The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Indiana University funding to further understand exposure risks of rural communities to per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, through their drinking water.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Indiana University funding to further understand exposure risks of rural communities to per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, through their drinking water.
The $1,584,420 grant will support the joint research project conducted by the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington and the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. The effort is part of a nationwide effort to implement the PFAS Action Plan, which outlines concrete steps the EPA is taking to address PFAS and protect public health.
IU is leading this project, which also includes RTI International, a nonprofit research organization in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. IU will development a scalable platform for predicting PFAS occurrence in private wells to help understand exposure risks to rural communities that rely on private wells for drinking water. IU will test the accuracy of its predictions by comparing modeling predictions to private well samples collected nationwide through a citizen science campaign using mail-out test kits. The research is expected to substantially improve the accuracy of risk predictions and to facilitate informed risk management decisions.
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Image via James Brosher, Indiana University.
