Brandywine Creek in Chester County contains microplastics, according to a new study that found plastic contamination in every waterway tested across the Delaware River watershed.

The PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center released the report on Wednesday, Sept. 30, announcing results from 22 rivers and streams sampled across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Delaware, MyChesCo reported. The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia tested the samples. The watershed supplies drinking water to more than 14 million people.

Brandywine Creek, which runs through Chester County before joining the Christina River in Delaware, was among the contaminated waterways, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters, roughly the size of a grain of rice. They can carry contaminants including PFAS chemicals and PCBs, according to the report.

Researchers found microfibers in all 22 sites. Microfragments appeared in 82% of locations, microfilm in 77% and microbeads in 27%. The contamination was as prevalent in forested stretches of the watershed as in urban areas, WHYY reported.

"The staggering amount of microplastics we found likely means that no river, no lake and no stream in the watershed is free from this contamination," Faran Savitz, a zero waste advocate with PennEnvironment, said at the Wednesday, Sept. 30 announcement.

No federal regulations govern microplastics in public drinking water, and most water providers do not monitor for them, according to WHYY's reporting. Pennsylvania is the only state in the Delaware River region that has not banned single-use plastic bags statewide.

The report calls for producer-responsibility legislation, bottle-deposit laws, restrictions on certain single-use plastics and limits on the dumping of pre-production plastic pellets known as nurdles.

David Velinsky, senior scientist at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, said the study shows the extent of microplastic pollution in the region's waterways "is significant." The study did not measure the level of contamination at individual sites or trace where the plastics originated.

Chester County residents already face related water-quality concerns. Aqua Pennsylvania is seeking East Goshen Township approval to install PFAS treatment equipment at a groundwater well facility on Thorncroft Drive. The East Goshen Board of Supervisors will hold a conditional-use hearing on that proposal at 7 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Township Building, 1580 Paoli Pike.