Columbia mayor criticizes federal push to limit toxic chemicals in drinking water

Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann is criticizing the federal government’s plan to reduce toxic “forever chemicals’’ in the nation’s drinking water, saying the proposal needs more scientific study to justify upgrading the city’s water system.

Without more research, Rickenmann says it would be unwise to spend millions of dollars treating city water to remove the chemicals.

Columbia, which has found elevated forever chemical levels in city water, estimates it could cost $150 million to upgrade the water system and an extra $20 million annually to operate if tough federal standards on the chemicals take effect.

In an opinion piece on the Real Clear Policy website, Rickenmann said the jury is still out on whether tight drinking water limits for the two most common types of forever chemicals are worthwhile. Those chemicals are PFOA and PFOS. The mayors of Rialto, Calif.; Findlay, Ohio; and Huntington, W.Va, co-authored the editorial with Rickenmann.

“The health benefits of limiting PFOA/PFOS to these levels are still being studied and are widely considered uncertain,’’ Rickenmann and his fellow mayors wrote, urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to slow down its push for the tough drinking water limits.

In an interview with The State, Rickenmann said the nearly $4 billion cost nationally for utilities to meet the proposed new drinking water limit has been a concern among the nation’s mayors.

“We definitely want to stop this mandate,’’ he said. “I don’t believe they can justify it based on the data points that are there and the requirements. That’s an undue burden. You think about across the U.S., the effect that’s going to have.’’

If the EPA does not stick with the proposed 4 parts per trillion limit but chooses a higher number when it finalizes the limit, the city might avoid having to upgrade its treatment plant.

The city of Columbia has registered forever-chemical levels only slightly above the EPA’s proposed new standard, at less than 10 parts per trillion. The source of forever chemicals has not been pinpointed, but textile manufacturing plants are known to release the chemicals. One closed textile plant 65 files up the Broad River from Columbia’s canal drinking water plant has leaked forever chemicals, which are mobile in water.

Although the costs of treating water for forever chemicals are hard to dispute, Rickenmann’s call for more study drew a sharp response from a local river protection advocate and a scientist who researches the health effects of forever chemicals.

Congaree Riverkeeper Bill Stangler said Rickenmann should be trying to find a solution to drinking water pollution from forever chemicals, instead of complaining to the federal government and asking for more study on chemicals with clear health threats.

“Rarely have I found that’s the right answer when you are talking about clean drinking water,’’ Stangler said. “It’s disappointing.’’

The Congaree Riverkeeper organization filed a notice this week that it would sue a major industrial plant, Shaw Industries, for releasing forever chemicals into the Saluda River, upstream from the Congaree, if Shaw doesn’t address the problem. The company, which is upstream from water plants in Cayce and West Columbia, says it no longer uses the chemicals but is working to find any sources in the plant.

Forever chemicals are formally known as per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The two most common types of forever chemicals are PFOA and PFOS.

Oregon State University scientist Jamie DeWitt said there is ample evidence that certain types of forever chemicals increase people’s risk of cancer, high cholesterol and other ailments.

“For PFOA and PFOS, we have decades of data,’’ DeWitt said. “We have strong epidemiological evidence supported by strong toxicological evidence in experimental animals. Exposure to these chemicals increases specific types of health risks. For PFOA and PFOS, absolutely, positively, we have enough evidence.’’

While Rickenmann’s criticism focused on what he said were uncertain health effects of PFAS at low levels, DeWitt said any amount of the most common forever chemicals increases people’s risk of health ailments. The EPA, while proposing a limit of four parts per trillion on PFOA and PFOS, has set a goal of zero for those two chemicals because of their toxicity.

The World Health Organization’s cancer research agency late last year provided some of the most recent evidence of the hazards of forever chemicals, DeWitt said. A team of researchers classified PFOA as carcinogenic to people and PFOS as possibly carcinogenic to people.

Two years ago, a report by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine had similar conclusions, saying kidney cancer, high cholesterol and depressed immune systems are likely caused by exposure over time. The report also indicated that forever chemicals can transfer from nursing mothers during pregnancy. The report said there is sufficient evidence of an association between PFAS exposure and decreased infant and fetal growth.

Forever chemicals are compounds widely used during the past 80 years in industrial processes. They have been used to make stain resistant carpets, non-stick frying pans and water resistant clothing. A key use also has been in firefighting foam. They are called forever chemicals because they do not break down easily in the environment.

Textile factories, wastewater treatment plants and farm fields fertilized with sewer sludge are among the suspected sources of PFAS water pollution. The State chronicled the threat of PFAS in sludge fertilizer in its “Toxic Deals’’ series last year.

Nationally, the cost of removing PFOA and PFOS in drinking water systems could exceed $3.8 billion if the restrictive drinking water limit takes effect, according to the American Waterworks Association, an organization representing 4,300 drinking water utilities nationally.

The city’s concerns focus on costs that could affect the pocketbooks of Columbia residents, officials say. Columbia officials say they would not be able to pay the $150 million to upgrade the drinking water system without substantial increases in rates that would hurt many city residents financially.

Rickenmann said raising water rates that high might be unrealistic, so the city might have to raise taxes to pay for the upgrades. Columbia’s annual general fund budget isn’t much higher than the $150 million estimate, he said.

His position against the tighter PFAS limit follows a decision by the City Council last November to turn down an estimated $12 million from a legal settlement to cleanse forever chemicals from its drinking water. The settlement resulted from a flood of lawsuits nationally against the main manufacturers and distributors of PFAS, 3M and DuPont. The $13 billion settlement provides money to city drinking water systems.

Columbia officials said the settlement money wasn’t nearly enough, nor is the $9 billion targeted nationally for PFAS cleanup in the federal infrastructure law.

Rickenmann, a Republican, told The State that while he wants the EPA to slow down before setting PFAS limits, the city is considering its own lawsuit against the manufacturers. They are the ones that should be held liable, not cities, he said. He also said that if the EPA is not reasonable, Columbia could sue to stop the drinking water limit from taking effect.

Rickenmann’s letter was written less than a year after Republican Attorney General Alan Wilson filed two lawsuits against the makers of forever chemicals, seeking damages.

The mayor’s opinion piece in Real Clear Policy, dated March 4, says the EPA is ignoring science and is in a hurry to pass the rules. He said forever chemicals come from many sources, not just drinking water.

He said drinking water accounts for only 20 percent of exposure to people, although consumption of water and food is the main route of exposure. Rickenmann’s letter also said the hazards of forever chemicals are based on a lifetime of exposure.

Real Clear Policy is a website affiliated with Real Clear Politics, a media outlet that aggregates stories from other sources, according to the Media/Bias fact check website. Real Clear Politics is right leaning and carries “mostly factual’’ material, Media/Bias said.

“We must prioritize public health and balance the real costs associated with these regulations,’’ Rickenmann and the other mayors wrote. “Our water systems are working hard daily to protect the public. And with our citizens coming out of a pandemic and experiencing a fragile economy, meeting these new standards will cost an arm and a leg and deprive our water systems of resources that could be used for additional maintenance and improvements.’’