The EPA has finalized its first-ever national drinking water standard for PFAS pollution.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued the first-ever national, legally enforceable drinking water standard to protect communities from exposure to harmful per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as ‘forever chemicals.’ Exposure to PFAS has been linked to deadly cancers, impacts to the liver and heart, and immune and developmental damage to infants and children.
In addition to the final rule, EPA is announcing nearly $1 billion in newly available funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help states and territories implement PFAS testing and treatment at public water systems and to help owners of private wells address PFAS contamination. EPA estimates that remediating PFAS will cost between $772 million and $1.2 billion nationally, but the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (a national organization representing 350 public wastewater and stormwater agencies) puts that figure closer to $3.5 billion.
All public water systems have three years to complete their initial monitoring for these chemicals. They must inform the public of the level of PFAS measured in their drinking water. Where PFAS is found at levels that exceed these standards, systems must implement solutions to reduce PFAS in their drinking water within five years.
EPA will be working closely with state co-regulators in supporting water systems and local officials to implement this rule. 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, please visit EPA’s PFAS drinking water regulation webpage. EPA has 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.
PFAS in Maryland
Policymakers in Maryland have already been taking action to limit PFAS pollution and protect the health of residents, including banning the use of PFAS in firefighting foam in 2022. During the 2024 General Assembly session, MACo helped pass SB 956/HB 1153- Environment – Water Pollution Control – Protecting State Waters From PFAS Pollution (Protecting State Waters From PFAS Pollution Act), which requires “significant industrial users” of per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to mitigate for contamination in their wastewater before it may enter any wastewater treatment infrastructure.
The Maryland Department of Environment has also recently mandated that counties begin testing for PFAS from landfills. Some jurisdictions estimate that monitoring alone will likely cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars per year and that the cost for potential remediation may be in the millions per landfill. On multiple fronts, PFAS remediation is becoming a major county issue.
