Abstract
Per and Poly Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are a group of Carbon and Fluorine bonds that are highly persistent and used in heat resistant materials such non-stick cook ware, fast food wrappers and Aqueous Film Forming Foams (AFFF). PFAS has been shown to disrupt thyroid and kidney function and because of the strength of the carbon-fluorine bond, breaking down these materials is not feasible. When AFFF is applied, over time it percolates into the vadose zone and eventually enters the water table, making it susceptible to human consumption and posing a risk to human health. PFAS has shown to sorp to the soil and to the Air Water Interface in partially saturated media. To understand how this sorption affects different PFAS, the vadose zone of a firefighting training facility was modeled using the modeling software HYDRUS to compare three different types of PFAS and how they transported with and without sorption to the Air Water Interface. It was concluded that different chains of PFAS transport at different rates, based off the length of the carbon-fluorine chain, but also that sorption to the Air Water Interface significantly increases the transport time of PFAS in the vadose zone.