Urban Rooftop Runoff May Contain PFAS Once It Rains

PFAS is getting into storm drains from the roofs of city buildings making people worried about pollution from urban runoff

Thursday, August 14, 2025 - Recent environmental testing has found that rainwater that falls off roofs in busy cities includes more PFAS, which are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. City planners and health specialists are worried about this. People used to not think of city rooftops as a source of pollution, but now they are being recognized as a major source of chemical runoff that flows into stormwater systems. The data show that PFAS can be found in roofing materials, paints, sealants, and even microscopic particles from industrial sites that land on surfaces. Every time it rains, these pollutants are rinsed away. After that, the chemicals get into nearby storm drains, rivers, and occasionally even the area's drinking water. Groups that care about the environment say that this makes it even more crucial for cities to control PFAS, where millions of people live and work. A lawyer who is working on PFAS cancer litigation noted that those who come into contact with this kind of runoff, especially if it gets into drinking water, may be able to join a PFAS drinking water contamination lawsuit. Experts warn that cities may not know how much pollution is flowing from above since they don't often check or clean the runoff from rooftops.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claims that PFAS have been detected in runoff that has been collected near houses and businesses after heavy rain. The EPA warns that roofs that are supposed to be helpful for the environment, including those with solar panels or green roofs, can nonetheless accumulate PFAS particles from the air. Rain washes chemicals into gutters and pipes, which subsequently flow into the same streams that feed city systems. The stormwater systems in most cities were never built to catch or clean up chemicals. Because of this, the PFAS that comes off of rooftops adds to pollution in the environment as a whole, which has a significant effect on those who live downstream. Public health experts seek better monitoring of urban runoff and new standards that stipulate construction materials must not contain or be resistant to PFAS. Lawyers say these discoveries could change who is liable in PFAS contamination lawsuits, especially when cities haven't analyzed or made public the pollution sources that are linked to urban runoff. Some places are looking into initiating pilot initiatives to put pre-filtration systems in buildings that could trap PFAS before the water travels into storm drains. However, cost is still a huge hurdle that prevents this from happening on a wide scale. When PFAS is found in runoff from roofs, it shows that contamination can come from locations that aren't always obvious, like factories or landfills. Any flat area in a city that is open to the sky could make pollution worse. This new information broadens the PFAS problem and makes officials think about other ways to simulate contamination outside the usual ones.

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