CAMBRIDGE – Town of Cambridge is quickly switching the supply of its consuming water after discovering elevated ranges of poisonous “perpetually chemical compounds” in its water provide, town mentioned in a press release.
The PFAS ranges within the water are above what state requirements enable, Friday’s assertion mentioned.
Town throughout the Charles River from Boston and residential to Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how will get water for its almost 120,000 residents from the Massachusetts Water Sources Authority’s system beginning Tuesday till November, when it’s anticipated to put in a brand new filter at its water remedy facility.
“Changing the filter media will be certain that our PFAS ranges shall be reliably and constantly beneath the Massachusetts Division of Environmental Safety regulatory commonplace within the brief and long run,” water division Director Sam Corda mentioned.
PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, have been linked to most cancers and different well being issues in people. They’re referred to as “perpetually chemical compounds” as a result of they do not degrade within the surroundings and stay within the bloodstream. They have been used for years in firefighting foams, nonstick frying pans, water-repellent materials, stain-resistant rugs and different merchandise.
Cambridge, the state’s fourth-largest metropolis, will get its water from the Stony Brook Watershed within the Charles River Basin. MWRA water is from the Quabbin and Wachusett reservoirs.
The U.S. Environmental Safety Company moved Friday to designate two PFAS chemical compounds present in Cambridge’s water as hazardous substances.
Massachusetts in Might sued greater than a dozen corporations concerned within the manufacture or advertising of perpetually chemical compounds, alleging they knowingly polluted the surroundings and endangered public well being. The chemical compounds have polluted greater than 126 public consuming water techniques in 86 Massachusetts communities, the go well with mentioned.
Metropolis Councilor Quinton Zondervan desires town to modify to MWRA water completely due to Cambridge’s elevated PFAS ranges.
“We simply do not know what’s, or is just not, a secure stage. And that is an enormous drawback,” he informed The Boston Globe.
