For weeks, residents of Kunia Village, a small farming community in Central Oahu, have been hauling gallons of bottled water into their homes for drinking, cooking and brushing their teeth after worrisome chemicals were detected in their water supply.

On weekdays they can refill their jugs at a community center that’s in walking distance of their plantation-­style homes situated amid sprawling, lush ag lands. But on weekends when the office is closed, or if it runs out of bottled water as was the case recently, families travel five miles down the road to the nearby Times Supermarket to refill.

Selina Sumalabe said it can be a hassle. But as her three young children played in their front yard, she said she wanted to make sure her family was protected.

In January, the state Department of Health announced that chemicals known as PFAS, an acronym for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, had been detected in water samples collected from a well that supplies drinking water to the community. At the time, state health officials said the levels were low, that there was no immediate health threat and that the water system’s approximately 650 users could continue drinking the water.

“However, those concerned may use a home filtration option to reduce PFAS,” DOH said in a Jan. 20 news release.

But that guidance changed last month after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced new proposed limits on the contaminants. EPA officials were now cautioning that practically any level is not safe to consume over the long term. The agency’s proposed limits, called maximum contaminant levels, are set at the lowest possible level of reliable detection.

The Kunia well water samples showed levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) that were many times higher than the EPA’s proposed limits of 4 parts per trillion. PFOA registered between 22 ppt to 27 ppt, while PFOS was between 45 ppt and 50 ppt.

The Kunia Water Association shut down the well, which it leases from the U.S. Army, and last month DOH began encouraging residents to switch to the bottled water being supplied by the water utility.

The scenario is one that water companies throughout the state are hoping to avoid as they prepare for the new EPA limits to take effect, which could happen by the end of the year. The EPA’s proposal is currently out for public comment.

If the limits are finalized, water systems throughout the country that test positive for PFAS will have to start looking at options for treating their water or developing new water sources, which can be expensive. Congress has already allocated billions of dollars to states to improve water infrastructure over the next several years, funds that are expected to help address PFAS contamination.

‘Forever chemicals’

The chemicals in PFAS have sparked increased concern in recent years because they are so slow to break down in the environment and can build up in humans and animals over time, garnering them the name “forever chemicals.”

While there are thousands of variations of these substances, PFOA and PFOS, which the EPA is seeking to strictly limit, have been the most widely studied. At high levels they may lead to increased risk of kidney and testicular cancer, high blood pressure and preeclampsia in pregnant women, lower infant birth weights, increased cholesterol levels, changes in liver enzymes and even a lower vaccine response in children, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The substances have been used in industrial and consumer products since the 1940s and can be found in common products, including grease-resistant food packaging such as fast-food containers, microwave popcorn bags, pizza boxes and candy wrappers, stain- and water-repellent carpets, nonstick cookware and even some shampoos and dental floss.

Over the decades, the contaminants have found their way into drinking water, soil and food, such as fish caught in water tainted by PFAS and dairy products from livestock exposed to the chemicals, according to the EPA.

The chemicals are so ubiquitous that CDC studies have found that most Americans have PFAS in their blood. The chemicals have also been found in water systems throughout the country, particularly those that rely on surface water. In Hawaii, most of the state’s drinking water comes from groundwater.

The chemicals also have been used in a fire-extinguishing foam called aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), which is used to fight fuel fires. Studies have shown that AFFF is the leading cause of PFAS contamination in drinking water, and its widespread use on military bases over the years has become a growing concern nationally, as well as in Hawaii.

Recent spills of AFFF at Red Hill, the Navy’s beleaguered underground fuel facility that sits mauka of Pearl Harbor and is in the process of being shut down, has thrust the issue into the public spotlight.

In November, the military alerted the public that 1,300 gallons of AFFF concentrate had spilled at Red Hill, prompting a major environmental cleanup to ensure the PFAS-laced solution didn’t make its way into the groundwater. The Navy has since disclosed two other recent spills of AFFF at Red Hill. An estimated 1,500 gallons of AFFF concentrate spilled in December 2019. While the Navy says that at the time the contaminated soil was excavated, it didn’t conduct groundwater testing to ensure PFAS hadn’t made its way into the groundwater.

Another 5,000 gallons of AFFF-tainted water was released in an underground pump house in September 2020.

Those spills make up just a sliver of incidents the military has been reviewing in recent years in an effort to get a handle on the extent of PFAS contamination at military bases. The Department of Defense has been conducting PFAS cleanup assessments at more than 700 of its installations and National Guard locations where PFAS were used or may have spilled, a process that is expected to be completed by the end this year.

In Hawaii, the military had completed preliminary assessments and site investigations at eight out of 16 installations as of December, and found that no further action was needed. Assessments of the other installations are ongoing and not expected to be completed until June or September. These include the Kalaeloa Facility, Fort Shafter, Wheeler Army Airfield, Helemano Military Reservation, Kilauea Military Reservation, Schofield Barracks, Pohakuloa Training Center and Waiawa Unit Training Equipment Site.

The review is part of a major federal effort to tackle the sources of PFAS contamination. But ultimately it will fall to the nation’s water purveyors to grapple with the implications if the chemicals show up in their drinking water systems.

Testing the water

About 84% of Hawaii’s drinking water is supplied by county water departments, including the Honolulu Board of Water Supply. They are responsible for 52 water systems combined, according to DOH water reports. But there are dozens of other water systems that are controlled by federal, state and private water companies that will also have to comply with strict new limits on PFAS.

The county water systems say they have been preparing for several years to tackle PFAS.

The Honolulu Board of Water Supply has been testing its wells every year since 2020, when highly sensitive testing methods became available that could detect PFAS at extremely low levels. All of its wells came up clear of PFAS until this year, when testing found low-level detections of PFOS and PFOA in Halawa, Moanalua and Waipio Heights. The levels were about 2 ppt, below the EPA’s proposed 4 ppt thresholds.

Erwin Kawata, BWS’s deputy manager, said it’s hard to tell where the contamination may be coming from, given how long PFAS has been in use and how widespread it has become in the environment. But he said the detections were surprising, given that its wells had come up clean in the past.

BWS Manager and Chief Engineer Ernie Lau said the early testing gives the utility time to prepare in case PFAS do become a problem.

“We have to provide safe drinking water to our community,” said Lau. “So basically right now we have this time to collect more test results to see what the trend might be. Is it increasing? Is it decreasing? Is it stable at the lower levels below the proposed MCL? It’s an opportunity to look at, well, what if we need to look at treatment at these locations, what would it take?”

Lau said he expects the EPA to provide water utilities time to come into compliance with new limits on the contaminants once they are finalized. But ultimately, water companies will not be able to distribute any water that exceeds those levels.

“So if it is necessary to install a treatment system, we have to start right away,” he said.

Other options, Lau said, include finding an alternative water supply for impacted areas, which can include moving water around on a particular system or developing new wells elsewhere — a long and expensive process.

“Those are some of the challenges we are going to be facing,” he said.

The Kauai Department of Water said its Lihue-Kapaa and Kalaheo-Koloa water systems were tested for PFAS between 2013 and 2015 and no detections were found, although this was under a testing method that wasn’t as sensitive as what’s available today. The Kauai utility said DOH also tested the Anahola and Hanalei water systems in 2022 and found no PFAS detections.

The Maui Department of Water Supply also tested its three main water systems from 2013 to 2015 under the less-sensitive tests and found no detections, said John Stufflebean, director of the utility. He said the department is preparing to begin monitoring for PFAS at its three large water systems serving Wailuku, Makawao and Lahaina, as well as four smaller systems, this year.

DOH, which regulates water under the Safe Drinking Water Act, said it is also in the midst of testing dozens of water systems throughout the state.

Waiting for all-clear

Meanwhile, Kunia Village provides a glimpse into just how disruptive it can be for a utility and a community if their water does test positive for the contaminants.

The Kunia Water Association had just finished major repairs, including replacing its storage and distribution lines, when the chemicals were detected, according to its president, Stephanie Whalen.

The Army has since connected the community to a well about two miles away that serves Schofield Barracks, Wheeler Army Airfield and Helemano Military Reservation. But Whalen said the Kunia Water Association is still awaiting results of tests of that well and its distribution system to make sure it is safe for users to resume drinking the water, which she said could take another one to three months.

“We just need current testing results of their water to end this craziness,” she said.

An Army spokesperson said samples were collected from Schofield Barracks drinking water wells the first week of April and sent off for PFAS testing, but he couldn’t provide a timeline for when the results would be in. Schofield Barracks, Wheeler Army Airfield and Helemano Military Reservation are among the hundreds of military installations that DOD continues to investigate for PFAS contamination.

Whalen said DOH is expected to sample the Kunia water system this week and she’s hopeful the community can receive those results more quickly.