Trace amounts of PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals, have turned up in freshwater bodies across western Massachusetts, with the Deerfield River registering 1.3 nanograms per liter, the Chicopee River at 3.9 ng/L, and the Millers River posting the highest reported concentration in the region at 4.8 ng/L. The readings are part of a broader pattern of contamination found across the state’s rivers, ponds and lakes, raising fresh questions for anglers, paddlers and anyone who draws drinking water from groundwater fed by these waterways.
The findings come from reporting by the Daily Hampshire Gazette, which also reported concentrations of 3.41 ng/L in Powdermill Brook and 3.7 ng/L in Buck Pond. By far the highest surface-water concentration reported anywhere in Massachusetts was 97 ng/L at Ashumet Pond, located between Falmouth and Mashpee on Cape Cod, according to the same reporting. Those numbers sit against a backdrop in which Massachusetts has no state standard for maximum PFAS contamination levels in surface water, the Gazette reported, even as the state’s drinking-water maximum contamination level stands at 20 ng/L, according to Athol Daily News.
How Widespread Is the Contamination
The scope of the testing itself is striking, even if the exact sample size differs between accounts. One account from GBH reported PFAS detected at 87% of 108 Massachusetts locations tested between 2022 and 2024, while the Gazette’s reporting put the figure at 87% of 97 locations sampled over the same period. Either way, the detection rate lines up with a national pattern: a nationwide analysis found PFAS at least once at 1,329 of 1,602 monitored surface-water locations, or 83%, according to the MASSPIRG Education Fund.
The analysis behind those numbers drew primarily on EPA Water Quality Portal data, supplemented by monitoring shared by Waterkeeper Alliance and state agencies in Maine and Massachusetts, per the same MASSPIRG report. Researchers detected 114 different PFAS compounds across the included monitoring data, and separately, GBH reported that 30 different PFAS turned up in the Charles River, along the ocean coastline, and in ponds and lakes statewide. Waterways swept into the broader analysis ranged from the Charles River and Jamaica Pond to the Connecticut, Chicopee and Hoosic rivers, GBH reported, with other locations tested including Oxbow Pond in Easthampton, where concentrations reached 2.8 ng/L, and the Connecticut River in Chicopee, at 1.5 ng/L, according to the Gazette’s reporting.
Concerns for Anglers Who Eat Their Catch
For anglers along the Deerfield watershed, the numbers carry a personal edge. Paul Beaulieu, a retired environmental scientist and board member of the Deerfield River Watershed Chapter of Trout Unlimited, said the presence of PFAS raises concern for river health and for anglers who fish there, including those who eat their catch. Beaulieu said fishing commonly happens high in the Deerfield watershed, an area often perceived as pristine, and he has personally caught rainbow trout in the river’s northern tributaries for chapter fish fries…