The Environmental Protection Agency is reevaluating regulatory drinking water limits for types of PFAS known as Gen X (PFHxS, PFNA and HFPO-DA), but will maintain limits and extend compliance deadlines set for PFOA and PFOS, two of the more common forms of the “forever chemicals.”
Last year’s drinking water limits for PFAS were introduced under the Biden administration to protect the public from links to kidney disease, low-birth weight, high cholesterol, and certain cancers. Public water systems were given three years to complete monitoring for these chemicals and required to inform the public of the level of PFAS measured in their drinking water.
That timeline will now move two years to 2031.
“We are on a path to uphold the agency’s nationwide standards to protect Americans from PFOA and PFOS in their water,” U.S. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced in a statement. “At the same time, we will work to provide common-sense flexibility in the form of additional time for compliance. This will support water systems across the country, including small systems in rural communities, as they work to address these contaminants.”
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National Rural Water Association CEO Matthew Holmes praised the extension and called it a “common-sense decision” that will give water system managers more time to identify affordable PFAS treatment technologies.
The EPA also announced its intent to establish a federal exemption framework, and initiate enhanced outreach to water systems, especially in rural and small communities, through the EPA’s new PFAS OUTreach Initiative (PFAS OUT). This initiative is designed to address the most significant compliance challenges that the EPA has heard from public water systems and stakeholders.
The EPA said it plans to issue a proposed rule this fall to address other PFAS chemicals and finalize it by spring 2026. It will also revisit the use of the Hazard Index mixture of the GenX chemicals, plus PFBS, “to ensure that the determinations and any resulting drinking water regulation follow the legal process laid out in the Safe Drinking Water Act,” the agency announced.
The use of the Hazard Index had been heavily criticized by groups such as the American Water Works Association and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies. The groups argued that the Safe Drinking Water Act does not give the EPA authority to use a hazard index as a maximum contaminant level (MCL).
The day prior to the EPA’s latest PFAS adjustment, the state of New Jersey announced a PFAS settlement of $450 million with chemicals producer 3M.
