URI Awarded $1.4 Million for Research into PFAS Contamination in Water

Finding the cause is an important first step

ecoRI News

The Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank has awarded a $1.4 million grant to the University of Rhode Island’s efforts to determine why groundwater and surface water are contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

URI’s Cooperative Extension is working with the Rhode Island Department of Health and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management to identify possible reasons why the contamination with PFAS, also know as “forever chemicals,” is happening. Public water systems use groundwater and surface water to supply customers with drinking water.

Grant funding was made available via the Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation emerging contaminants program and is in addition to $38 million over five years — $7.6 million a year until 2026 — for treatment of drinking water generally from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

“The University of Rhode Island’s Cooperative Extension and Water Quality Program have some of the top researchers in the nation working with state officials to identify and monitor the sources of PFAS that are impacting public and private water systems across the state,” Infrastructure Bank executive director William Fazioli said. “This grant will allow URI to continue this critical work.”

Rhode Island legislators have taken aim in recent years at the ubiquitous risk of removing PFAS in consumer products and from the environment.

In 2022 the General Assembly passed and the governor signed a bill that bans PFAS from food packaging made or sold in Rhode Island as of the first of this year. PFAS are used to make fast-food wrappers more grease resistant.

A law passed in 2022 and amended in 2023 created the interim state standard of 20 parts per trillion for six types of PFAS. Public water systems in Rhode Island are now required to test for PFAS regularly.