Community members soon may be able to help test for PFAs in the Gulf and bay waters and in marine life.
Holmes Beach Clean Water Ad Hoc Committee chair Jennifer Miller told The Islander Oct. 10 that the city is collaborating with University of Florida professor John Bowden on a citizen science water-testing effort.
The CWC was established in 2021 to act as an advisory board for the city commission with a focus on community activity, philanthropy and government action to improve water quality.
The board has long been interested in polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAs or “forever chemicals” due to their limited degradation and the ability to stick around for thousands of years.
The compounds are toxic synthetic chemicals that resist grease, oil, water and heat, and have been used since the 1940s in a variety of everyday products, such as nonstick cookware.
Exposure to PFAs, which accumulate in humans and animals, has been associated with serious health effects.
A 2023 UF study under Bowden found seven types of PFAs in 11 water samples from Manatee County, including one with high levels of the chemicals.
For comparison, the study only found two different types of PFAs in Sarasota County samples.
Bowden and UF are now studying the presence of PFAs in fish from across the state, which has a large seafood industry, and islanders may be able to help.
The initiative includes a list of fish species Bowden and his students hope to study for PFA exposure, but collecting samples from each fish is a tall task.
So they are hoping to crowdsource the samples.
Miller said UF is distributing test kits to Holmes Beach and in turn to local anglers for sample collection.
The test kits will provide a sample container for a thumbnail slice of a fish, with instructions, packaging and prepaid postage for shipment to Gainesville for study.
So far, the city has five test kits, but it has requested 100, according to Miller.
She said they have yet to determine a method for distributing the kits but were waiting to receive more before they start handing them out.
“Bowden does need the assistance, so it’ll be an opportunity for people out in the water to help them collect that data,” Miller said.
However, that may be just the start of the city’s collaboration with Bowden and UF.
Commissioner Terry Schaefer, the city’s liaison to the CWC, told The Islander Oct. 8 that the municipality donated $10,000 to UF to support and “more closely” collaborate on its PFA testing efforts.
He said the future of that collaboration has yet to be determined, since they did not want to overlap with other research.
So UF and the University of South Florida will work together to determine where and what form of testing would be most beneficial to PFA research efforts, according to Schaefer.
Ultimately, both Miller and Schaefer agreed, the goal is to build awareness about PFAs and potentially help lead to change at the local, regional and state levels.
For now, Miller recommended islanders use reverse osmosis water filters, or buy bottled water using RO filtering, to help prevent exposure to forever chemicals.