Local teen uncovers Alexandria’s forever chemicals problem
(Jack Kiyonaga | Alexandria Journalism Project) Virginia high schooler Hera Lu-Yang set out in the spring to determine how safe drinking water is in Northern Virginia by conducting tests in numerous localities, including Alexandria, for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl substances, also called PFAS.
These forever chemicals come from a range of industrial products like Teflon, pesticides and fire extinguishing foam. Exposure may cause serious health issues such as prostate, kidney and testicular cancers, as well as decreased fertility and immune system strength, according to peer-reviewed scientific studies accepted by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Lu-Yang’s testing revealed that Alexandria’s water contains a high level of PFAS chemicals – almost three times that of neighboring localities. Her findings are in direct conflict with the most recent water quality reports from Alexandria’s water supplier, Virginia American Water.
So, who’s right, the teenager or the water company and can Alexandria residents afford to wait to find out?
The discovery
Lu-Yang, now a senior at McLean’s BASIS Independent School, became interested in PFAS chemicals following a summer internship at Nanjing University in China.
During the course of her program, Lu-Yang studied the “super strong binding affinity” of PFAS chemicals with human cells, and the devastating effects that these tiny, permanent chemicals have on protein development.
“They’re called forever chemicals because once they’re distributed in the environment, they don’t really break down,” Lu-Yang said. “Especially if they are in the human body, they will not break down within your lifespan.”
After that summer in China, Lu-Yang was hooked. She’d been interested in environmental science since the third grade, but the study abroad sparked a newfound fascination with forever chemicals.
“Because of this internship, I was super enamored with how the science worked behind it,” she explained. “That’s when we started this project.”
With the help of her mother, Dana, Lu-Yang embarked on her study of local water systems’ PFAS levels in late 2024. She started with the water in her own home in Falls Church, Virginia, before testing locations in Loudoun County; Washington D.C.; Montgomery County, Maryland; Arlington County and the City of Alexandria. It was only after testing across these various locations that a clear and disturbing trend appeared.
The District, Montgomery County, Arlington County and Falls Church were all “not too bad,” according to Lu-Yang, with results “low enough that you’re not going to worry too much.” Likewise, Loudoun County was “super, super low,” explained Lu-Yang.
The most surprising result came from Alexandria.
When Lu-Yang tested Alexandria’s water in April 2025 – which involved running the faucet to flush out the system before dripping water for 30 minutes through a special PFAS collecting filter – she was shocked at the result.
According to Lu-Yang, Alexandria’s water contained nearly three times the total amount of PFAS compared with surrounding localities. Intrigued, Lu-Yang double tested the Alexandria water again in July. Again, she came up with another extremely elevated PFAS level.
Lu-Yang calculated her results by measuring all PFAS chemicals present at over 1 part-per-trillion, or ppt. For Falls Church this number came out to 7.3 ppt. Arlington was 7.9. D.C., came in at 10.9, with Montgomery County at 9.4 and Loudoun County at 3.1. For Alexandria, that number was 22.3 ppt on the first test and 17.3 on her subsequent test.
The Alexandria result is a “huge outlier,” explained LuYang. And a troubling one since it directly contradicts the PFAS testing results released by Alexandria’s water provider, Virginia American Water.
Virginia American Water publishes water quality surveys annually. The most recent survey from 2024 demonstrates little to no PFAS chemicals in Alexandria’s water. Of the eight PFAS compounds listed in the survey, six are reported as “ND” or Not Detected, with only two compounds registering just a small amount.
When compared against these same eight PFAS chemicals, Lu-Yang’s numbers for Alexandria are drastically different. In her first test in April, where Lu-Yang measured a total of 22.3 ppt, 17.4 of that came from those same eight PFAS chemicals which Virginia American Water had reported at a total of only 3.6 ppt.
Her second test in July, which recorded a total of 17.3 ppt, showed 14.7 coming from those same aforementioned eight PFAS compounds. So, Lu-Yang’s findings differ from Virginia American Water’s not only in their total PFAS level, but also when compared to the same eight specific PFAS compounds.
Despite the high cumulative totals, Lu-Yang’s testing of Alexandria’s water showed that the city’s level for the two most common PFAS chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, was lower than the EPA’s maximum amount allowed of 4 ppt each.
2022, Virginia American Water reported significantly different results, which were more in line with Lu-Yang’s from 2025. In 2022, the water company reported PFAS levels exceeding the EPA recommendations. In fact, the 2022 resultsfound four PFAS chemicals – PFOA, PFOS, PhHxS and PFBS – all detected at “actionable” levels.
The findings were reported in local media, with then-Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson endorsing the EPA’s regulatory efforts to address PFAS in drinking water nationwide.
“While the proposed regulations detail the significant expense to remove these chemicals from our drinking water, we recognize that such an investment will improve the health and wellness of our residents,” Wilson wrote in a letter to the EPA in April 2023.
And if one were to look at only Virginia American Water’s water quality reports since then, it would seem as if the PFAS levels in Alexandria had been adequately addressed. But in an interview with the Alexandria Journalism Project, Wilson admitted that no PFAS mitigating projects were ever undertaken in Alexandria.
“It would certainly surprise me to see that the [PFAS] numbers had changed that much,” Wilson said regarding the current data from Virginia American Water.
A Virginia American Water spokesman, Ruben Rodriguez, recently explained that “the company agrees with the EPA that public health is paramount and, as always, will comply with any and all federal and state standards regarding PFAS.”
“American Water has extensive experience in designing and installing treatment for groundwater and surface water, including treatment for PFAS that allows us to meet all standards,” Rodriguez said.
In Alexandria, however, Virginia American Water only distributes water. It does none of the treatment or testing of Alexandria’s water. As Rodriguez explained, the water for Alexandria is purchased from neighboring Fairfax Water, which likewise supplies the testing results.
Where does our water come from?
When an Alexandria resident turns on the faucet or takes a shower, that water has traveled from one of two locations: either the Potomac River or the Occoquan Reservoir.
Water from the Potomac is treated at the Corbalis Treatment Plant, located in Herndon, and capable of handling 225 million gallons per day. Water from the Occoquan is treated at the Griffith Treatment Plant, which is located near the Occoquan Reservoir in Lorton, Virginia. It has a capacity of 120 million gallons per day.
While the Potomac may seem like the more likely culprit, it’s actually the Occoquan Reservoir whose waters are laden with the invisible forever chemicals.
According to Fairfax Water’s own monitoring results over a 12-month period, which were released in April 2025, the Griffith Treatment Plant has a major PFAS problem. Looking at seven PFAS chemicals, the testing revealed an average total of 55 ppt, with individual PFAS compounds registering as high as 22 ppt. Even for less common PFAS chemicals, the EPA’s maximum contaminant level is 10 ppt.
Likewise, these elevated results largely correspond with further testing that Lu-Yang conducted on the Occoquan Reservoir’s surface water.
The idea that the Occoquan Reservoir has PFAS contamination issues isn’t new. In fact, it has been widely recognized.
“PFAS is our biggest priority issue,” Dean Naujoks, an award-winning environmentalist for the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, said. For Naujoks, identifying and stopping the major source polluters for PFAS is the foremost concern.
“We need to cut off the big sources where it’s coming from,” he said. Naujoks, along with a coalition of farmers nationwide, launched a lawsuit against the EPA in the hopes of compelling the agency to regulate PFAS in sewage sludge used in agriculture.
A federal district court judge recently dismissed the lawsuit, citing a lack of jurisdiction. Even with the legal setback, Naujoks and other concerned citizens are still determined to use litigation in the fight against PFAS.
This past spring, Virginia Del. David Bulova (D-11th District) pushed for governmental intervention to scrutinize companies discharging PFAS into the Occoquan. Bulova’s bill, HB2050, was signed into law in April 2025 and looks to address and regulate these source contaminants.
The bill calls for monitoring the eight industrial companies who either discharge waste into the Occoquan’s sewage treatment plant or directly into the drinking reservoir’s watershed water bodies. Self-monitoring for these companies using EPA-approved methods began on Oct. 1, with results to be reported to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
After two years of survey, any company that is above the maximum contaminant level will have its discharge permit modified to ensure PFAS compliance by July 2029. While the bill is seen as a good first step, it does little to address the immediate PFAS levels in the drinking water system.
“PFAS testing in the Occoquan Reservoir showed that it was above EPA limits,” Bulova explained in an interview with the AJP. “This is a very significant health issue and it’s going to be expensive to be able to get our arms around it and solve it.”
Bulova and his office worked closely with Fairfax Water while HB2050 was being researched and written. Currently, according to Bulova, the most feasible solution is to regulate source pollutants rather than pursue better PFAS filtration at the water treatment plant, which would cost up to $400 million to install.
There is currently no monitoring of this industrial discharge by Fairfax Water, according to Fairfax Water’s Public Affairs Officer Susan Miller, and no PFAS filtration at the Griffith Treatment Plant itself.
“Right now, Fairfax Water’s treatment process does not take PFAS out. It’s not designed to do that,” Bulova explained. “Essentially what goes in in terms of PFAS is what comes out in the treated drinking water.”
In short, residents of Alexandria are drinking water which has direct discharge of PFAS from Micron, Quest Diagnostics, IBM, Sunoco, Freestate Farms, Smith Midland Corp., Commonwealth Recycled Aggregates and Washington Dulles International Airport.
So, since the Occoquan Reservoir has high PFAS levels, and the Griffith Treatment Plant has high PFAS levels, it’s not surprising that the Alexandria water system – which is receiving this same water without any further PFAS filtration – also has high PFAS levels. What is odd is the variation in testing results between Yu-Lang, American Water and Fairfax Water.
Miller explained that some of the variation in testing results could come down to time of year and rainfall levels.
“You’ll see variability [in PFAS results] seasonally,” she said. More rain equals lower PFAS concentrations. “You’re talking about very, very, very low amounts of PFAS that we have. So even just more rain or more water to dilute that PFAS can quickly change the level of that PFAS.”
Likewise, Miller cautioned that PFAS testing is an extremely sensitive process. “There is so much PFAS in the environment that it is actually very easy to contaminate a sample when you are collecting it yourself,” she said. When Fairfax Water does their testing, they take extreme steps to avoid contamination such as foregoing flossing in the morning and wearing specific clothing.
Lu-Yang’s first test for Alexandria occurred on April 20, which gave her the higher reading. Her follow up test was conducted on July 9, which resulted in the slightly lower reading.
According to Jeremy Geiger, a hydrologist at the U.S. National Weather Service, the Occoquan Reservoir area saw a “relatively dry” April with 2 to 4 inches of rain, and a “wet” July, with 4.5 to 7 inches of rain – results that correspond with LuYang’s higher reading in April and lower reading in July.
The reservoir receives most of its water from rainfall, according to the Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Lab at Virginia Tech, so more rain does in fact mean more water in the reservoir.
Per her testing, Lu-Yang explained that she followed a strict and uniform procedure for all of her tests. Lu-Yang used specific PFAS testing kits from Cyclopure, a renowned water testing service which developed these kits with funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Lu-Yang says she followed the exact same procedures for each test across the counties. As such, she doesn’t think that contamination makes sense as an answer to the Alexandria outlier, especially since she repeated the Alexandria test.
Next steps?
Are Alexandria residents just supposed to continue drinking, cooking and showering with water which has almost three times as many PFAS chemicals as neighboring counties? The short-term answer clearly seems to be yes. Fairfax Water contends the quickest way to begin lowering PFAS contamination is at its source.
“We’re working with regional partners to learn more about how PFAS is traveling through the environment so we can help stop the sources,” Miller explained. After addressing these PFAS polluting companies, Fairfax Water will be “testing out various PFAS removal options to find the most effective one for our specific drinking water. And then once we do that research, we will take the next step to implement the best treatment technique that we can find.”
But, Miller explained, the PFAS problem is complicated.
“Water utilities alone simply cannot solve this problem. … We need help from outside agencies to address the problem from a source water perspective.”
Part of the problem has to do with the Occoquan Reservoir itself. The Occoquan has a history of contamination issues going back to the 1960s when massive algae blooms, periodic fish kills and taste and odor complaints first started appearing.
Built in 1950, the 11 billion gallon-capacity reservoir is 13 miles long, 0.2 miles wide and located downstream from major urban areas.
“The short answer is we do not have a protected watershed,” Stanley Grant, director of the Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Lab at Virginia Tech, said. “That puts the reservoir at risk.”
Because most of the water in the Occoquan Reservoir comes from rainfall, figuring out how to prevent the entry of contaminants is complicated, Grant said.
“There are a lot of different pathways by which pollutants can get into the reservoir.”
Grant and his team have been monitoring PFAS in the reservoir since 2024. He says that it’s too early to say for sure what is the best method of addressing the PFAS problem but advised the public to “keep everything in perspective.”
“It’s not a four-alarm fire,” he said.
Fairfax Water has also devised a multi-pronged plan to tackle the issue. These measures include advanced water treatment, source water protection, legal action, advocacy and research.
Fairfax Water’s goal is to meet EPA’s PFAS standards by 2029. For Alexandria residents looking to protect their households from PFAS, the EPA recommends several relatively inexpensive types of home filters. These include granular activated carbon, ion exchange resin and reverse osmosis.
In the meantime, Lu-Yang is continuing her research into the problem and remains passionate about alerting residents to the dangers of PFAS.
“If there’s nothing done it could potentially get worse in the future,” Lu-Yang warned. “I think it’s really important that people have more awareness about PFAS.”