Federal Funding To Combat PFAS Contamination In Montco, Bucks

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pennsylvania will receive $75 million to combat drinking water contamination that includes PFAS, known as "forever chemicals," that have shown up in numerous towns in Montgomery and Bucks counties.

The Environmental Protection Agency grant will allow the state to treat polluted water and conduct water quality testing for the chemicals, which have filtered into the water supplies of towns around the Willow Grove Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Horsham Township.

Senators Bob Casey and John Fetterman announced the funding in a joint statement on Tuesday.

Casey has long attempted to address PFAS contamination in drinking water in Bucks and Montgomery counties resulting from the use of a toxic firefighting agent at military facilities.

“For years I have I urged multiple presidents’ administrations to get ‘forever chemicals’ like PFAS out of Pennsylvania drinking water and keep them out,” Casey said. "This major investment, made possible by the infrastructure law, is a strong start to clean up PFAS contamination in Pennsylvania’s waters."

Horsham Township and surrounding communities have dealt with PFAS chemicals from the former Willow Grove Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base.

Those communities include: Horsham, Abington, Upper Dublin, Hatboro, and Upper Moreland in Montgomery County and Ivyland, Warminster, Warrington, Northampton, Upper Southampton, and Warwick in Bucks County.

A program to test area residents who may have been exposed to PFAS was recently extended. The study was launched over the summer.

The study seeks 1,000 adults over the age of 18 as well as 300 children between the ages of 4 and 17 who live in the Montgomery and Bucks municipalities.

According to the Environmental Working Group, the Polyfluoralkyl substances, or PFAS, are highly toxic fluorinated chemicals. They build up in people and do not break down in the environment. Even small doses of PFAS have been linked to cancer, reproductive and immune system ailments, and other diseases.

Added Fetterman: "These chemicals are a major threat to our community’s health and safety, and we’re going to keep working towards ensuring clean drinking water for all."

Horsham Township officials have been critical of Pennsylvania's recently-adopted regulations to protect the state's drinking water from PFAS chemicals by setting new limits on two PFAS forms.

Horsham officials and former State Rep. Todd Stephens said the state's measures were not aggressive enough.

The new rule sets maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) in drinking water for two forms of PFAS – perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) – in order to protect the public from potential adverse health effects linked to exposure to PFOA and PFOS.

Anyone interested in getting tested can call 877-267-2890 to see if they qualify for the study. To learn more and enroll, visit: https://papfas.rti.org/

Patch Staff Writer Eric Heyl contributed to this story.