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Reading passage Grade 11 Careers & CTE

Northmoor Water and the PFAS Problem: A Chemist's Career Passage

A grade 11 careers passage following a water quality chemist who leads a utility's PFAS response, with a regulatory timeline and comprehension questions.

Objectives

  1. Students will identify the daily work and education path of a water quality chemist responding to PFAS.
  2. Students will integrate a narrative with a regulatory timeline to explain how a rule is still changing.

Vocabulary

PFAS
A large family of human-made chemicals used in things like nonstick pans, waterproof fabric, and firefighting foam. They are called forever chemicals because they take a very long time to break down.
Parts per trillion
A unit for measuring extremely small amounts of a chemical in water. PFAS limits are set in parts per trillion because these chemicals matter even in tiny doses.
Granular activated carbon
Small black grains of specially treated carbon that grab contaminants as water flows through them. Utilities use big tanks of it to remove PFAS, bad tastes, and odors.

Also: pilot test

Teacher overview

This passage follows a water quality chemist at a fictional utility as she leads its response to PFAS, a group of long-lasting contaminants now regulated in drinking water. It shows what her job looks like day to day, the education path into the role, and how she works under a health limit that is fixed while the compliance deadline may change. A teacher can assign it to introduce a science-and-communication career and to practice pulling information from both a narrative and a data table.

Northmoor Water and the PFAS Problem: A Chemist's Career Passage — Grade 11 Careers & CTE
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Passage

The Chemist Who Chased a Forever Chemical

At the fictional Northmoor Water utility, the person leading the response to PFAS is a water quality chemist named Dana Ruiz. The PFAS response has become one of the most demanding parts of her job.

PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a large family of human-made chemicals. People call them forever chemicals because their strong chemical bonds resist breaking down, so they can linger in soil and water for a very long time. They were used for decades in nonstick coatings, waterproof fabrics, and firefighting foam. From those uses, some PFAS soaked into the ground and reached the groundwater that many towns pump for drinking water. Researchers have linked certain PFAS to health concerns, which is why regulators decided to act.

In April 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency set a national limit of 4.0 parts per trillion each for two of the most studied PFAS, called PFOA and PFOS. A part per trillion is a tiny amount, roughly one drop of water in 20 Olympic-size swimming pools, which is part of what makes Dana's work difficult. The rule set a deadline by which utilities had to meet the limit. That deadline, however, may not hold for every utility. In May 2026, the agency proposed letting eligible water systems apply for a two-year exemption that would extend their deadline from April 2029 to April 2031. It would not be an automatic extension for every utility, and as of September 2026 the proposal was not final. For Dana, this means the health target is fixed while her schedule is uncertain.

Her day begins with sampling. Collecting a PFAS sample takes unusual care, because PFAS is so common that it hides in ordinary supplies. Some gloves, some sample bottles, and even some rain jackets contain it, so a careless sample can pick up contamination that was never in the well. Dana follows a strict clean-hands procedure and ships the sealed samples to a laboratory certified to measure parts per trillion. When the results return, she reads them against the limit and looks for trends across the utility's wells.

When a well runs high, Dana studies how to treat it. Three methods can remove PFAS: granular activated carbon, which acts like a sponge for the chemicals; ion exchange, which swaps the PFAS out of the water; and reverse osmosis, which pushes water through a fine membrane. Each has a different cost and a different waste stream. Before Northmoor spends millions on full-scale equipment, Dana runs a pilot test, a small trial version of the treatment, to see how well it performs on the utility's actual water.

The rest of her job is talking. Dana explains her results to the utility's board in plain language, writes public notices that a resident can understand, and answers questions at community meetings. A number that means nothing to most people, such as a result in parts per trillion, becomes real only when she can explain what it means for a family's tap water.

Dana's path into the role started with a college degree in chemistry, followed by laboratory experience and training on drinking-water rules. She tells students that the job rewards two skills at once: careful science and clear communication. She says the chemistry can be learned, and that the patience to explain it is just as important.

PFAS regulation in motion

When What happened
April 2024 EPA set a limit of 4.0 parts per trillion each for PFOA and PFOS
April 2029 The compliance deadline for utilities to meet the limit
May 2026 (proposed) EPA proposed letting eligible systems apply for a two-year exemption, to April 2031 (not final as of September 2026)

Questions

  1. What does PFAS stand for, and why are these chemicals called forever chemicals?
  2. What limit did the EPA set in April 2024 for PFOA and PFOS?
  3. Why must Dana use special care when she collects a water sample for PFAS testing?
  4. Using the timeline and the passage together, explain what EPA proposed about the compliance deadline and why the passage describes the rule as regulation in motion.
  5. Name two treatment methods Dana can use to remove PFAS, and explain why she runs a pilot test before choosing one.
  6. The passage says Dana's job blends science and communication. Give one detail that shows the science side and one that shows the communication side.
  7. Explain why an uncertain compliance deadline can make Dana's work harder even though the health limit itself has not changed.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. They are called forever chemicals because their strong bonds resist breaking down, so they linger in soil and water for a very long time, as the second paragraph explains.
  2. Answer: A limit of 4.0 parts per trillion each for PFOA and PFOS, set in April 2024, as stated in the passage and the timeline.
  3. Answer: Because PFAS is so common that it hides in ordinary supplies like some gloves and bottles, so a careless sample could pick up contamination that was not actually in the well. The passage describes her strict clean-hands procedure.
  4. Answer: In May 2026 EPA proposed that eligible systems could apply for a two-year exemption from the April 2029 deadline, to April 2031, while the 4.0 parts-per-trillion limit stayed the same. The proposal was not final and would not apply automatically to every utility. The passage calls it regulation in motion because the schedule is uncertain even though the health target is fixed.
  5. Answer: Any two of granular activated carbon, ion exchange, and reverse osmosis. She runs a pilot test first to see how well a method performs on the utility's actual water before spending millions on full-scale equipment.
  6. Answer: Science side: any of sampling with a clean-hands procedure, reading lab results in parts per trillion, or running a pilot test. Communication side: any of explaining results to the board, writing public notices, or answering questions at community meetings.
  7. Answer: Answers will vary but should note that an uncertain deadline makes planning, budgeting, and public messaging harder, since Dana must prepare treatment and inform residents without a settled schedule, even though the parts-per-trillion target she must reach has not moved.

Differentiation

Support

Provide a two-column chart labeled "Science tasks" and "Communication tasks" for students to fill in from the passage before answering question 6, and allow question 4 to be answered by pointing to the correct timeline rows first.

Extension

Ask students to write a short paragraph, using only the passage, advising a younger student on which two skills Dana says the job rewards, and why an accurate result in parts per trillion still needs a clear explanation to be useful.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "PFAS," "parts per trillion," "granular activated carbon," and "pilot test" with simple definitions and a visual for each. Allow the literal questions (1, 2, 3) to be answered with short phrases rather than full sentences.