The U.S. Has a ‘Forever Chemicals' Problem. A French Company Is Cleaning It Up.

Wall Street Journal

18-06-2025

Drinking water in Delaware is now being cleaned by one of the largest 'forever chemicals' treatment centers in the country.
Veolia, a French waste-management giant and the largest private water operator in the U.S., launched the facility on Wednesday. Boasting almost the same size as a hockey rink, it is the company's largest plant yet to clean PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances—more commonly known as forever chemicals. PFAS linger in the environment for years, permeating the environment, including drinking water.
Veolia already has 34 facilities on a much smaller scale dotted around the country. But the Stanton plant is now processing 30 million gallons of water a day and serving 100,000 residents. The company wants to expand to about 100 such sites in the next few years. Veolia said its revenue for PFAS cleanup grew to €205 million in 2024, just two years after launching the efforts.
The tides are turning on some PFAS requirements, however.
The Environmental Protection Agency in 2023 set in motion the first federal limits on PFAS in drinking water, which would have mandated municipalities to filter out the chemicals. But in May, under the Trump administration, the agency said it is looking to delay or roll back the Biden administration standards. While environmental and health advocates balked at the shift, some industry groups have said postponements—from a 2029 to a 2031 deadline—would help with preparations.
The loosening of Biden-era limits on forever chemicals is surprising given that EPA administrator Lee Zeldin previously broke with many Republicans to support a bill that would have reduced the use of PFAS contamination.
The EPA aims to unwind limits on four kinds of PFAS, meaning that only those known as PFOA and PFOS would be regulated going forward.
Aside from drinking water, PFAS can also be found in a range of consumer products from food packaging to textiles and cosmetics. Research has linked PFAS exposure to a range of health problems, from cancer to low birth weight in newborns. The chemicals get into the water and soil when they are used for manufacturing, or even from firefighting foam at airports, for example.
'PFAS contamination poses a serious threat to public health, and addressing it at the source is essential,' Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer said.
The cleaning technology Veolia uses in its water plants depends on the type of PFAS, but the company uses granular activated carbon in large tanks, for example, which is a common treatment method to filter out the chemicals. The Delaware facility has 42 large tanks filled with activated carbon. The PFAS molecules stick to the carbon by grabbing onto tiny crevices that give them a large surface area to attach to.
The amount of water flooding into the tanks is monitored to give the molecules enough time to bond. The carbon has to be replaced once it has reached its absorption capacity and then collected by a vendor who can perform a chemical removal process so the carbon could be reused in the tanks.
Activated carbon 'is one of the most widely used and effective methods for treating PFAS' said Vasilis Vasiliou, chair of the environmental health sciences department at Yale. But it is 'not a universal solution and has important limitations depending on the PFAS type and treatment goals,' he said. The pros are that it is extensively studied and regulated for drinking water treatment plants, but the cons are that the chemicals are captured rather than broken down, so there is a future contamination risk during disposal.
The company worked to make the technology affordable so that communities across the U.S. would be able to invest in it, said Estelle Brachlianoff, Veolia's CEO.
'We're not here to be the luxury goods of water treatment,' Brachlianoff said.
Public anxiety about PFAS continues to brew as the scale of the problem has come to light. About 45% of tap water contains one or more PFAS, according to a 2023 study by the U.S. Geological Survey, the science arm of the Interior Department.
Companies also face a patchwork of state rules to phase out forever chemicals. Recently, Florida and Virginia enacted PFAS cleanup targets for drinking water. And a further wave of states have proposed a variety of drinking water standards for forever chemicals. To complicate matters, the standards of acceptable chemical levels are far from uniform.
In Delaware—a state represented by Joe Biden for decades—there is a bill pending that would put water utilities on notice if PFAS exceed certain limits. The water utilities would then have to notify their customers.
'Clean water should be the baseline,' said David Andrews, acting chief science officer at the Environmental Working Group, a consumer research nonprofit, on its website. 'Making water safer begins with ending the unnecessary use of PFAS and holding polluters accountable for cleanup.'
The EPA has alluded to holding polluters accountable, but hasn't provided further details at this time.
Write to Clara Hudson at [e-mail]