The Water Center is pleased to announce the release of a new report, Beyond Drinking Water: Strategies for Communicating and Managing PFAS Contamination.
In April 2024, the EPA finalized a new National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR), setting limits – well below existing state standards – on PFAS concentrations in drinking water. While research into PFAS health risks is ongoing, exposure to some PFAS has been linked to certain cancers and other negative health outcomes. Because of these potentially adverse effects on human health, and because certain PFAS are known to occur in drinking water, the EPA determined that it was obligated to regulate these PFAS under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). This new rule will require many water systems to adopt new technologies into their existing treatment processes. When PFAS contamination is discovered in drinking water, water systems also become responsible for educating their communities about PFAS exposure risks, sources, and solutions.
Through interviews with water industry stakeholders, this report investigates how the water industry has been impacted by recent PFAS regulations. Interviewees describe the challenges of addressing PFAS in drinking water, especially funding treatment facility upgrades and mitigating increasing consumer distrust of public water. Water systems will continue to bear these burdens as we wrestle with the challenge of PFAS contamination. To address this challenge, interviewees advocate for a holistic approach that
- Addresses the sources of PFAS contamination, and
- Manages PFAS contaminated waste to prevent reentry into the environment.
The Water Center would like to express our gratitude to the members of our Corporate Roundtable for their support of this project, including: Aquatech, Bentley Systems, Aqua, Arcadis, Hach, Solenis, Veolia, and Wavin.