The Brussels regional water company Vivaqua has found residues of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) in our capital city’s drinking water. Trifluoroacetic acid is a synthetic chemical compound from the PFAS group. The news that TFA has been found in Brussels’ drinking water was reported this week by the Brussels regional news platform BRUZZ.
TFA is an environmentally harmful chemical product that belongs to the group of products known as ‘forever chemicals’, i.e. products that nature cannot break down. If Vivaqua has to filter the TFA out of the drinking water, this will place an enormous financial burden on an organisation that already has major financial headaches.
Trifluoroacetic acid is a colourless substance, but it has a pungent odour. Vivaqua is investigating the presence of ‘Forever Chemicals’ in 6 water storage basins from where communities in the capital are supplied with drinking water. A maximum permissible level of 500 nanograms per litre of water applies in the EU for chemical substances from the PFAS group. However, this will not come into force in the Brussels region until 2026.
According to the report published in BRUZZ TFA levels below the EU maximum were found in only 8 of a total of 287 samples taken from water supplied by Vivaqua.