This map shows the area where testing found PFAS concentrations of 1 part per trillion or greater in and around Cannon Air Force Base (outlined in red) and the southeasterly movement of the contaminated groundwater.
This map shows the area where testing found PFAS concentrations of 1 part per trillion or greater in and around Cannon Air Force Base (outlined in red) and the southeasterly movement of the contaminated groundwater.
New Mexico will get about $19 million in federal infrastructure money to expand efforts to detect PFAS in the water systems of the state’s smaller and disadvantaged communities.
The grant money will be made available to 500 communities to test their public water systems for PFAS and other emerging toxic chemicals that pose a health threat.
However, the money will not be available for testing private wells, meaning residents of a couple of communities near Santa Fe with PFAS contamination in their water won’t be able to use it.
Officials from the state Environment Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the funding Thursday at the Roundhouse.
PFAS — short for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are known as “forever chemicals” because they take thousands of years to decompose and last indefinitely in the bloodstream.
The area included in a Santa Fe County lawsuit over PFAS contamination.
They have created high-profile environmental and health concerns in towns in Eastern and Southern New Mexico and, most recently, in La Cienega and La Cieneguilla just south of Santa Fe.
“Forever chemicals should not be a forever legacy,” state Environment Secretary James Kenney said.
This funding is the latest effort by state and federal regulators to address a pollutant that increasingly is turning up in public drinking water and wells as more testing and research are done.
The toxic compounds are linked to reproductive ailments, elevated cholesterol, certain types of cancer and other health problems.
The money will go toward testing community water systems, such as mutual domestic wells.
Because it won’t cover the costs of testing private wells for potential PFAS contamination, La Cienega and La Cieneguilla residents won’t be reimbursed for testing their wells.
The county conducted limited testing late last year and found a handful of contaminated wells in these communities, with the likely source being a nearby National Guard facility where the same pollutants were found in February 2023. No PFAS were detected in the area’s mutual domestic well.
Kenney said the money will benefit the state as a whole by helping communities that can’t afford testing find out whether they have a PFAS problem.
The Environment Department previously tested water systems in 38 of the 500 target communities and identified a half-dozen where some of the compounds exceeded EPA limits. That sampling suggests there could be many communities with the pollutants in their water, Kenney said.
In April, EPA issued its first-ever enforceable drinking-water limits for utilities.
PFOA and PFOS, two of the most potent compounds, can be no more than 4 parts per trillion. EPA also listed these compounds as hazardous substances under the Superfund law, giving regulators more authority to order them cleaned up.
The compounds GenX, PFNA and PFHxS can be no more than 10 parts per trillion and will be subject to a hazard index the EPA uses to assess cumulative risks.
Earthea Nance, EPA’s regional administrator, said the agency was putting together an enforcement plan based on the new rules.
“Because that money is being given to the state of New Mexico, some of that [responsibility] will fall on them in terms of assessing the situation,” Nance said, so EPA can determine its role in enforcement.
PFAS-laced firefighting foam was used for decades on U.S. military bases across the country. In New Mexico, the foam contaminated groundwater in Santa Fe County as well as Clovis and Alamogordo, near Cannon and Holloman Air Force bases, respectively.
A Clovis dairy farmer had to euthanize 2,665 cows that had high levels of PFAS in their milk. And University of New Mexico researchers recently detected PFAS as high as 10 million parts per trillion in birds and rodents at Lake Holloman, describing them as ”extraordinary levels” in a paper published in the journal Environmental Research.
A U.S. Geological Survey report says varying amounts of PFAS were found in waters throughout New Mexico in 2021 and 2022.
Aside from the firefighting foam, PFAS can be found in items such as nonstick cookware, carpeting, rain gear and food packaging — increasing the likelihood of people being exposed to the chemicals. PFAS have been detected in the blood of virtually every American who has been tested, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Detecting the chemicals is the first step. A much greater challenge, experts say, is purging PFAS from water systems as there are yet no swift and cost-efficient methods for removing the chemicals on a large scale.
The compounds’ tenacious chemical bonding and water solubility make them extremely difficult to filter out of the water, experts say.
Kenney said establishing enforceable rules has been vital in driving companies to invest in technologies that can break down and remove PFAS from water systems. It will give them the means to clean up the pollution if regulators or the court order them to do so, he said.
“What we’re starting to see is more private capital flowing into that market because now there’s value in treating water,” Kenney said.
