Community Groups Voice Concern over PFAS Discharges from GlobalFoundries Factory in Vermont

WASHINGTON, DC – CHIPS Communities United, a coalition of unions and community groups, raised concerns today about toxic “forever chemicals” in wastewater from semiconductor plants. Newly analyzed data from GlobalFoundries in Vermont revealed measurable levels of 17 different PFAS in wastewater. It is likely that other microchip factories release similar concentrations, but Vermont is the only state (we know of) that requires companies to report on PFAS in effluent. 

“As a neighbor of GlobalFoundries, I’m horrified to know these poisonous chemicals are flowing into the Winooski River and Lake Champlain,” said Marguerite Adelman of the Vermont PFAS/Military Poisons Coalition. “No factory should release hazardous substances into our local environment, but particularly not companies receiving taxpayer subsidies.” In February, the Commerce Department announced a proposed CHIPS Act award of $3.1 billion in grants and loans to GlobalFoundries for projects in Essex Junction, Vermont and Malta, New York.

Since late 2023, GlobalFoundries in Vermont has reported measurable levels of 17 PFAS chemicals in quantities up to 145 nanograms per liter (ng/l) for an individual chemical, totaling 290-417 ng/l. (See table below.) Local activists using a commercial laboratory found PFAS in the Winooski River, about a mile downstream from the GlobalFoundries outfall, at 8.3 ng/l.

The federal drinking water standard for some of these compounds is as low as 4 ng/l, but no amount is safe. Despite the known toxicity of PFAS, there are no legal restrictions on PFAS discharges from semiconductor factories into our nation’s waterways.

The actual pollution level may be much higher. There are thousands of PFAS chemicals, and targeted screening methods only measure a few of them. In June 2021, the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (VDEC) issued a Discharge Permit to GlobalFoundries allowing it to continue discharging treated wastewater into the Winooski River and requiring the company to measure five common PFAS compounds. It found measurable levels of all five. In October, 2023 VDEC instructed GlobalFoundries to sample for 35 additional PFAS, using U.S. EPA’s Method 1633. The total PFAS measured using Method 1633 is seven times higher than the total of the five compounds listed in the 2021 permit. (The table below is based on the Method 1633 analysis of 40 PFAS chemicals.)

Academic researchers, using more sophisticated analytic techniques to measure semiconductor plant wastewater, have found much higher levels of “nontargeted” PFAS, known as “dark PFAS.”

“These toxic chemicals build up in the environment, so any release should be prevented,” warned Lenny Siegel, executive director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO) and the former mayor of Mountain View, California, where he oversees the clean-up of SuperFund sites left by semiconductor manufacturing in previous decades. Siegel analyzed the data, and his report is being published today on the CPEO website. “Manufacturers introduce new PFAS compounds faster than they can be studied, but as far as we know, all of them are hazardous.”

“The CHIPS and Science Act is an opportunity to strengthen an important industry and make it clean and sustainable,” said Robb Kidd, Sierra Club, Vermont’s Conservation Program Manager. “The new data released about GlobalFoundries ‘forever chemicals' in Vermont is disturbing. As Vermont and the rest of the country transition to clean energy and clean transportation, we must make sure semiconductor factories are not exposing workers, neighbors, and Mother Earth to poisonous waste – it’s time for accountability.” 

PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a group of chemicals used in industrial and consumer applications. PFAS chemicals bio-accumulate and are all but indestructible, earning them the nickname “forever chemicals.” They are known to be toxic in extremely minute quantities.

CHIPS Communities United recommends the following actions to protect public health:

• Semiconductor plants should be required by state and federal authorities to report publicly their discharges of all PFAS into wastewater, using measurements of total organic fluorine to catch the many different chemicals being released.
• Manufacturers should be required to remove PFAS from their wastewater, using treatment technologies designed to remove all PFAS, regardless of carbon chain length or formula.
• The federal government should use CHIPS Act funds to support research and development to reduce and eventually phase out the use of PFAS in semiconductor production, informed by mandatory public reporting and citizen science in communities with chip fabs.
• To qualify for and be most competitive for federal cost-share, state and local governments should emphasize support for public infrastructure to keep workers and communities safe and waters and lands clean, rather than direct corporate subsidies.

This concern is not unique to Vermont or GlobalFoundries. "Hundreds of PFAS chemicals are discharged daily into our waterways by the semiconductor industry,” said Don Hughes, Conservation Chair of Sierra Club's Central New York group. “They contaminate our drinking water and sportfish across the country. These chemicals can cause serious health consequences, including cancer, yet no limits are imposed on them."

Semiconductor manufacturers use PFAS extensively and insist there are no adequate substitutes for the chemicals. Recent news reports efforts by the semiconductor industry to evade PFAS regulation. There are no limits on industrial discharge of PFAS or rules requiring sewage treatment plants to remove PFAS from wastewater, so PFAS used in manufacturing can end up in surface water and biosolids, which are frequently used in agriculture. Failure to measure, publicly report on, mitigate, and replace PFAS is a liability to reshore a safe, resilient, and innovative chips manufacturing ecosystem, which could be addressed by improving and enforcing transparency and reassigning CHIPS Act funds.

PFAS in final effluent from GlobalFoundries, Essex Junction, Vermont

Source: Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation

Italics indicate the five compounds regulated before 2023.

*Measurements reported in the original 2023 annual report that were not included in quarterly reports.