Water Sector News

Pennsylvania is known by anglers and outdoor enthusiasts for its thousands of miles of streams and rivers that lace the rugged Allegheny Mountains, rolling farmlands, and cities such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Many of those waterways supply drinking water for millions.

But a study by the U.S. Geological Survey found that many of those waterways are also tainted by so-called forever chemicals. The USGS sampled streams across Pennsylvania and found that 76% of them contained the presence of at least one compound from the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) family, according the first study of its kind looking at the problem across a single state and associating possible sources.