The Lackawanna River Basin Sewer Authority is voluntarily monitoring "forever chemicals" in the wastewater at its facilities in Lackawanna County.
Officials expect they will be required to do so eventually, and they want to be prepared when that happens.
"We are naturally curious to say 'Okay, what levels are we at?' Just so we have some idea," plant superintendent Robert Davis said.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are known as PFAS, or more commonly forever chemicals. They are widely used, long-lasting chemicals that break down very slowly over time, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
PFAS have been used in consumer products since the 1940s to repel oil and water and resist heat, according to the EPA.
The EPA says that scientific studies have shown that exposure to some PFAS may be linked to harmful health effects.
There are thousands of PFAS. The category of chemicals are found in the blood of people and animals and are present at low levels in a variety of food products and in the environment.
Levels on the low side, so far
The EPA and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) have yet to set limits or standards on forever chemicals in the byproducts of wastewater treatment plants.
But leaders at the sewer authority anticipate such mandates will come, and are taking a proactive approach to get a benchmark or an idea of the PFAS levels in the wastewater that the authority treats from 17 municipalities in Lackawanna County.
"We have to become educated ourselves and understand what it is, why, where it comes from. Can we prevent it from getting into the system through our pre-treatment program? Or is it something … that we have to just monitor, or do we have to put in a means of treatment to remove it?” Davis said.
The sewer authority is working with DEP and the Mid-Atlantic Biosolids Foundation to analyze PFAS levels at the facility.
Davis said testing so far has found that the wastewater at the plant is on the low side of levels for forever chemicals.
The pervasiveness of PFAS is a major reason why Davis and others expect that at some point limits will be put on forever chemicals in their industry.
"They are found in your clothing. They're found in your camping gear. They're found in your non-stick pans, literally everywhere," he said.
Because of that, Davis said the sampling protocol is very elaborate.
“Because you can be bringing it into your sample just by what you're wearing, your cologne, your antiperspirants, hair sprays, all that type of stuff had it in it at one time. And if it still does, you're introducing that into your sample … you're contaminating it,” he said.
The past informs the future
About three years ago, Davis and Michael Matechak, executive director of the sewer authority, began hearing about the impact of forever chemicals in their industry.
Those conversations reminded them of when Chesapeake Bay Watershed regulations went into effect after 2008.
The authority undertook a $30 million upgrade to meet those new rules.
A discharge pipe creates a waterfall through a lush area on the outer rim of the facility that flows into the Lackawanna River. The Lackawanna meets the Susquehanna River in Pittston. The Susquehanna ultimately flows into the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
The Chesapeake Bay watershed is integral to the health and wealth of more than 18 million people, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Because of that, the plant has a biological nutrient reduction system, Davis said. They reduce the nitrogen load on the river, which was causing algae blooms in the bay and killing crabs.
“You're always kind of looking ahead, what's going to be the next thing, and put yourself in a position where you know, financially, you're going to have the wherewithal to undertake these projects, and also looking at the technical aspects, what you're going to need to comply with them," Matechak said.
Treating human waste and its larger impact on the environment has been evolving since ancient times.
The Romans were known for the Cloaca Maxima, which was an extensive network of underground channels in Rome that channeled stormwater and wastewater into rivers and streams. That was in the sixth century BCE.
But the Romans were the exception not the rule.
In more modern times, before there were wastewater treatment plants or federal laws, people threw their chamber pots out of their windows into ditches, Davis said. That led to disease.
In the 1920s and '30s indoor plumbing became the standard, he said. The waste was no longer in the streets. Instead it was piped to the rivers.
"Many, many years ago, it was 'the solution to pollution is dilution,' so you just get it to a larger body of water and get rid of it," Davis said.
The federal Clean Water Act went into effect in 1972. The law required wastewater to be cleaned to a much higher level before being discharged. That led to the construction of wastewater treatment plants.
The Lackawanna River Basin Sewer Authority was incorporated by the county in 1966. Construction of the plant was completed by the early '70s.
"We were put here to protect the environment from the sewage by treating it," Davis said.
The science behind wastewater plants came from Europe, he said. The plant uses the biology that already exists in the wastewater and brings it to a more stable form.
"The … main issue, besides chemicals that are from industry, metals and stuff like that, the biology part of it is human waste. It's not so much that it pollutes things. It uses up air," he said.
There’s aerobic organisms in human waste. It decreases the oxygen in water and starves the fish of air, killing the aquatic life.
The plant uses oxygen from air blowers and adjusts the PH of the water held in large concrete vats to get the organisms to thrive. Then they send them to the sewage coming in, which they consider food. The organisms help break down that sewage.
The passive treatment plant in Throop is the largest of the three the authority manages. The other two plants are in Archbald and Forest City. In total 32 employees work at the plants that treat wastewater from any occupied structure with a sewer system.
Readying for future PFAS regulations
Matechak said the initial concern from the environmental agencies has been on the impact of forever chemicals on drinking water.
For example, in Columbia County the DEP performed an investigation into groundwater and wells near the Brookside Village Mobile Home Park. The agency discovered dangerously high levels of PFAS, which was likely from sewage sludge, also known as biosolids, used as fertilizer on nearby farms in the 1980s, according to DEP. The sludge is the byproduct of wastewater treatment.
"Now they're that they've started to implement those standards for drinking water systems, they're starting to look, you know, more closely at the wastewater and in particularly the biosolids,” Matechak said.
The authority also creates biosolids which are shipped to a landfill — or, during the growing months, used on farms for fertilizer.
"That's a concern if, if the PFAS is making it to the agricultural site. So we're looking at at that aspect of it," Davis said.
Matechak added that in January, the EPA put out a preliminary risk assessment study on biosolids.
"The industry as a whole is kind of looking at the results of that preliminary assessment and offering feedback, you know, critiquing it from our perspective,” he said.
Davis said ultimately the authority exists to protect the environment.
"It's what we do all day long. So once they come up with a regulation we will be, you know, trying to apply that technology, or whatever it might be,” he said.
