January 2022 Director’s Corner

Welcome to a new format of the Director’s Corner and of Streamlines! Over the last year, we have enjoyed building a space for collective musing, vexing, and connecting via our webinar series (Roundtable) and the expanded readership of this newsletter. What we hoped would happen has, indeed, come to pass – a wide range of stakeholders desiring a space to continue the conversation as we co-navigate the ever-changing issues posed in the restoration. In a constant cycle of assessment, experimentation, and adaptation (sound familiar?), we have decided to link Streamlines with our webinar series Roundtable. Thus, Streamlines will now offer a space to deepen the discussion that is initiated in the preceding Roundtable, by being published within two weeks of the appropriate Roundtable and offering additional information and relevant resources.

The December CRC Roundtable webinar focused on what we currently know about per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), what we need to know, and how the issue is being tackled at the state (Bay states) and federal level (US EPA). The Roundtable always begins by reviewing the following three questions: 1) why this topic, 2) at this time, and 3) by these speakers. In answering the first two questions, we start with explaining the seemingly rapid rise of attention to this one class of chemicals, amongst the thousands present in the environment.  After all, PFAS have been used in the U.S. since the 1940s and consist of more than 4000 unique compounds, making them one of the most complex chemical mixtures to date. They are used in a dizzying array of products:  as firefighting foams and in consumer products such as water repellent fabrics, personal care products, food packaging, nonstick surfaces, and more. But there nickname as “forever chemicals” conveys a potential problem since they are resistant to degradation and can become a problem of accumulation.  As many other environmental stories, they became a ubiquitous before we were fully aware of their potential harm; current scientific research suggests that exposure to high levels of certain PFAS may lead to adverse health outcomes, such as reproductive and developmental effects. So, we are left with the classic series of questions regarding a potentially harmful presence in our everyday life: how big is the problem?  Is it getting better or worse?  What can be done about it?  Is what we’re doing making an impact? Our five panelists are all working actively to answer those questions, and they represented the range of people necessary to outline the challenge, from scientists with expertise in monitoring and assessment to regulators at both the state and federal levels who are trying to balance this issue with the host of other environmental challenges in their domain.  Let’s dive in.