The drinking water in the Maries County town of Vienna is contaminated with high amounts of a chemical called PFOS, or perfluorooctanesulfonic acid. It’s a type of “forever chemical” – man-made compounds known for not naturally breaking down that research has linked to health and environmental risks.
There are thousands of forever chemicals, also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Many of them are still used today in countless industrial and household products. PFOS, in particular, was a key ingredient in 3M’s Scotchgard fabric protector until it was phased out in the early 2000s.
In April 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set two federal standards for six types of PFAS in drinking water: one health-informed goal and one practical, enforceable limit.
Those limits will begin to be enforced in 2029. The EPA delegates enforcement of its rules to states, which need to incorporate them into their own regulations. That can take around 18 months.
“In the interim, EPA still has authority over the rule, but Missouri is actively working on the initial monitoring stage of the rule to help water systems collect data,” said Eric Medlock, chief of the monitoring section for the public drinking water branch of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
For PFOS, the agency set a goal of 0 parts per trillion and a maximum allowable level of 4 parts per trillion.
Vienna’s drinking water sample had 20 parts per trillion — five times the federal limit — and that's after it had been filtered at the local water treatment plant, which serves around 600 customers, including the local schools. .
“Twenty is on the high side of what we’ve typically seen at this point,” Medlock said. “If that level (remains at) or above 20 parts per trillion in April of 2029, that system would be out of compliance and required to install treatment or find an alternative water source.”
Tests for some other PFAS in the water were approaching the legal limit. Medlock said it’s important to remember that this is just one sample, and the EPA’s maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs, will be based on the average of quarterly samples.
Shon Westart is the Vienna City Superintendent. He said the next step is collecting more samples.
“This is all new to me,” Westart said. “I'm working with the (Department of Natural Resources) and the EPA. We actually had a meeting last week over this. We're hoping to get some grant money and maybe have the EPA help us get some more sampling.”
While monitoring and treating PFAS might be a new challenge, Westart and the people of Vienna are not strangers to water issues.
Vienna's industrial legacy
Henry Ellis Crum Jr. has owned a hardware store in Vienna for nearly 50 years. But as a young man, he worked at the town’s hat factory, owned by Langenberg Hat Company.
“It was quite a good thing for us all, having employment,” he said “It made a lot of income for the families here.”
The company owned the factory between 1952 and 1990, before selling it to Top This, Inc., according to a Public Health Assessment from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
In 1994, the city drilled a new well and began using it as its primary source for drinking water. Two years later, the hat facility closed.
One year after that, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources found a chemical called tetrachloroethylene — also known as perchloroethylene, or PCE, in the well.
According to the EPA, even short-term inhalation of PCE can lead to health impacts, including kidney dysfunction, dizziness and loss of consciousness.
Long-term exposure can cause damage to neurological, kidney, liver, immune and reproductive systems. The agency has also classified it as “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”
The quantity of it in Vienna’s water kept increasing. By 2006, the concentration had exceeded the EPA’s maximum contaminant level for PCE. It continued to increase from there.
The EPA established a “superfund” site in Vienna, where contamination has been cleaned up since.
In the early 2010s, the city built a new treatment plant with an “air stripper” capable of filtering out volatile organic compounds such as PCE from the water.
“Now it's completely out of our water system,” Westart said.
But that came with a price.
“When we did this, we replaced our distribution system too, got rid of the cast iron, put in all plastic into the ground, PVC, and I think the total project was like $2.8 million,” he said.
Federal grant money paid for about half of that, according to Westart. But the city, and residents, had to foot the bill for the rest.
“We had to raise water bills to get any kind of grant money,” Westart said. “You gotta meet the criteria where your rates need to be, so we had to do a rate study and stuff like that, which was a little shell shock at the time.”
Today, the EPA is still treating the town’s groundwater. According to a 2017 Record of Decision from the agency, it will take 30 years of operation and maintenance.
Shocks and shrugs
KBIA was in Vienna the day the city announced on social media that PFOS had been detected in the water. Reactions to the test results were mixed.
Some business owners, who didn’t want to talk on the record, were upset they hadn’t heard earlier – the tests were completed in November and they were just finding out in April. They’re worried about how the news will impact their business and that it will scare away visitors and customers.
Some people felt vindicated. Lisa Garro is the director of the local library. She lives just outside of town and uses a private well. She said ever since the revelation about PCE, she brings her own water into town.
“I’m glad I don't drink the water,” she said. “And people that have worked at the Department of Natural Resources, I know they have told people ‘don't drink the water if you go to Vienna.’”
On the other hand, Crum, who used to work at the hat factory, isn’t worried at all. Like Garro, he lives outside of city limits. But he said this probably won’t stop him from drinking city water sometimes, like at a restaurant.
“I don't see that it's killed anybody,” he said. Because of how many different kinds there are, tracking the effects of PFAS over time is a challenge for scientists, according to the EPA.
Crum’s son, Craig, works at his shop and he isn’t too concerned either. He also said he wasn’t surprised.
“I mean, you've heard the news globally talking about how they found it everywhere,” he said. “So what were the odds that they weren't going to find it here?”
“At least now they know so they can formulate a plan,” he added. “ I use the city water some. But because they gotta treat it because of the other issue, it tastes so heavily-chlorinated that I already use some bottled water.”
Eric Medlock, with the Department of Natural Resources, said as they’ve tested more water systems in Missouri, they’ve actually found results that some might find surprising.
“The good news for Missouri and most of the Midwest is we are not finding it everywhere,” he said. “Unlike what a lot of the media has covered – that you'll basically find it on everything, in everything, and it's everywhere – that's just not been the sampling that we've done so far.”
The results of the sample collections are publicly available on the department’s website.
“By looking at that map viewer you will notice a lot of green dots, which is a good sign that no PFAS was detected in those samples,” he added. “And there are a lot of green dots.”
