Drinking water systems cite struggles with costs and timelines for cleaning up PFAS

Shannon Kelleher  

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WASHINGTON — Communities across the US are struggling to cope with impending federal requirements for eradicating two toxic PFAS chemicals from their drinking water systems, utility leaders said at a water policy conference this week.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last year announced a proposal to delay the deadline for utilities to comply with new regulation limiting toxic types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) chemicals in drinking water supplies. But even with the potential for a two-year cushion – compliance for meeting new standards may be pushed from 2029 to 2031 – utilities are faltering, industry experts said.

“I think a lot of utilities are feeling uncertain as to, if maybe not the levels, the timeline for compliance,” Mark White, who plans and upgrades water treatment facilities for the American engineering and construction company CDM Smith, said April 13 at an Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) water policy conference held in Washington, DC.

“Utilities are dealing with significant costs,” he added. “That’s at the same time utilities are also dealing with lead and aging infrastructure.”

“Utilities are dealing with significant costs. That’s at the same time utilities are dealing with lead and aging infrastructure.” — Mark White, CDM Smith

The Biden administration in 2024 finalized a rule that set enforceable drinking water standards for six PFAS chemicals, including a limit of 4 parts per trillion (ppt) for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS).

PFOA has been classified as “carcinogenic to humans” and PFOS as “possibly carcinogenic to humans,” respectively, by an international cancer research group.

The rule requires utilities to test for PFAS chemicals and, if the contaminants exceed those federal limits, the utilities are required to take measures to come into compliance, which may include installing costly removal systems such as granulated activated carbon (GAC), which traps the contaminants so they can be removed during drinking water treatment.

The EPA is considering rolling back the limits for four PFAS chemicals as well as the two-year delay proposal for PFOA and PFOS — changes that are “finalizing their way through the interagency review process,” Jess Kramer, the assistant administrator for the agency’s Office of Water, said at the conference this week.

About 176 million people in the US drink PFAS-contaminated tap water, according to recent EPA data from US drinking water supply tests conducted as part of a federal testing program. Some PFAS chemicals, which are prevalent in the environment and are present in the blood of almost the entire US population, have been linked to certain cancers, high cholesterol, decreased vaccine effectiveness and other health issues.

A 2025 study by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group found most utilities lack advanced filtration systems for protecting the public from PFAS and other harmful contaminants in drinking water, with small, rural communities at the greatest disadvantage.