Class, Race, Ethnicity and Safe Drinking Water: Does PFAS Have an Ethnic Accent?

• In Event: Environmental Justice: Assessing Problems and Remedies

Abstract

In 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed bold new contaminant limits for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water under the U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). This study uses new EPA data to analyze the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic correlates of PFAS contamination in American drinking water systems in anticipation of these new regulatory standards. Moreover, we update earlier research on racial/ethnic/socioeconomic disparities in SDWA compliance.

Over the past decade, political scientists have increasingly recognized that environmental justice involves equitable implementation of environmental regulations. As with most American environmental laws, SDWA implementation involves joint federal and state administration. However, local governments are ultimately responsible for drinking water safety in the U.S. because roughly 85% of Americans receive water utility service from a municipal, county, or special district government. Several years ago, Switzer & Teodoro’s (2017) analysis of SDWA compliance from 2010-2014 found that community racial/ethnic composition predicted drinking water health violations. Specifically, they found that Black and Hispanic populations most strongly correlate with SDWA violations in communities with low average socioeconomic status (SES). Since then, a raft of new research has continued to connect SDWA implementation to environmental justice concerns, and the Biden Administration has prioritized regulatory enforcement in “environmental justice communities.”

Do the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic patterns that Switzer & Teodoro found persist over the past ten years? And does the distribution of PFAS contamination follow those troubling trends?

To answer these questions, we update Switzer & Teodoro’s analysis of SDWA compliance with data from 2014-2023. We find that a community’s racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic composition remain significantly correlated with drinking water quality violations. These compliance disparities take on new urgency as EPA prepares to implement maximum contaminant limits for PFAS—its most significant new drinking water regulation in the past twenty years. To characterize the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic distribution of PFAS contamination, we will analyze new data for 3,238 drinking water systems included in the Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR5). Matching these data the sampled drinking water systems’ service areas, we will determine the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic correlates of the six contaminants set to be regulated under the new PFAS rule: PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFNA, GenX, and PFBS.

Although this study will be mainly descriptive, it is set to be the first environmental justice analysis of the UCMR5 data on PFAS in drinking water. Given the persistent racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in drinking water safety implementation under existing regulations, our findings are likely to carry important implications for scholars and governments alike.

Authors

• David Switzer, University of Missouri

• Michael Andrew Powell, University of Missouri, Columbia

• Manny P. Teodoro, University of Wisconsin