Researchers detected “unexpectedly” high levels of PFAS in landfill gas, adding to a growing body of evidence on how “forever chemicals” leave waste sites.
According to an EPA-funded study recently published in the peer-reviewed Environmental Science and Technology Letters, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances could be escaping landfills via gas at concentrations similar to — if not higher than — liquid leachate.
The percentages of PFAS being released through gas were higher than the percentages estimated in a recent EPA review, “meaning it is a more important pathway for release than previously thought,” said Ashley Lin, the study’s lead author and a researcher at the University of Florida.
“We are hoping to bring more research attention to PFAS in landfill gases as was done with landfill leachate,” Lin said in an email.
