Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Data for East Coast and Upper Midwest PFAS study sites

Metadata Updated: September 4, 2025

Concentrations of Total40 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), and Total13 PFAS were consistently higher at the AFFF sites compared to the two East Coast reference sites in tree swallow eggs, nestlings, and diet by as much as a factor of 40 times higher. Sites in the Upper Midwest with other PFAS sources also had substantial, but qualitatively lower concentrations of PFAS compared to the AFFF-source sites. Perfluorooctane sulfonate was the only PFAS detected in all samples in all matrices. Concentrations of most other PFAS, such as the carboxylates and fluorotelomers among other PFAS, did not differ between AFFF and reference sites indicating that most other PFAS were not a significant proportion of the foam formulations used at these DOD sites and that they entered the environment from other sources. Perhaps indicating that diet is the dominant vector of exposure to tree swallows, there was a high correlation between concentration of Total40 in the diet (flying insects) and concentrations in both eggs (r = 0.82) and nestling carcasses (r = 0.93). Perfluorohexane sulfonate, the second most common constituent of the legacy AFFF formulations, was <1% of the Total40 at the reference sites in both eggs and nestlings, but PFHxS comprised up to 9.7% (eggs) and 9.0% (nestlings) at AFFF-influenced sites so it may be a good indicator PFAS to identify historical AFFF sources. The daily probability of both egg and nestling survival was similar across all sites and there was no association between the probability of daily egg or nestling survival and Total40 PFAS. There was also no association between these two measures of reproductive success and concentrations of individual PFAS. Two immune response metrics (haptoglobin-like activity [PIT54] and total immunoglobulin Y [IGY]) did not differ among sites. There were few differences among sites for the other biomarker assessments nor correlations with PFAS concentrations.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 4, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 4, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 4, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 4, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/33fd6d8b8ffc4ea0d65ecaaf9ec95288
Identifier USGS:675c6052d34e189836d1d4a3
Data Last Modified 20250820
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 924c73db-04eb-42ac-837f-3a47c8bf60f5
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -95.9766,37.9962,-66.7969,49.3824
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 5851cbe2135372170e8209f4630caaa0242fa03627d247cda32dc10ce9ec14c3
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -95.9766, 37.9962, -95.9766, 49.3824, -66.7969, 49.3824, -66.7969, 37.9962, -95.9766, 37.9962}

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.