The state recently certified the Barnstable County Water Quality Laboratory to test drinking water for the presence of PFAS, a group of chemicals that have been linked to serious health impacts.
CAI’s Gilda Geist spoke to the lab's director, Dan White, along with County Commissioner Mark Forest, about the county's role in landing this certification and what this means for homeowners on Cape Cod.
Gilda Geist Dan, can you tell me about the certification process for PFAS analysis? Is this something you folks at the lab have been working on for a while?
Dan White Yeah, we've been working on this for the past several years. It's quite a process because PFAS analysis is done down to such a low level of concentration. We are required to be able to report limits down to two nanograms per liter, two parts per trillion. And getting the high-tech equipment that's sensitive enough and getting that set up and tested and removing any sources of interference just takes a long time. I'd like to thank Mark and the commissioners for their support, and for getting us the piece of equipment we need and the time we needed and the expertise to really get this analysis going. And of course, once you're set up, then you have to do proficiency testing. You have to take blind samples and prove that you can measure PFAS in them, send the results to the state, and go through a process where the state comes and inspects the laboratory to make sure we're crossing all our T's and dotting our I’s when it comes to quality control.
GG Before you had the certification, if there was some reason to test a sample for PFAS, what would you have to do?
DW Previously, if someone came to us with a sample, we would have to send it to another laboratory. There's a few others in Massachusetts that do this testing that we have a relationship with that we could pass the sample on to that laboratory, who would then send the results back to us, and then we would report that to the customer. This allows us now to do it in-house, and so we can have the results much faster.
GG What does this mean for homeowners who are concerned about PFAS in their drinking water?
DW On the Cape, there's quite a few private wells and they are not regulated by the state. Most of the testing is the responsibility of the homeowner, the well owner, to ensure that they have safe drinking water. If you're on town water, you know your water is being tested. But if you are a private well owner, you don't know. Up till now, it's been very difficult for them to find a laboratory that would take their samples, and also very expensive. We are offering that service now to residents around the Cape. They can come get a kit from us, and we will do their testing for them and report back to them. It's $265. It's a significant savings over what most people would be charged if they went to another laboratory. Most of the major laboratories that do this analysis don't work directly with homeowners or residents—it might have to go through an intermediary, which adds cost.
GG Mark, can you tell me how this move fits into the county's broader plans to address concerns about PFAS on Cape Cod?
Mark Forest Our interest has been in having this capability. It's an emerging issue on the Cape, and we're all struggling with addressing PFAS contamination. And it's important for us here on Cape Cod to have the ability to test for this contamination, because the towns are generating a lot of sampling, because virtually every town on Cape Cod is wrestling with this problem. And so we want to make sure that in Barnstable County, we have the service available. We talk a lot about wastewater, we talk a lot about nitrogen, but there's another big story out here. And that is, how we're helping homeowners and municipalities address the PFAS challenge. And this is an important tool in that effort. And we're thrilled that we've been able to pull this together. We have an outstanding team at our lab that's able to provide the service. And as commissioners, we're very excited about it.
For more information on how homeowners can access this service, visit the lab’s webpage on the county website.
