Northern Lake Service in Crandon is the only private lab in Wisconsin to do PFAS testing.
As scientists continue to learn more about the forever chemicals, testing for them has evolved.
“There are always methods that are evolving in order to give lower detection levels, fewer interferences, more compounds, that kind of thing. So, different methods are developed,” said RT Krueger, President of Northern Lake Service.
Krueger says the test developed for PFAS in drinking water is still the one they’re using, but as testing has expanded to wastewater and biosolids the testing method has changed for those kinds of samples.
“It's way more difficult to jam a chunk of sludge into an instrument than it is to analyze a drinking water and so these methods were not appropriate for those matrices,” said Krueger. “It also takes a really long time to develop a method to put it through the rigors of validation on a national level before the EPA can say, ‘Okay, we're good to go. This is promulgated. This is the law of the land now.’”
While the EPA only recently finalized the 1633 Method for those kinds of samples, Krueger says Wisconsin had designed and implemented a similar one to use in the meantime.
He says the state used the nuts and bolts of what it knew the EPA method was going to look like to develop its own guidance.
“That guidance and the method that we're transitioning to right now are relatively similar. The technologies necessary are similar enough that we could get that instrumentation validated for the guidance and then be able to transition to the 1633 method,” said Krueger.
PFAS sampling
The majority of PFAS testing done at Northern Lake Service is in drinking water.
The lab saw a large influx of water testing for PFAS in 2023. That’s when Wisconsin municipal public water systems were required to test for PFAS.
They’re still doing about 50 of those compliance testings a month.
“In the case of the wastewater in this new method, the permit renewals are at a five year cycle, and they're not accelerating that and so only about a fifth of everybody needs to do it in a given year over the next five years,” said Krueger.
In total, Krueger estimates they test for PFAS in about 500 samples a month. It’s only a portion of the contaminants Northern Lake Service tests for on a monthly basis.
“While PFAS is the thing that gets a lot of the press, it's the reason that people are sitting across from me with a radio microphone in their hand. We're still doing a lot of other testing that's not as glamorous,” said Krueger. “Every time you get a glass of drinking water from the tap, public health and environmental safety are backed up by so, so, so much testing and again, I think it's kind of important for people to know about that, even if it isn't as glamorous as PFAS.”
There are over 12,000 PFAS chemicals. PFOA and PFOS are two of the most studied of those chemicals.
For those two chemicals, the EPA has set an enforceable Maximum Contaminant Level [MCL] at 4.0 parts per trillion each. For PFNA, PFHxS, and HFPO-DA (GenX Chemicals), EPA set MCLs of 10 parts per trillion.
Northern Lake Service tests for 29 PFAS compounds.
Krueger says there are some they don’t see at all, but believes its important to be documenting them all, even if we don’t know for certain if or what the health impact looks like for them.
“Generally, when we go looking for something new, it's based on the fact that there are human health studies to back this up. PFAS is different in the fact that the monitoring is a long ways out, kind of ahead of the health implications,” said Krueger. “But they've got health studies on a few of these compounds. They know that they're bad news. They know chemically that some other ones are very similar, and so they want to look for some of those other ones.”
High level of complexity
Northern Lake Service celebrated 50 years of service in 2024. Krueger tells people he’s been in this since he was a little kid.
“I can safely say that we have not ever seen anything that has had the level of complexity, the level of that leapfrogging in understanding versus monitoring versus regulating,” said Krueger.
He says things like PCBs and underground storage diesel and gasoline tanks were complex from a regulatory and monitoring standpoint. Phosphorus management presented a lot of challenges.
“While each of those has a component of that complexity, there is not one that I would say is even in the same room with PFAS at this point,” said Krueger.
The number of compounds, the complexity of the compounds, the lack of medical studies, and their movement all make PFAS a challenge according to Krueger.
“With PFAS, all we're doing is pushing it around. It's extremely difficult to get rid of, and people are working feverishly, a million people are working feverishly to try to figure out what we do with this,” said Krueger.
Should I be testing my water?
Risks in everyday life vary from person to person.
What might be considered too risky for a pregnant 25-year-old, may be low risk to an 82-year-old man.
According to the Wisconsin DHS website, “Research studies among humans have looked at a possible link between PFAS levels in the blood and harmful health effects. However, most studies have analyzed only a small number of chemicals. Not all PFAS have the same health effects.”
Research suggests that high levels of some PFAS may:
- Increase cholesterol levels.
- Decrease how well the body responds to vaccines.
- Increase the risk of thyroid disease.
- Increase the risk of some cancers.
- Increase the risk of serious conditions like high blood pressure or pre-eclampsia during pregnancy.
- Lower infant birth weights (the decrease in weight is small and may not affect health).
Krueger is a big advocate for testing when it’s inexpensive. PFAS is not. It can run upwards of $300.
He says he’s not an advocate of massive testing of private wells unless there’s some reason to expect it.
“We've been told this stuff is everywhere, and the fact is, from our testing, we've found that it might be everywhere at extremely low levels. The fact of the matter is it isn't everywhere, but it could be everywhere,” said Krueger.
The Wisconsin DNR did random sampling of 450 private wells in the state. The DNR’s groundwater study shows roughly 7 in 10 private wells contain one or more PFAS, but only 1 in 100 contain PFAS above DHS’ health guidelines, which were 20 parts per trillion at the time. It was that sampling that revealed the extremely high levels of PFAS found in the Stella area of Oneida County.
Of the nearly 2,000 public water systems tested in the state, about 90 came back with levels above the EPA standard of 4 parts per trillion.
If you get your water from a private well, the Wisconsin DHS website recommends testing for bacteria and nitrate at least once a year, and arsenic and lead at least once every five years.
For PFAS it says, “If you live near a PFAS contamination site, connect with your local municipality and the DNR to learn potential testing resources. If you do not live near a site of environmental contamination, it is unlikely that PFAS are a problem in your drinking water.”
Krueger says it can be a challenge to educate oneself about PFAS because there’s not a concise, single source of information when it comes to PFAS. Still, he does encourage people to learn about it.
“It's a situation where there's far, far too much information and far, far too few answers. That's unfortunate, but it just is what it is,” said Krueger. “Be skeptical of anybody that tells you that we got to worry about everything, and anybody that tells you that we don't have to be worried about anything, because the answer somewhere in between. Oftentimes it's connected to your own personal assessment, your own life assessment.”
