’Forever chemicals’ exceed threshold levels in many European water bodies

Rivers, coastal waters and a large part of lakes in Europe are polluted with at least one of the forever chemicals that are harmful for people and nature. This shows an assessment of the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) based on data from about 1,300 monitoring sites in Europe. The assessment was published the 9^th of December 2024.

Most of the monitored data that were collected on water sites exceeded the Environmental Quality Standards (EQS). In rivers 59% of the test locations did not comply with the standards, in lakes 35% of the sites exceeded the standards and in transitional and coastal waters 73% of the monitoring sites were too polluted. PFOS is one of the approximate 10,000 compounds in the large group of PFAS, also known as ‘forever chemicals’ due to their extreme persistence in the environment.

PFAS pollution in European waters

The European Environment Agency notes that it is hard to draw conclusions on the extent of the problem across Europe, due to uncertainties and gaps in the reported data. “However, the results do highlight a challenge in delivering on the objectives of the zero pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment and in achieving good chemical status under the Water Framework Directive”, stated the EEA in a Press Release their website. “To better understand the extent of the PFAS pollution problem in Europe, more sensitive analytical methods and expanding the range of substances and the geographical coverage are needed”, said the EEA.

Update of EU water pollution standards

The new evidence supports the current proposal amending the Water Framework Directive to expand the list of priority substances. This Month the European Parliament gave the green light to start trilogue negotiations on the update of EU water pollution standards. According to the EEA monitoring activities need to be expanded to provide more information on a greater range of PFAS across a wider geographical area; more sensitive analytical methods are also required.

Pollution is spread by the sea

Marine currents and sea are spreading PFAS, contributing to their global presence. PFAS have been documented far from their potential sources and across all continents with varying levels of industrialisation. This suggests that long-range transport in the atmosphere is another significant pathway for their distribution. They have even accumulated in remote places such as the Arctic. The Forever Pollution project has estimated that there are around 23,000 PFAS-contaminated sites in Europe. Approximately 2,300 of these sites are ‘hotspots’ with high levels of pollution that may pose a threat to human health.

Different national results

A total of 27 European countries have submitted monitoring data to the EEA through the WISE system for the 2010-2022 period. These data provide an overall picture of PFAS contamination in European waters and increase our understanding of the extent to which regulatory thresholds are currently exceeded. Between countries there are different results. In Belgium, France and Iceland, 100% of the reported water bodies exceeded Environmental Quality Standards (EQS). In the Netherlands, 96% of water bodies exceeded EQS, while in Germany, the figure was 83%. In Italy, 54% of sites exceeded EQS. Five countries reported that less than 20% of sites exceeded EQS: Spain (18%), Ireland (6%), Poland (5%), Croatia (5%) and Estonia (2%).

Concern about PFAS pollution is increasing

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large group of chemicals consisting of approximately 10,000 different compounds. Also referred to as ‘forever chemicals’, their extreme persistence in the environment has been understood for a long time. However, other concerning properties of these compounds have become better understood over the past two decades. For example, the potential for bioaccumulation in living organisms; high mobility in water, soil and air, long-range transport potential, and (eco)toxicological effects that impact humans and the environment.