Tap water polluted with PFAS banned for consumption in sixteen villages in eastern France

"Non-potable water" signs posted on fountains in four villages in Meuse, eastern France, on July 10, 2025. ROMAIN DOUCELIN/SIPA
"Non-potable water" signs posted on fountains and hundreds of packs of water delivered to residents: in four villages in Meuse (Grand Est) where tap water consumption is banned following the discovery of abnormal levels of perennial pollutants (PFAS), there is great concern.
"All of this is causing a lot of worry, a lot of stress" among the population, observes Manu Delgoffe, co-founder of a Facebook group dedicated to the issue, which brings together more than 200 local residents. "People are worried because, apparently, this pollution has been going on for many years."
The town halls of these villages in the north of the Meuse, Juvigny-sur-Loison, Louppy-sur-Loison, Han-lès-Juvigny and Remoiville, all located near a watercourse, the Loison, must provide drinking water to the 620 inhabitants who can no longer consume tap water.
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A law on perpetual pollutants enacted earlier this year plans to include PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in the health monitoring of drinking water. However, two samples taken this spring revealed PFAS levels well above the legal limit of 100 nanograms per liter (ng/l) in the distributed water. Between five and twenty times higher than the European guideline value, in the Meuse region!
Suspicions about the spreading of paper mill sludgeTwelve other municipalities in the neighboring Ardennes, with a total of 2,800 inhabitants, are also affected by the ban on tap water consumption, which could last at least until December.
In Villy (Ardennes), PFAS levels even reached a record in France, at 2,729 ng/l, 27 times the authorized limit. "I was stunned to see industrial pollution in my area, right in the middle of agricultural nature, in a very rural area," Eric Saunois, a farmer in Han-lès-Juvigny, one of the affected Meuse municipalities, told AFP.
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