Oral Presentation Society for Freshwater Science 2026 Annual Meeting

Finding a Fluorinated Fingerprint? Examining spatial variation in and correlations between different PFAS compounds in New Hampshire groundwater (136071)

William G McDowell 1 , Sophia Beland 1
  1. Merrimack College, NH, United States

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are an emerging contaminant in freshwater ecosystems. Due to their persistence in the environment, this broadly used class of chemicals have been dubbed “forever chemicals” and can have negative human health consequences even in extremely low concentrations, with safe exposure rates in the parts per quadrillion range for PFOA and PFOS. Following the discovery of large PFAS contamination surrounding the Saint Gobain plastics production plant in Merrimack, New Hampshire in 2016, the state Department of Environmental Services began an aggressive testing campaign for both municipal and private water sources. Private water sources represent an intriguing data source, as residences that do not have municipal water rely on groundwater sources from private wells. We examined state data for over 17,000 well samples that tested for five different PFAS compounds (PFOS, PFOA, PFNA, PFBS, PFHXS) from 2016-2025. Using ArcGIS, we interpolated between sampling points to create a statewide map of PFAS concentrations in groundwater. We found PFAS “hotspots” throughout the state, particularly surrounding current and former landfill sites, the former location of the plastics plant, and former military bases. We are currently examining using a non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis to determine if sites adjacent to different types of contamination sources have a distinct “fingerprint” based on concentrations of the five different PFAS compounds.