On Wednesday, April 11, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officially announced the Biden-Harris Administration’s issuance of the first-ever national, legally enforceable standard for PFAS chemicals in drinking water.
It’s a strong and overdue move to protect communities from exposure to harmful per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as ‘forever chemicals.’ As many of you know, a focus of our research is on PFAS contamination, as we attempt to shed light on how these forever chemicals are impacting human and environmental health; and we also offer a PFAS testing program to our local community members.
Thus, we applaud and fully endorse this, as it not only protects the health of tens of thousands of Mainers – residents of our home state – but over 100 million Americans in total, which the EPA estimates will prevent thousands of deaths, and reduce tens of thousands of serious illnesses.
Exposure to PFAS has been linked to various health issues, including deadly cancers, damage to the liver and heart, as well as immune and developmental issues in infants and children. This final rule represents a major step forward in protecting public health under the EPA’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap.
This final rule will protect public health by establishing legally enforceable levels for several PFAS known to occur individually and as mixtures in drinking water. It sets limits for five individual PFAS: PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFHxS, and HFPO-DA (also known as “GenX Chemicals”). The rule also sets a limit for mixtures of any two or more of four PFAS: PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS, and “GenX chemicals.”
“This move by the EPA is an important step towards defining what’s truly safe when it comes to PFAS exposure from these six chemicals,” said Dr. Charlie Rolsky, executive director and senior research scientist at the Shaw Institute. “I understand why this may be difficult to do, given that new research comes out on a daily basis, but we need to start somewhere.”
Our associate scientist, Michelle Berger, added this: “The more we learn about PFAS, the more we realize just how dangerous they are. Originally, the U.S. EPA set a limit of 70 parts per trillion (ppt), then Maine and other states lowered it to ~20 ppt. This new standard leapfrogs the standards set by most states, lowering the allowable amounts significantly.”
The new levels are 4 parts per trillion for the more studied compounds, perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS. 10 parts per trillion are the threshold for hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid, or HFPO-DA, commonly referred to as GenX; perfluorononanoic, or PFNA; and perfluorobutanesulfonic acid, or PFHxS.
The EPA rule requires public water systems to monitor for six PFAS chemicals, giving them three years to complete the initial monitoring by 2027. Water systems also must provide the public with information on those levels starting in 2027 and they have until 2029 to implement solutions to reduce PFAS levels if they exceed the federal standards.
The EPA notes that it is issuing this rule after reviewing extensive research and science on how PFAS affects public health, while engaging with the water sector and with state regulators to ensure effective implementation. It has also considered 120,000 comments on the proposed rule from a wide variety of stakeholders.
Want to learn more?
Give us a call or email us at info@shawinstitute.org! We are happy to answer any questions you might have on the PFAS issue, our related research and our PFAS testing program. Plus, in the coming weeks, , EPA will host a series of webinars to provide information to the public, communities, and water utilities about the final PFAS drinking water regulation. To learn more about the webinars, visit the EPA’s PFAS drinking water regulation webpage. They have also published a toolkit of communications resources to help drinking water systems and community leaders educate the public about PFAS, where they come from, their health risks, how to reduce exposure, and about this rule.
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