Students Map PFAS Hot Spots Across Finger Lakes
A Cornell student team sampled 300 water bodies to screen for 24 common PFAS compounds.
Updated on Nov. 3, 2026 in Geography
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Cornell undergraduates collected more than 500 water samples from 300 bodies of water across the Finger Lakes region and screened them for 24 common PFAS. Overall concentrations were relatively low, but hot spots exceeding New York state guidance values were found near airports and fire training stations.
Why it matters
Local residents previously lacked PFAS data for ponds, lakes, streams and creeks, a gap that became more pressing after the Environmental Protection Agency announced drinking water regulations in 2023. The public map gives New Yorkers a view of contamination beyond drinking water sources.
The sampling covered more than 500 samples from 300 bodies of water, screened for 24 common PFAS compounds. The study's sampling was limited to the screened compounds, so contamination from other PFAS chemicals remains unmeasured.
The players
Cornell University
Cornell is a private Ivy League research university in Ithaca, New York, whose undergraduate students conducted the sampling.
Environmental Protection Agency
The EPA is the U.S. federal agency responsible for environmental regulation, and it announced PFAS drinking water limits in 2023.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The CDC is the U.S. federal public health agency that reported PFAS in the blood of 97% of Americans surveyed.
The details
De-icing fluids used on airplanes and fire-extinguishing foams are known PFAS sources, which matches where the hot spots were found. The hot sites are not drinking water sources and are often isolated from other waterways, and the students' work is presented as a public interactive map.
Timeline
- 2023: EPA announced regulations to limit PFAS in drinking water.
- 2026: Cornell student team's Finger Lakes PFAS map was published.
The Big Picture
The EPA's 2023 PFAS drinking water regulations set federal limits for drinking water supplies, leaving ponds, lakes and streams largely outside that framework. The Finger Lakes map fills part of that gap by documenting surface water contamination region by region.
Residents near airports and fire training stations can check the public map to see whether nearby water bodies were among the hot spots. The students plan to use the accumulated data to identify high-priority areas in other regions of New York.
The takeaway
Local PFAS data for surface waters is now available for the Finger Lakes region, showing where contamination concentrates. Residents interested in their own water bodies can consult the public map as the students expand their work to other parts of New York.
Further reading
Explore more on Geography for context on how regional water monitoring shapes local environmental policy.
More information
Read the full Cornell story on the Finger Lakes PFAS map for the complete sampling details.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Tompkins Weekly.
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