New testing results show Austin has little to no traces of forever chemicals in its drinking water.
Exposure to these chemicals, also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, to prostate and kidney cancers, thyroid conditions, decreased fertility and other health problems.
PFAS are called “forever chemicals� because they take thousands of years to break down. The chemicals are “bioaccumulative,� meaning they build up in an organism faster than they can be excreted.
Over 1 million people in the greater Austin area get their drinking water from the Highland Lakes. Out of the 29 PFAS compounds Austin Water officials tested in the lakes, only faint traces of six were detected. The test results were verified by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Water samples were tested at each of Austin’s three water treatment plants four times over the past year. At the Handcox Water Treatment Plant, none of the tested PFAS compounds were found.
PFAS are found in seemingly everything, including clothes, nonstick pans, cosmetics and .
The EPA announced earlier this year that it would start regulating five of the most dangerous PFAS. So far, almost have reported PFAS levels exceeding the new limits, two of which are in Williamson County. Water systems in Seguin and San Antonio have also reported levels exceeding the limits.
The EPA that somewhere between 6% and 10% of all public water systems will fail the new guidelines.
But Austin didn’t.
Why?
Kasi Clay, the water quality manager for Austin Water, said the results are thanks to protections on the Highland Lakes.
“Our drinking water is less impacted by industries and activities that can introduce PFAS,� she said.
Clay said traces of PFAS found in Austin’s drinking water were so low they were barely even testable.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has prohibited discharging pollutants into the Highland Lakes since the late �80s. The ban includes treated wastewater, which typically contains PFAS.
All but one of the 34 wastewater treatment plants in the Lake AGÕæÈË°Ù¼ÒÀÖ watershed use their treated wastewater for irrigation.
"That has really provided the kinds of source water protections that we are really benefitting from now," Austin Water Director Shay Ralls Roalson said. "We don't have these contaminants in our source water the way other [water systems] have been impacted."
There are no other lakes in Texas that have a similar ban on wastewater discharges, according to the Lower Colorado River Authority.
The wastewater discharge ban has by Leander and Shoal Granite city councils, but has never been lifted.
