How to use a PFAS water sampling kit

RENSSELAER, N.Y. (NEWS10)-- For those who are concerned about PFAS in their water, homeowners have two options- paying $350 dollars or $500 dollars for a testing kit to help determine the level of contaminates in their drinking water.

When it comes to using the less expensive kit, Brian Collins, the lead technical director at Capital Region Laboratory said after washing your hands and running the faucet for 5 minutes, the next step is to put on gloves that are suppled in the kit and fill two bottles with water.

After the water sample has been collected, place it in a cooler filled with ice, and bring it to the Capital Region Environmental Lab, where they will send it out to a state certified lab to be tested.

"The whole time is 14 days," said Collins. "That for the laboratory to actually receive the samples and do what they call an extraction procedure. All that entails is adding a certain chemical that draws out PFAS chemicals into solution for testing. After that, they have a 28 day hold time to do the actual testing based on that filtration that they have done and collected."

Results are emailed back to the clients. For homes with PFAS results with levels higher than 10 parts per trillion, filtration systems are recommended.