Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-26-2023
Abstract
Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are an environmentally persistent group of chemicals that can pose an imminent threat to human health through groundwater and surface water contamination. In this review, we evaluate the subsurface behavior of a variety of PFAS chemicals with a focus on aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) discharge sites. AFFF is the primary PFAS contamination risk at sites such as airports and military bases due to use as a fire extinguisher. Understanding the fate and transport of PFAS in the subsurface environment is a multifaceted issue. This review focuses on the role of adsorbent, adsorbate, and aqueous solution in the fate and transport of PFAS chemicals. Additionally, other hydrogeological, geochemical, ecological factors such as accumulation at air–water interfaces, subsurface heterogeneity, polyfluorinated PFAS degradation pathways, and plant interactions are discussed. This review also examines several case studies at AFFF discharge sites in order to examine if the findings are consistent with the broader PFAS literature. We present the most crucial future research directions and trends regarding PFAS and provide valuable insights into understanding PFAS fate and transport at AFFF discharge sites. We suggest a more comprehensive approach to PFAS research endeavors that accounts for the wide variety of environmental variables that have been shown to impact PFAS fate and transport.
Source Publication
Soil Systems
Recommended Citation
McGarr, J. T., Mbonimpa, E. G., McAvoy, D. C., & Soltanian, M. R. (2023). Fate and Transport of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) at Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) Discharge Sites: A Review. Soil Systems, 7(2), 53. https://doi.org/10.3390/soilsystems7020053
Comments
© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Please fully attribute the citation below, including DOI in any re-use.