 250 milligrams per liter or less of chloride and those naturally containing greater than 250 milligrams per liter of chloride.
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Comments are being accepted through Oct. 4 and may be emailed to MACcomments@deq.nc.gov or by mail to: N.C. DEQ Division of Water Resources, Attn: Bridget Shelton, DWR Planning Section, 1611 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1611.
A public hearing is not required to establish IMACs.
