WESTBOROUGH, MA — Westborough’s drinking water continued to be relatively free of PFAS contamination in 2023, the town’s annual water quality report says.
Towns across Massachusetts began realizing a widespread PFAS problem in drinking water after the state set new thresholds for the so-called “forever chemicals” in 2021. Under state regulations, drinking water can’t have more than 20 nanograms per liter (ng/L).
When Westborough began testing wells, an offline well in the Indian Meadows area had a level of 850 ng/L for one PFAS chemical — more than 42 times the state threshold. But the town’s active wells have remained well below the state threshold. The town conducted tests in January, March and October in 2023. The highest PFAS level detected was 7.4 ng/L.
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The town did find elevated levels of a related chemical called perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, or PFOS. The town found a concentration of 4.5 ng/L in 2023, although the state threshold of 4 ng/L did not go into effect until 2024. PFOS is the active ingredient in ScotchGard, a 3M product used commonly to prevent carpet and furniture stains.
Westborough is also in the process of building a filtration system to remove PFAS from the offline wells.
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The presence of PFAS in drinking water across the U.S. has become a priority for regulators in federal, state and local governments. The U.S. Department of Environmental Protection for the first time is proposing a national drinking water standard for PFAS, which would be stricter than the Massachusetts standard, limiting the acceptable threshold to 4 ppt.
You can read the town’s 2023 drinking water report here.
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