Water companies have been ordered to take action to tackle potentially harmful levels of “forever chemicals” in untreated drinking water sources serving more than 6 million people.
In total, 23 enforcement notices have been issued in the last four years by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) – which monitors water supplies in England and Wales – over levels of forever chemicals which could “constitute a potential danger to human health”.
Since 2021, water companies have been required to monitor 47 of the most concerning forever chemicals in both household supplies and key water sources such as aquifers and reservoirs, reflecting growing global concern over the risks associated with these chemicals.
Over the past four years, more than 1.7 million tests have been conducted across the water network. At least 9,432 of those tests detected forever chemicals at levels high enough for the DWI to warn that they could constitute a potential danger to human health, according to a joint analysis by the BBC and journalist campaign group Watershed Investigations.
According to the analysis, 23 sanctions are in place and apply to seven water companies. These are: Affinity Water, Anglian Water, South West Water, Wessex Water, United Utilities, Severn Trent Water, and South Staffordshire Water.
Forever chemicals is a term which broadly applies to a class of chemicals known as the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS.
These chemicals, of which there are around 6,000, are used in the manufacture of greaseproofing, stainproofing and waterproofing substances, and can be found in plastics, cookware, food packaging, clothing, cosmetics, medical devices, electronics and firefighting foams.
Since their introduction in the mid-20th century, a large body of evidence has built up revealing how exposure to PFAS can take a heavy toll on human health. They have been linked to reproductive and developmental problems, liver and kidney problems, immune system impacts, cancers, low infant birth weights, and thyroid hormone disruption.
When “raw water sources” – the reservoirs and aquifers from which water companies source untreated water – breach levels deemed safe, which in the UK is set at 0.01ug/L (micrograms per litre), the DWI then issues enforcement notices to that water company requiring action to be taken to ensure water is safe.
In practice, this means water companies must step up testing, upgrade or adjust their PFAS treatment, or in some cases shut down a source entirely.
Lifting a sanction can then take years, with months of monitoring required before restrictions are withdrawn.
A spokesperson for the DWI told The Independent the UK’s drinking water is safe and consumers should not be concerned.
They said: “The inspectorate operates one of the world’s most comprehensive PFAS monitoring programmes and is world-leading in both PFAS research and guideline development, ensuring consumers can have complete confidence in the safety of their drinking water.”
They added: “When trace levels of PFAS are detected, we require water companies to investigate and put treatment plans in place quickly.”
In the US, Joe Biden’s government adopted stringent, legally enforceable limits for PFAS in drinking water. In the UK, the DWI’s guidelines are not legally binding, and the limits are 2.5 times higher than those of the US.
The Royal Society of Chemistry has said that while the guidelines adopted in 2021 have “brought us in line and actually exceeded the strictness of the EU standard, we would still like to see the limit for any individual PFAS lowered further”.
Stephanie Metzger, policy adviser at the Royal Society of Chemistry, told The Independent, this would provide “an even stronger level of protection”, and said these limits should be made legally binding “in order to truly enshrine the protections and ensure compliance”.
She added: “The levels of PFAS in our water system is indicative of a broader issue of chemical pollution in the environment. The government needs to make sure they are monitoring pollution in the environment, as well as identifying and holding to account those responsible.”
There are currently no environmental permit limits for PFAS emissions from industrial facilities, which she warned risks more PFAS getting into the environment and into the water system. Furthermore, the society is campaigning for taxes on firms producing these chemicals so the burden does not fall on the water companies, which are forced to remove or reduce PFAS at significant cost.
Water UK – an industry body which works on behalf of water companies – said the production of forever chemicals must be banned, with the clean-up paid for by the companies which have produced them.
A spokesperson told The Independent: “PFAS pollution is a huge global challenge. We want to see PFAS banned and the development of a national plan to remove it from the environment, which should be paid for by manufacturers.
“Regardless of where you are in the country, when you turn on your tap, you are enjoying the very best drinking water in the world. All water companies have to meet stringent government standards and testing – including on PFAS. As a result, we can all have complete confidence in the quality of our tap water whenever and wherever we use it.”
