The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to approve the proposed response to a fiscal year 2025-2026 grand jury report regarding levels of “forever chemicals” found in the county’s drinking water.
Initially released in early June, the report indicated that high levels of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances(PFAS) are present in contaminated drinking water in communities near manufacturing facilities, including the OC groundwater basin, which supplies 77% to 85% of the drinking water for the north and central parts of the county.
PFAS are a class of thousands of synthetic chemicals characterized by having some of the strongest carbon-fluorine bonds within organic chemistry, making them extremely difficult to break down and causing them to persist in the environment for decades. First produced in the 1940s, these man-made chemicals are often used in surface coatings and protective formulations for their unique ability to repel oil, grease and water…