Concentrations and patterns of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in a river and three drinking water treatment plants near and far from a major production source
Abstract
Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are emerging contaminants that have been detected in the environment, biota and humans. Drinking water is a route of exposure for populations using water contaminated by PFAS discharges. This research entailed measuring concentrations, mass flows and investigating the fate of dozens PFASs in a river receiving effluents from a fluorochemical manufacturing facility. To measure the total concentration of perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acid (PFCA) precursors, an oxidative conversion method was used. Several dozen samples were collected in the river (water and sediment), in drinking water resources and at different treatment steps on four sampling dates. One PFCA and three fluorotelomers (FTs) were detected up to 62km downstream from the manufacturing facility. 6:2 Fluorotelomer sulfonamide alkylbetaine (6:2 FTAB) was the predominant PFAS with a mass flow of 3830g/day 5.2km downstream from the facility. At all sampling points, PFAS concentrations in sediment were quite low (<6ng/g dw). Five of the 11 investigated wells showed detectable concentrations of PFASs. Interestingly, their profile patterns were different from those observed in the river, suggesting a transformation of PFCA precursors in the sediments of alluvial groundwater. Conventional drinking water treatments (aeration, sand or granular activated carbon filtration, ozonation or chlorination) did not efficiently remove PFASs. Furthermore, an increase in concentration of certain PFASs was observed after ozonation, suggesting that some FTs such as 6:2 FTAB can break down. Only nanofiltration was able to remove all the analyzed PFASs. In the treated water, total PFAS concentrations never exceeded 60ng/L. The oxidative conversion method revealed the presence of unidentified PFCA precursors in the river. Therefore, 18 to 77% of the total PFCA content after oxidation consisted of unidentified chemical species. In the treated water, these percentages ranged from 0 to 29%, relatively and reassuringly low values.
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For a DWTP with sand filtration, activated carbon filtration, and chlorination (chlorine dioxide) treating groundwater, total PFAS concentrations were 27-59 ng/L.
“Total PFAS concentrations of 27-59 ng/L”
From A Mini-Review of Full-Scale Drinking Water Treatment Plants for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Removal: Possible Solutions and Future Directions (2025) · cites this paper as Boiteux et al. [48]
Membrane filtration (NF or RO) has been reported in parallel with other processes such as GAC in drinking water treatment, with each line/process contributing a percentage of the total drinking water flow.
“According to [48,49], use of a membrane filtration process (NF or RO) has been reported in parallel with other processes such as GAC, in which each line/process can contribute to a percentage of the total drinking water flow [48,49].”
From A Mini-Review of Full-Scale Drinking Water Treatment Plants for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Removal: Possible Solutions and Future Directions (2025) · cites this paper as [48]
For a DWTP with sand filtration and chlorine dioxide treating groundwater, PFAS were in the low ng/L range (e.g., 11 ng/L PFPeA).
“PFAS in the low ng/L range (e.g., 11 ng/L PFPeA)”
From A Mini-Review of Full-Scale Drinking Water Treatment Plants for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Removal: Possible Solutions and Future Directions (2025) · cites this paper as Boiteux et al. [48]
Use of a membrane filtration process (NF or RO) has been reported in parallel with other processes such as GAC, in which each line/process can contribute to a percentage of the total drinking water flow.
“According to [48,49], use of a membrane filtration process (NF or RO) has been reported in parallel with other processes such as GAC, in which each line/process can contribute to a percentage of the total drinking water flow [48,49].”
From A Mini-Review of Full-Scale Drinking Water Treatment Plants for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Removal: Possible Solutions and Future Directions (2025) · cites this paper as [48]
For a DWTP with membrane filtration (nanofiltration) and biological treatment (settling, sand filtration, ozonation, activated carbon filtration, and chlorination) in parallel treating river water, total PFAS concentrations were 11-31 ng/L.
“Total PFAS concentrations of 11-31 ng/L”
From A Mini-Review of Full-Scale Drinking Water Treatment Plants for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Removal: Possible Solutions and Future Directions (2025) · cites this paper as Boiteux et al. [48]
Previous studies have reported industrial influences on the contamination of groundwater with PFAS.
“Previous studies have reported industrial influences on the contamination of groundwater with PFAS [10,38,39,51].”
From Investigating the extent of PFAS contamination in the Upper Danube Basin across environmental compartments (2025) · cites this paper as [10]
As 6:2 FTAB has been used in AFFF formulations, it has been found in different matrices where AFFF has been used or produced including wastewater, freshwater and soils.
“As 6:2 FTAB has been used in AFFF formulations, it has been found in different matrices where AFFF has been used or produced including wastewater ( Dauchy et al. , 2017 ), freshwater ( Boiteux et al. , 2017 ) and soils”
From Release of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from a waste management facility fire to an urban creek (2022) · cites this paper as Boiteux et al., 2017
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References 49 · Cited by 193
- Authors
- Boiteux, V., Dauchy, X., Bach, C., Colin, A., Hemard, J., Sagres, V., Rosin, C., & Munoz, J.-F.
- Affiliations
- Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire de l’Alimentation, de l’Environnement et du Travail (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Dauchy, Xavier
- Venue
- Science of The Total Environment
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-04
- Volume
- 583
- Pages
- 393-400
- ISSN
- 0048-9697 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2574964667
- Cited by
- 193
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 48 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 7
- FWCI
- 6.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Science of The Total Environment (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Seine-Normandy Water Agency (1033326(1)2012)
- Rhône-Mediterranean-Corsica Water Agency (2012 1191)
- Water Union of Ile-de-France (09/07/13)
- Ile-de-France Regional Health Agency (2012-1/2013-2)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Water Treatment and Disinfection
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Fluoride Effects and Removal
- Keywords
- per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS, river pollution, drinking water treatment, fluorotelomers, groundwater contamination, nanofiltration, ozonation, oxidative transformation, mass flow, emerging contaminants
- MeSH terms
- Environmental Monitoring, Fluorocarbons, Water Pollutants, Chemical, Alkanesulfonic Acids, Water Purification, Groundwater, Drinking Water
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