Company: BCHT
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001477932-25-002237
Chunk: 5

Company: Birchtech Corp.
Filing Date: 2025-03-31
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 5
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 and man-made contaminants that may be found in drinking water. The SDWA covers water quality standards, treatment processes, and monitoring requirements for public water systems.  

The EPA has set maximum contaminant levels (“MCLs”) for specific contaminants in drinking water.  These include: microbial contaminants like bacteria, viruses, and protozoa (e.g., E. coli, cryptosporidium); inorganic contaminants like lead, arsenic, and nitrates; organic contaminants like pesticides and solvents; radionuclides like radon and uranium; and, disinfectants and disinfection by-products like chlorine and trihalomethanes (THMs).  Water systems must treat water to meet these MCLs or achieve a level that minimizes the risk to public health.

In April 2024, the EPA issued the first-ever national, enforceable drinking water standard to protect communities from exposure to harmful per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), also known as “forever chemicals”.  The Rule sets limits for five individual PFAS: PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFHxS, and HFPO-DA (known as GenX Chemicals).  The Rule also sets a hazard index level for two or more of four PFAS as a mixture: PFNA, PFHxS, HFPO-DA, and PFBS.  Under the Rule, public water systems must monitor these PFAS and will have three years to complete initial monitoring (by 2027), followed by ongoing compliance monitoring.  Water systems must also provide the public with information on the levels of these PFAS in their drinking water beginning in 2027.  Public water systems will have five years (by 2029) to implement solutions that reduce these PFAS if monitoring shows that drinking water levels exceed the MCLs set forth in the Rule. Beginning in five years (2029), public water systems that have PFAS in drinking water which violates one or more of these MCLs must take action to reduce levels of these PFAS in their drinking water and must provide notification to the public of the violation. 

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The EPA has indicated that once implemented, these limits will reduce tens of thousands of PFAS-attributable illnesses or deaths and will reduce PFAS exposure for approximately 100 million Americans served by public drinking water systems.

The EPA has indicated that compliance with this Rule is estimated to cost