Health

considering Response Levels (RL) for two PFAS compounds at 10 and 40 ppt. This would change the response need radically. Water exceeding these RLs could not be served to the public.

These are "forever chemicals," so called because they take millennia to break down and are difficult to extract from water. Linked to a host of health issues, they appear in cleaning products and firefighting foams and are used as coatings to treat clothing, carpeting, packaging, and cookware. Their wide­spread use has led to widespread environmental contami­nation.

In Orange County, California alone, estimates of the financial impact range from $20 million to $850 million over the next 30 years. Already, there are more than half a dozen wells have been closed. And that's just the beginning.