In Response to World Record Concentrations of Harmful Chemicals at Holloman Lake

On June 16th there was an article posted about PFAS contamination at Holloman Lake.  Just this morning there was a similar story on KALH radio about contamination at Cannon AFB.
The stories state that wildlife has been found to have anywhere from 10 thousand, to 30 million times the EPA's drinking water standard levels for these substances.  This sounds really, really bad.

But what are the EPA's standards, and how were they determined?
There are currently 2 health studies being conducted, the Pease Study, and the Multi-Site Study.  These began in 2019, and neither has been concluded.  Neither has there been any preliminary data released.

In April of last year the EPA issued new regulation on PFAS drinking water standards.  The EPA sites 120,000 comments received during the comment phase, but there is NO scientific data provided, or even alluded to for the basis of the regulation.
The regulation sets the standard for maximum levels at between 4 and 10 parts per TRILLION, depending on the type of PFAS.  To put this in perspective, that would be 1 grain of sand in a tank the size of 1 of Alamogordo's storage tanks, which is over 2 million gallons.
The EPA estimates the cost of implementing this regulation at 1.5 BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR, with initial investments of $21 BILLION.
The EPA estimates the cost savings from the regulation at 1.5 billion per year in health care savings, but that estimate is based on a worst case scenario of combining worst case health effects with worst case number of people exposed.
This regulation isn't just aimed at fire fighting foams, PFAS are also used as sealants and water proofing agents in fabrics, paints, and paper and cardboard food containers, among other uses.
It's possible that the newly refurbished water tank here in Alamogordo may have used paints and sealants containing PFAS.  Remember, an amount equal to just one grain of sand leaching from that paint into the water would put us in violation of this new standard.
For comparison, the EPA drinking water standard for Cyanide would allow over 70 pounds in a tank the size of just one of Alamogordo's tanks
And people wonder why I have such a distrust of the EPA.