The True Cost of PFAS and Global Foundries Government Grants and Contracts
By Marguerite Adelman
April 7, 2024
Aerial view of the Global Foundries facility in Essex Junction, Vermont. The facility is on the Winooski River which flows into Lake Champlain.
Excuse me if I don’t celebrate the $125 million in federal and $4.5 million in state funding that Global Foundries (GF) announced at a press conference in March or the Department of Defense (DoD) multi-year contract for $3.1 billion in September of 2023. Just so you know, GF is located in Essex Junction, Vermont. The company makes semi-conductors and since 2015, occupies the 11.5 acres of the former IBM chip-manufacturing facility. Global Foundries is also the largest private employer in Vermont.
Besides our tax dollars for these grants and contracts, Vermonters will be paying exorbitantly now and into the future for the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other hazardous materials linked directly to the environmental contamination resulting from the semiconductor chips made by GF. PFAS are used extensively in the semiconductor industry from the photolithographic processes to chemical processing to packaging to the assembly system lubricants. The chip industry considers PFAS essential to its manufacturing processes and end products.
Semiconductor chips are at the center of GF manufacturing processes. The chips are used in solar and wind energy, electric vehicles, power grids, aerospace and defense systems, and so much more. The green energy revolution and the defense industry are reliant on PFAS, a man-made class of 15,000 toxic chemicals that bioaccumulate in living beings and are linked to birth defects and myriad chronic diseases. PFAS last for hundreds and thousands of years, hence the name, “forever chemicals.”
The Cost of PFAS Discharges and Air Emissions
If you look up GF in the Environmental Protection Agency’s new PFAS Analytic Tools, you’ll find some shocking results under “greenhouse gas emissions.” Global Foundries’ PFAS air emissions in Vermont are documented at over 262 metric tons for the past 12 years, averaging 22 metric tons or 48,501 lbs. per year.
Under “discharge monitoring,” the EPA permit requires GF to monitor the release of Vermont’s 5 regulated forms of PFAS into the Winooski River. The discharges have increased from 218 lbs. in 2021 to 486 lbs. in 2023.
Why are these numbers significant? According to a Minnesota Pollution Control Board report, PFAS can be bought for $50 to $1,000 per pound. It’s a pretty cheap chemical. However, it costs between $2.7 million to $18 million per pound to remove PFAS from municipal wastewater, depending on the facility size and type of PFAS.
The cost to prevent 48,501 lbs. of GF’s PFAS air emissions per year is harder to calculate. A Science Direct article estimates the cost at $0.9 million to $67 million per kg. of PFAAS (a subclass of PFAS). Twenty-two metric tons per year equals 22,000 kgs. When you do the math, the cost to prevent PFAS emissions into the air is in the millions and billions.
PFAS Personal Health Costs
The health costs of PFAS must also be considered. PFAS chemicals are endocrine disruptors, resulting in birth defects and chronic diseases, including breast cancer, endocrine disorders, metabolic disorders, kidney cancer, testicular cancer, liver disease, reproductive disorders and infertility, thyroid disorders, high cholesterol, and ulcerative colitis. A compilation of toxicity studies shows that virtually every type of PFAS examined is correlated with these adverse health outcomes. Cancer rates and infertility among both men and women are increasing, and the Centers for Disease Control has just recommended that people discuss getting PFAS blood tests with their doctors.
Health Care, Water, and Military Site Clean Up Costs
An NYU Grossman School of Medicine study estimated the annual health-related costs of PFAS between $5.5 to $63 billion annually. Removing PFAS from U.S. drinking water supplies to meet the EPA recommended Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCL) could add more than $3.2 to $7 billion annually to the bill, according to a report from the American Water Works Association. These PFAS-related water expenses are substantial costs for any community, but especially for low-income and small rural communities. Cleaning up PFAS at U.S. military bases could cost at least $31 billion. All of these costs could be broken down to represent what Vermont would be paying for health care, drinking water, and military bases, but I think you get my point.
After these celebrated grants and contracts have been fulfilled, Vermont citizens will be paying personally with their health and their money for a very long time. The semi-conductor chips used in the green energy revolution to slow climate change are sacrificing our health and our environment.
The “Not So Green” Revolution
There can be no green revolution with PFAS. However, there are already safer alternatives for most forms of PFAS. The International Chemical Secretariat, an independent non-profit that advocates substitution of safer alternatives to toxic chemicals, has online tools that industries can use to identify PFAS in their processes and products in order to find safer replacements.
PFAS chemicals are cheap to buy, but enormously expensive to clean up. According to Food and Water Watch, the U.S. chemical industry spent over $110 million during just the last two election cycles, deploying lobbyists to kill dozens of pieces of PFAS legislation—they were successful. It’s a shame that industry lobbying money wasn’t spent to develop safer alternatives.
Every day of delay in legislation leads to more PFAS contamination that irreversibly accumulates in the environment, harming our health and the health of future generations.
Treat the PFAS pollution crisis as the emergency that it is. Turn off the PFAS tap now and forever.
References:
https://awsedap.epa.gov/public/extensions/PFAS_Tools/PFAS_Tools.html
https://www.pca.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/c-pfc1-26.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969724007861?via%3Dihub
https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/environmentalhealth/108346
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/07/220726132528.htm
Marguerite Adelman is the Coordinator of the Vermont PFAS/Military Poisons Coalition, a project of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Burlington Branch and WILPF US Earth Democracy Committee