Arizona gets $20 million EPA grant to address PFAS, other contaminants in drinking water

Arizona recently received a $20 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to make drinking water safer in small or disadvantaged communities.

The funding will target per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, and other emerging contaminants.

PFAS — or forever chemicals — are compound chemicals found in waterproof clothing, nonstick cookware like Teflon and foam used by firefighters.

“They’ve kind of worked their way into our lives, whether it be cookware, clothing, industrial applications,” Luis Garcia Bakarich, supervisory life scientist with the EPA Region 9 Water Division, told KTAR News 92.3 FM.

As a result, PFAS have migrated into groundwater and surface water.

The Arizona grant comes from the EPA’s $1 billion Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities (EC-SDC) program, which is funded through the Biden-era Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The EC-SDC grants are part of the Trump administration’s Making America Healthy Again initiative.

Grant money will be used on PFAS testing and treatment

The money will be used to test for PFAS in more water systems and fund treatment of contaminated drinking supplies.

Of the 880 water systems in Arizona that have been tested, more than 140 — or about 15% — were found to contain PFAS.

The funds will be distributed to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona.

The two agencies work together to fund public water systems to develop treatment solutions for water utilities that are impacted by PFAS.

Bakarich said one treatment technology is granulated activated carbon, or GAC — the same filter material used in countertop water filter pitchers.

The grant will help free up more water sources for utility companies.

“This EC-SDC funding is going to actually provide money so that they can install treatment on those previously impacted water sources. And that’s going to really increase the available water,” Bakarich said.

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