PFAS in Gullspångsälvens catchment area

Abstract: Gullspångsälvens catchment area starts in the county of Dalarna and ends in the lake Vänern. On the way the water passes a couple of villages and small towns. The aim of the project is to identify point sources of PFAS and see their influence on the PFAS levels in the systems surface water. In the area some point sources have been identified. The villages and towns have waste water treatment plants and there are also a couple of landfills. Sampling have been carried out at expected point sources as well as in the surface water close to human activities. The samples have been extracted with SPE and analysed with LCMS-MS. Results show that the levels of PFAS is increasing through the system and that the expected point sources release PFAS to the environment. It was also possible to identify an earlier unknown point source. Compared with levels in other parts of Sweden (S-EPA, 2016) the levels of PFAS in the system is within a normal range except for the levels close to the until now unknown point source.