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2021/12/30 Watersheds


Watershed Brief

By Gillian Ward

The NYS Department of Health Drinking Water Quality Council met on Dec 22 to discuss emerging contaminants of concern, five forms of PFAS (PFNA, PFHpA, PFHxS, PFBA, PFBS, PFPeA, PFHxA), including setting notification levels for these contaminants. The full meeting recording and public comments is available on the DOH website for one year.

EPA defines PFAS as “a group of manufactured chemicals that have been used in industry and consumer products since the 1940s because of their useful properties. There are thousands of different PFAS, some of which have been more widely used and studied than others. "The concern for human and environmental health is that these compounds are found in our homes, personal care products, environments including drinking water, and they have been found to build up over time.

Current research indicates that long-term exposure to concentrated levels of PFAS can impair reproductive health, cause developmental delays in children, cause cancers, suppress the immune system, including reducing response to vaccines. For these reasons, DOH is actively working to protect state drinking water sources from PFAS contamination.

New York State Drinking Water Source Protection Program (DWSP2)

Impaired water bodies are shown under each watershed heading in the With the Flow weekly report as per the NY EPA 303(d) list. These are sites that have been recommended for a Clean Water Plan. (The contaminants of concern and most likely source of contaminant are shown for each impaired water body in the report.) When the impaired water body is also a public drinking water source, the public water supplier is encouraged to apply for NYS Department of Environmental Conservation DWSP2 assistance.

Program funding provides a technical advisor (TA) to assist with source water protection planning. A zoning overlay region can be established to facilitate the implementation of drinking water quality protection measures, making a way for effective collaboration between the EPA, state, municipal, industrial, recreational and ecological interests that must work together to reduce and mitigate contamination.

Consider getting involved in the protection of your local water source by learning what households can do to reduce and mitigate contaminants entering the environment through spills, yard waste, runoff, and wastewater. For more information on how you can get involved, contact your County Soil and Water Conservation office, County or Regional Department of Health, or local watershed stewardship organization.

Look to WTNY for drinking water advisories, articles, and interviews on mitigating the effects of contamination in drinking water sources, and advanced technologies being developed around the world for public water treatment systems.









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