Austrian groundwater data disclosed by the Ministry of Agriculture (BMLUK), which is responsible for water protection, following an environmental information request by GLOBAL 2000 show a steep rise in levels of the forever chemical TFA (trifluoroacetic acid).
At all 16 monitoring sites with results from both 2018/2019 and 2024, TFA concentrations increased. On average, they more than doubled over about five years, from 1.36 to 2.86 µg/L (+110%; see Figure 1, left). Not a single site showed stable or decreasing concentrations. The largest increase at an individual site was +318%. The mean across all sites sampled in 2024, 2.42 µg/L, exceeds the Dutch drinking-water guideline value of 2.2 µg/L — the same value that BMLUK applied when assessing this campaign. Because TFA is extremely persistent and emissions are continuing, groundwater concentrations are expected to rise further.
