MAD RIVER VALLEY, Vt. (WCAX) - The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is conducting a first-of-its-kind study to understand and improve PFAS treatment in Vermont.DEC Environmental Analyst Nadine Demers collects a sample from a public drinking water system in the Mad River Valley. She’s testing it for PFAS, highly toxic chemicals that can leach off everyday items into water systems. “PFAS is an issue that’s not going away,” Demers said.Vermont already tests for PFAS in drinking water. But this is the state’s first study of how well recently installed PFAS treatment systems are doing their job. “It feels really great to be part of solving this problem and contributing and expanding our knowledge base on how to remove PFAS from drinking water,” Demers said.Following PFAS regulations in 2019, twelve public water systems installed GAC, or granular activated carbon, PFAS treatment. Water flows through the GAC system, filtering out PFAS among other contaminants. “The PFAS compounds, the molecules themselves, adsorb to the surface of the medium,” Demers gestured to the filtration system. “That’s how they’re removed from the water.”Using federal funding, the state is sampling four of those GAC systems. “How efficient it is at removing PFAS from drinking water?” Sille Larsen with the DEC explained of the study. “How long is the lifespan of that media?”The research is especially important in light of new federal regulations with stricter maximum contaminant levels. The DEC says dozens of public drinking water systems across the state may need to install PFAS treatment in the coming years. “We want to help these systems understand how to best install and manage them to be most most cost effective and public health protective,” Larsen explained.Demers says smaller water systems, common in Vermont, could struggle to afford GAC treatment, which can cost hundreds of thousands. She hopes her research will help the state bring existing systems up to speed on a budget. “Optimizing the treatment so we’re not overdesigning,” Demers said. “So systems aren’t going to be overdesigned, leaving a water system with an unnecessary long term financial burden.”The DEC aims to fund PFAS treatment permitting and installation costs for the most vulnerable public water systems. They expect to wrap up the study in the next few years, depending on what sampling reveals.