The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources (DWR) is accepting comment on a request to set interim maximum allowable concentrations, or IMACs, for eight per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in groundwater.
The Division received a request to establish IMACs on July 22 along with supporting data and documents. The DWR Director intends to establish the IMACs as requested on Oct. 15 for the following chemicals:
Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS)
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)
Hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid HFPO-DA (GenX)
Perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS)
Perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA)
Perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS)
Perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA)
Perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA)
State groundwater rules in 15A NCAC 02L .0202 allow for any person to request the DWR Director to establish an interim maximum allowable concentration (IMAC) for a substance for which a groundwater standard has not been established. The requested PFAS IMACs would replace the practical quantitation limit, or PQL, as the standard for Class GA and GSA groundwaters. A public hearing is not required for the establishment of IMACs.
Comments will be accepted until Oct. 4 by email to IMACcomments@deq.nc.gov or by mail to:
N.C. DEQ Division of Water Resources, Attn: Bridget Shelton
DWR Planning Section
1611 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, N.C. 27699-1611
More information about the IMAC process is available online.
Learn more about DEQ’s efforts to establish state water quality standards for groundwater and surface water here.