A View on the Future of PFAS, Emerging Contaminants: A Q&A with Ali Salter-Blanc

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large class of synthetic chemicals found in thousands of industrial and household products in use since the 1950s from fire extinguishers to cosmetics. 

Today their impact is being seen and felt globally in our soil, water, plants, animals and even in our bloodstreams. There are almost 15,000 chemicals in the class and research shows that exposure to specific PFAS can lead to adverse human and ecological health effects, and as a result, there are iterative changes being made to the PFAS regulatory limits globally. 

The key question is: What is the long-term solution for successfully addressing PFAS? And what will it cost?

To answer this, we sat down with Emerging Contaminants Community of Practice Co-Leader, Ali Salter-Blanc, to discuss the impact of PFAS, and how she’s using her scientific background to balance the right mix of talent and technology to support clients in responding to evolving PFAS regulations.

What’s exciting about working in emerging contaminants right now?

What’s exciting for me to see is how experts from different parts across industry are coming together to develop solutions and research. PFAS is a large, crosscutting issue that can impact many facets of our clients’ operations. For example, Professor Ali Ling at the University of St. Thomas recently published a study that revealed removing PFAS from the environment at current emission rates will cost more than the global GDP. It’s a costly, complex challenge to fully understand and address these prevalent and highly mobile chemicals that have been incorrectly nicknamed ‘forever chemicals.’

PFAS may be persistent, but they aren’t untreatable or immune to degradation in engineered systems. Long-term remediation success relies on a multipronged approach, one that includes eliminating non-essential uses of PFAS from supply chains, minimizing releases of PFAS-containing materials to the environment, identifying and implementing cost-effective solutions to reduce exposures and — from an environmental cleanup standpoint — prioritizing cleanup of PFAS release sites using a risk-based approach so that limited funds are focused where the most good can be done. 

What do you expect will be the biggest impact of evolving PFAS regulations on remediation sites?

We’re seeing a global movement right now to address PFAS. For example, in the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently finalized rulemaking designating two PFAS as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). This act, also known as the Superfund Law, governs environmental cleanups. This new rule gives the EPA the authority to enforce PFAS cleanup or recover cleanup cost from responsible parties, which is expected to drive cleanup at many PFAS release sites.

The EPA also finalized PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation, which established extremely low maximum contaminants levels (MCLs) for six PFAS in drinking water. This regulation directly impacts water utilities, however these MCLs are also expected to be adopted as groundwater cleanup goals at certain environmental cleanup sites.

How can we support organizations in communicating with project stakeholders before, during and after dealing with a site impacted by PFAS? 

Public engagement is a crucial aspect of PFAS projects, especially where nearby communities may be exposed to PFAS impacts. One thing we saw during the pandemic was a need to shift away from traditional in-person community engagement strategies to virtual engagement solutions. This accelerated our development of interactive online solutions for PFAS public engagement. Even now that distancing requirements have lifted, we’ve continued to push these solutions forward because we’ve found that virtual engagement tools are more inclusive and reach a broader audience.

How is Jacobs using advancements with digital platforms to address PFAS complexities?

PFAS investigations can be challenging because of pressures to address PFAS environmental impacts on an accelerated timeline and because PFAS are a complex group of chemicals that behave differently from each other in the environment. This has led us to optimize and advance how we collect, manage, interact with and analyze PFAS investigation data. This is woven throughout the work we do. For example, we've invested in tools that streamline PFAS evaluations and reporting to help our clients meet aggressive reporting deadlines and respond efficiently to evolving screening levels. We've also developed geographic information systems (GIS)-based tools that allow for dynamic information sharing with project stakeholders; as well as data analysis tools that distill what we know of the various complexities of PFAS’ fate and transport in the environment into digestible information to support site management decisions.