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PFAS Remediation Across Europe: Costs and Limited Impacts
Summary
EU-wide PFAS remediation cost modeling estimated legacy cleanup at ~€37 billion over 20 years, with emerging PFAS scenarios (including ultra-short chain compounds) costing up to €100 billion annually — and even that may be insufficient given ongoing emissions. PFAS chemicals are persistent co-contaminants that adsorb readily onto microplastic surfaces, meaning microplastic and PFAS pollution must be addressed in tandem for effective environmental remediation.
Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widespread in environmental media, and concentrations are currently increasing due to substantial ongoing emissions. One approach to mitigating environmental PFAS exposure is through the remediation of existing stocks, contaminated sites, landfills and drinking water. However, the costs to achieve this on a regional scale and amounts of PFAS that could be addressed through remediation remain uncharacterized. To address this, all-EU costs for "legacy" and "emerging" PFAS remediation scenarios were developed based on publicly available site data, remediation cost data, and an expert assessment of currently scalable technologies on the initiative of the cross-border, collaborative investigation Forever Lobbying Project. A "legacy" scenario reflects remediation to remove previously emitted, long-chain PFAS currently widely regulated in Europe from selected hotspot sites and drinking water. The emerging scenario targets nearly all PFAS, including ultra-short chain PFAS, across a wider range of intermediate receptors, including wastewater e luent and biosolids. Legacy remediation costs across all 27 EU countries were estimated at approximately €37 billion over 20 years (€1.8 billion/year), while emerging costs that address shorter chain PFAS in more media were estimated to be about 20 times more expensive at €100 billion/year. However, even this level of investment may be insufficient. This emerging scenario treating 1,636 heavily contaminated European soil sites plus all large wastewater plant effluents, large drinking water zones, agriculturally applied sludges, and collected landfill leachate would still address 1 tons/year to 20 tons/year of PFAAs and precursors, which is less than 2% of current estimated EU emissions. The significant difference in costs between scenarios and the low proportion of emissions that can be addressed with remediation highlights the urgency of implementing use restrictions and source control for PFAS. Preventing PFAS pollution would be less costly and more impactful than relying on remediation after release.