“Oil and gas operations are particularly bad places to use PFAS—or any type of dangerous chemical—because there are so many different pathways of contamination,” Horwitt says. PFAS doesn’t just get into our water but our air, too, due to the methane-flaring methods the industry uses. “It’s far too risky.”
Another study by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) found in October 2021 that Colorado may have more PFAS-contaminated sites than any other state, with 86 percent of those 21,000 sites involving the oil and gas industry.