Environment. PFAS in water: drop-by-drop management, without a lasting solution

The announcement came in early July in the Meuse and Ardennes departments. Seventeen municipalities in these departments—one of which was added on August ^1st —are forced to distribute bottled water to their residents due to tap water containing excessively high levels of PFAS, these so-called eternal pollutants due to the time they take to break down in nature. Thus, for the past month, residents have punctuated their daily lives with trips to supermarkets to buy plastic water bottles and supplement public distributions, the costs of which remain borne by the municipalities.

And this isn't the first time decrees have been signed to this effect. In Brittany and Haut-Rhin, restrictions have been in effect since May, ranging from a formal ban on drinking tap water to a recommendation to only use it for washing vegetables or cooking food. Some municipalities are recording levels 25 times higher than the maximum standard of 0.1 mg/l. Little by little, France seems to be discovering that its groundwater is contaminated with eternal pollutants but seems unsure how to get out of this situation.

Because these pollutants are present everywhere: in components for food packaging, fire-fighting foams, ski waxes, kitchen utensils, in cosmetics, etc. And they represent a proven health risk: reduced immune response to vaccination, lower birth weight, or increased risk of kidney cancer, to name just a few.

"How can small rural communities have higher contamination rates than places with large industries?" asks Annick Dufils, mayor of Malandry (Ardennes), on franceinfo. Regarding water catchment, the mayor suspects illegal landfilling, due to the lack of agricultural land near her community that could have caused the contamination. "It's a health scandal, but the more questions we ask, the fewer answers we get," the elected official fumes.

In an attempt to get answers, a complaint against unknown persons will be filed Monday with the Mulhouse prosecutor by a group of 400 people denouncing the contamination of water in the Saint-Louis urban area (Haut-Rhin). "For two years, both Saint-Louis Agglomeration and its private operator (Veolia) have supplied contaminated water at particularly high levels, which are considered the highest in France," said André Chamy, lawyer for the residents' group. Of the 80,000 inhabitants of the urban area, 60,000 are affected by these supply problems. On April 25, the Haut-Rhin prefecture announced a ban on the consumption of tap water for sensitive people in 11 municipalities located near the Franco-Swiss Basel-Mulhouse airport. The airport manager assures that it will contribute financially to the decontamination of the water table, without specifying the amount.

Lyon's chemical valley is not to be outdone. Arkema and Daikin have been singled out for their alleged pollution of the waters south of Lyon. The Metropolis has thus taken both groups to court in the hope of enforcing the polluter-pays principle. Estimates from the local authority put the cost of reducing the level of PFAS in the water table at between €5 and €10 million.