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Weigh-in On This: OWASA Needs Your Input on Guiding Principles for PFAS
A perspective from Todd Taylor
We share a strong community with much to be proud of. As we face new challenges that affect our resilience, the perspectives of this community are more crucial than ever. I am reaching out to you from OWASA to ask for your input on how we approach important next steps for solving problems that affect public and environmental health.
For the last ten years or so, PFAS (chemicals used for water-proofing and non-stick surfaces) has been steadily rising as a concern as we expanded our understanding of its place in public health and the environment. While OWASA does not use or create PFAS in any of our operations, it is showing up in nearly every aspect of managing the community’s water and wastewater.
Over the last few years, OWASA has optimized the water treatment process to reduce PFAS in the community’s drinking water. But sustainable treatment of PFAS may require more costly advanced technology—technology that is rapidly evolving. There are limited options for disposing of PFAS-laden treatment materials and those come with their own set of environmental impacts. Destruction of PFAS is an emerging science, highly costly, and, in some cases, incomplete.
Today, we have decisions to make around how we manage PFAS, from how we treat drinking water into the future, to how we improve the wastewater treatment process and manage biosolids—all while trying not to create new problems. These decisions are complex, and most solutions do not address every concern along the way.
Rules for PFAS in drinking water are planned, but not yet in effect. Rules to shape how PFAS can be disposed of are still in development and could take several years to be finalized.
OWASA’s Board of Directors and Staff developed a set of guiding principles to help us navigate the decisions on managing PFAS that we have ahead. With these principles, OWASA hopes to establish a simple, common framework to help prioritize PFAS action. Together, they are designed to set a basis for what matters to OWASA and the community we serve.
The PFAS Guiding Principles are:
Protect Public Health
We commit to protecting the health of our customers and the greater community from PFAS.
Take a Holistic Approach
We will consider options to reduce upstream sources and minimize or eliminate downstream impacts on public health and the environment in our PFAS-related decision making.
Communicate Proactively
We commit to openness, honesty, and transparency in our communication about the public health and financial considerations of addressing PFAS.
Protect Ratepayer Interests
We will be responsible stewards of our ratepayers’ dollars and consider both long- and short-term cost effectiveness in our actions to address PFAS.
Maintain Flexibility
We will analyze PFAS mitigation alternatives in a manner that allows for future flexibility in consideration of evolving regulations and emerging technologies.
Act Deliberately
We will engage in a robust and defensible process to ensure community confidence in our decision-making to address PFAS.
We are asking you to review and comment on these draft guiding principles before they are finalized and used to steer our decisions on managing PFAS.
We are inviting this feedback to ensure these principles match the values held by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community, and to identify anything that that should be added to strengthen or expand the framework.
How to provide feedback:
Online Survey: Click this link to provide feedback online. tinyurl.com/OWASApfas Participate in Upcoming Meetings: Join us in-person at the Drakeford Complex in Multipurpose Room A on October 6 at 6 p.m. Request a Presentation or Discussion: Reach out to OWASA at info@owasa.org if you would like a presentation and discussion for your group or neighborhood. Email Us: Send your input directly to us at info@owasa.orgWe look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Todd Taylor
Executive Director
OWASA
“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.
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