Energy. Environment. Economy.

A reporting project of  NPR member stations

TAG | PFAS
21 Stories
Detailed view on the newly installed system to filter out PFAS Forever Chemicals at Well #2 of the Horsham Water and Sewer Authority facility in Horsham, Pa., on August 22, 2019.
September 27, 2019 | 9:09 AM

Temple researchers will look at link between PFAS and cancer

By Dana Bate/WHYY
The Horsham Air Guard Station in Bucks County, Pa. where the use of PFAS chemicals in firefighting foam has been linked with contamination of local water supplies.
September 24, 2019 | 10:46 AM

Bucks, Montgomery counties will get $5 million to study health effects of PFAS

By Dana Bate/WHYY
In this file photo, people at a community meeting in Abington, Pa. on April 15, 2019 got an update of where the state will test drinking water for levels of the toxic family of chemicals known as PFAS.
September 9, 2019 | 4:49 AM

Fort Indiantown Gap added to list of PFAS contamination sites

By Brett Sholtis
PFAS are toxic chemicals commonly found in clothing and non-stick cookware like teflon. This file photo from April 2019 shows York County homeowner Nathan Volpi, who found out getting his water tested was neither easy nor cheap.
July 29, 2019 | 5:13 PM

Navy site in Mechanicsburg to host PFAS open house

As part of a Navy-wide effort, the installation, which serves as a warehousing and logistics site, has reached out to nearby residents who have private water wells to do testing.

By Marie Cusick
In this Aug. 1, 2018 photo weeds engulf a playground at housing section of the former Naval Air Warfare Center Warminster in Warminster, Pa. In Warminster and surrounding towns in eastern Pennsylvania, and at other sites around the United States, the foams once used routinely in firefighting training at military bases contained per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. EPA testing between 2013 and 2015 found significant amounts of PFAS in public water supplies in 33 U.S. states.
July 26, 2019 | 10:10 AM

Activists in Bucks and Montgomery counties are skeptical about Pentagon PFAS task force

By Tom MacDonald/WHYY
Jessica Cutaiar never liked the taste of the well water at her Sellersville home. Now she knows it is contaminated with PFAS, a chemical used in fire retardant foam.
July 18, 2019 | 8:30 AM

WHYY’s ‘The Why’: Pa.’s widening PFAS water-contamination crisis

By Scott Blanchard
Several C-5 Galaxies sit on the flightline during the morning sunrise at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, home to the 436th Airlift Wing. Photo used under creative commons license (https://bit.ly/1jNlqZo).
July 17, 2019 | 10:10 AM

In Delaware, four more PFAS-contaminated water wells found near Dover Air Force Base

By Mark Eichmann/WHYY
Jessica Cutaiar never liked the taste of the well water at her Sellersville home. Now she knows it is contaminated with PFAS, a chemical used in fire retardant foam.
July 2, 2019 | 5:17 AM

Residents with PFAS-contaminated private well water in limbo as DEP investigates cause

Those with private wells close to bases where PFAS chemicals were used have received bottled water. But some places are too far away for the contamination to be the direct result of training exercises, and too far away to have been tested by the Environmental Protection Agency.

By Dana Bate/WHYY
In this Aug. 1, 2018 photo, a water tower stands above a residential neighborhood in Horsham, Pa. In Horsham and surrounding towns in eastern Pennsylvania, and at other sites around the United States, the foams once used routinely in firefighting training at military bases contained per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
June 16, 2019 | 8:39 AM

Congress eyes ban on firefighting foams that have tainted drinking water

PFAS have been used since the 1940s and have been linked to health conditions including high cholesterol, thyroid disease, low birth weights, immunodeficiencies and some cancers.

By Nicholas Pugliese/WHYY
In this file photo, people at a community meeting in Abington, Pa. on April 15, 2019 got an update of where the state will test drinking water for levels of the toxic family of chemicals known as PFAS.
May 20, 2019 | 6:00 AM

DEP accused of ‘foot-dragging’ on 2-year-old request to regulate PFAS chemical

Environmental group asks appeals court to order DEP to set health standard
By Jon Hurdle
LOAD MORE