Objectives: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been a known concern for nearly twenty years and they have been ubiquitously found globally in both humans and the environment. However, regulations have been developing at a slow pace and with substantial variability. As a result, projects are riddled with uncertainty and often taxed with a moving target for site clean-up strategies. In this presentation, we will:

1. Share our understanding of PFAS regulations globally by dissecting the variability surrounding promulgated rules and recommended guidelines;
2. Provide real world project examples of how the ever-changing regulations have resulted in substantial project challenges; and,
3. In anticipation of future regulatory changes, provide proactive considerations for project managers to minimize the scope, schedule, and budget impacts of changing regulations on their portfolios.

Approach/Activities: Canada currently has Federal drinking water screening values, soil and groundwater quality guidelines and provincial standards for a handful of PFAS analytes. In the United States, Federal drinking water provisional guidelines were published initially in 2009 and revised in 2016 and nineteen States have adopted guidelines or standards for several PFAS analytes in various media, from soil to groundwater, drinking water and surface water. Nearly half a dozen European countries and Australia have also adopted guidelines or promulgated rule. Standards and guidelines for water alone vary from as low as 13 parts per trillion to thousands parts per trillions. A guided discussion will compare and contrast the key study information, kinetics, dose-response, uncertainty extrapolations and exposure parameters used to derive standards and guidelines and illustrate how and why they are so different. The intended use of the presented criteria will also be discussed.

A few project examples will be highlighted that illustrate how regulatory changes have impacted scope, schedule and budget of on-going projects. In the first project example, the impact of reducing regulatory criteria on plume size, residential impact, and drinking water response are evaluated. In the second project example, project challenges are discussed as a result of regulatory changes outside of the project geography; the impact of amplified risk from variable regulations and the difficulties with risk communication are shared. Lastly, proactive considerations for minimizing project impacts are presented.

Shalene Thomas, Emerging Contaminant Program Manager and Global PFAS Work Group Lead, Wood
Shalene Thomas, the Emerging Contaminant Program Manager and Global PFAS Work Group Lead for Wood, has more than 20 years of experience in environmental consulting, including more than 10 years of experience supporting government and industrial clients with PFAS. As the PFAS Work Group Lead for Wood, she oversees fate and transport (F&T), investigation, risk assessment, and remediation PFAS Technical Task Forces in expanding the practice and state of science. Her experience includes toxicological evaluation of and technical response to risk-based PFAS regulatory criteria, PFAS risk communication, management and oversight of human health and ecological risk assessments, as well as management of PFAS projects for various State, Federal, and international clients. She has served as a technical advisor for more than 100 PFAS project sites in the US, Australia and Canada. She is currently serving as the co-lead for the Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) Fact Sheet as part of the PFAS Interstate Technology & Regulatory Counsel (ITRC) Team as well as member of the regulatory task force.

The Health Canada Water and Air Quality Bureau (WAQB) is responsible for promoting and protecting the health of Canadians with matters related to drinking water. This presentation will focus on the development process of Canadian drinking water guidelines for perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which establishes maximum allowable concentrations of PFOS and PFOA in drinking water and includes considerations for additivity of the two substances. Moreover, screening values for per- and polyfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) as additional means of protecting Canadians near PFAS contaminated sites will be presented.

Richard Carrier, Section Head of Chemical Division, Water Quality, Water and Air Quality Bureau, Health Canada

In order to respond to the requirements and needs of the Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan (FCSAP) and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, the federal government develops tools to manage environmental contaminants and contaminated sites. Per- and polyfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) have been priority emerging contaminants of concern for several departments, including Health Canada (HC) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), in recent years as their human health and environmental concerns were identified. At the same time, the need for tools to identify and address potentially-impacted sites was pressing. One of the most important gaps was the lack of guidelines to help in assessment and site management.

HC and ECCC develop guidance values and guidance documents to support contaminated sites management. These criteria may range from “screening values” for use on federal sites to fully developed “Environmental Quality Guidelines” for publication by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) for use by all provinces, territories and federal departments. Data availability determines the potential to develop guidelines. For PFAS, there are still significant data gaps that limit the number of guidelines that can be derived at this time. For eco-based receptors, guidelines development has focused on perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Human health-based guidelines are available for PFOS, PFOA and a further seven PFAS. This presentation will provide an overview of the PFAS guidelines developed by HC and ECCC which can be used at Canadian contaminated sites to protect human health and the environment.

Darcy Longpré, Environmental Scientist, Regions and Operations Branch, Health Canada
Darcy Longpré is an environmental scientist specialised in risk assessment with Health Canada (HC), working out of Montréal. She has over 20 years’ experience in contaminated site assessment, risk assessment and soil guidelines development. She is currently the HC representative on the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment’s (CCME) Contaminated Sites Working Group. She coordinates the development of human health-based soil quality guidelines (SQGs) and is involved in the development of other contaminated sites-related guidance documents developed by HC and CCME. Darcy has been involved with the development of several guidance values and documents for PFAS substances and is currently helping develop SQGs for PFOS and PFOA.

Rita Mroz, Environmental Scientist – Contaminated Sites, Environmental Protection Operations Directorate, Atlantic Region, Environment and Climate Change Canada
Rita Mroz is an environmental scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). She has over 25 years’ experience in contaminated site assessment, remediation and research, and is the Atlantic Regional coordinator for Canada’s Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan (FCSAP). She provides scientific, technical and regulatory advice and support to various departments and property managers related to the assessment and remediation of federal contaminated sites. In addition, she is the co-chair of the Atlantic Regional Integrated Planning Board and the federal Perfluoroalkylated Substances (PFAS) Working Group and is a member of several other committees including the Atlantic Partnership in RCBA (Risk-Based Corrective Action) Implementation (Atlantic PIRI) committee.