In order to understand the extent to which airborne PFAS emission can impact soil and groundwater, we conducted a sampling campaign in areas of conserved forest lands near Bennington, VT/Hoosick Falls, NY. This has been home to sources of PFAS air-emissions from Teflon-coating operations for over 50 years. Since 2015, the Vermont and New York Departments of Environmental Conservation have documented ∼1200 residential wells and two municipal water systems across a 200 km² area contaminated with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Given the large areal extent of the plume, and the fact that much of the contaminated area lies up-gradient and across rivers from manufactures, we seek to determine if groundwater contamination could have resulted primarily from air-emission, land deposition, and subsequent leaching to infiltrating groundwater. Sampling of soils and groundwater in the Green Mountain National Forest (GMNF) downwind of factories shows that both soil and groundwater PFOA contamination extend uninterrupted from inhabited areas into conserved forest lands. Groundwater springs and seeps in the GMNF located 8 km downwind, but >300 meters vertically above factories, contain up to 100 ppt PFOA. Our results indicate that air-emitted PFAS can contaminate groundwater and soil in areas outside of those normally considered down-gradient of a source with respect to regional groundwater flow.

中文翻译：

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美国佛蒙特州西南部和东部纽约州的工业空气传播和土地沉积，PFAS对土壤和地下水的污染

为了了解机载PFAS的排放会在多大程度上影响土壤和地下水，我们在纽约州VT / Hoosick Falls的Bennington附近的保护林地地区开展了一次采样活动。50多年来，这里一直是聚四氟乙烯涂层操作产生的PFAS排放源的所在地。自2015年以来，佛蒙特州和纽约环境保护部已记录了200平方公里处的1200口居民井和两个市政供水系统²全氟辛酸（PFOA）污染的区域。考虑到羽流的面积很大，而且大部分受污染区域位于坡度上，并且跨过制造商的河流，因此，我们试图确定地下水污染是否可能主要是由空气排放，土地沉积和随后的淋洗引起的渗入地下水。工厂顺风的绿山国家森林（GMNF）中的土壤和地下水采样表明，土壤和地下水的PFOA污染都从居住区不间断地延伸到了保护林地。GMNF中的地下水泉和渗流位于下风向8公里处，但在工厂上方垂直> 300米处，含有高达100 ppt的PFOA。