Study of invasive mussels finds PFAS is nearly everywhere in the Great Lakes

‘Forever chemicals’ were found in mussel tissues at 106 out of 120 sampling sites across the Great Lakes

The highest average PFAS concentration was in Lake Michigan mussels, followed by the Niagara River, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the Detroit River

Newer PFAS alternatives in the lakes represent an ‘impending storm,’ one researcher said.

Every summer throughout the mid 2010s, researchers scoured the Great Lakes in search of PFAS contamination.

They took tissue samples from invasive mussels that have spread across the lakes near wastewater treatment plants, in rivers feeding into the lakes and from sites further offshore. They took samples from 120 sites in total.

The results: The scientists found PFAS nearly everywhere.

Those findings — published late last year by researchers at