A report from USA Today shows high levels of forever chemicals in the water in and around West Central Florida.
The chemicals, called PFAS, break down slowly and can build up in people, animals, and the environment over time.
The report shows PFAS levels six times over the federal limit at the University of South Florida and 4.3 times over the limit in New Port Richey.
Dr. Marie Bourgeois is a professor and toxicologist at the University of South Florida.
“I can’t think of a single municipal water system in the United States that doesn’t have PFAS in it, and while it is always going to be a concern to find chemicals of any kind in either surface water or groundwater or chemicals that don’t belong there, we are still trying to figure out what the potential human health impact is of PFAS exposure,” Bourgeois told WMNF.
She said research suggests negative effects on humans, but more testing needs to be done.
“We need to fund the research that will actually let us determine how big a hazard this has the potential to be for human health,” Bourgeois said.
However, Bourgeois said limits are set extremely low to protect the most vulnerable members of the population.
“So simply being exposed to six times as much does not necessarily mean they’re in six times the amount of danger, or they’re likely to suffer six times the amount of effects,” Bourgeois said.
This May, the Environmental Protection Agency worked to roll back its own limits on certain PFAS chemicals in water.
The EPA says many PFAS are found in the blood of people and animals around the globe, and are present at low levels in a variety of food products and in the environment.
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UPDATED 10/31/25 4:22 p.m. Updated the headline and photo to make clear that the data in the USA Today report comes from the University of South Florida’s central plant data, not the Tampa Water Department system.
This article appears in Oct. 23 – 29, 2025.