PFAS Fact Sheet

Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)1 are a group of manmade fluorinated compounds which are used for a variety of applications by both industry and residential households. PFAS have been in commercial use since the 1940’s and are abundant in today’s society. These chemicals are widely in use because of their exceptional resistance to heat, water, and oil.

Several recent legislative and regulatory efforts across the US to address PFAS have focused on limiting levels in drinking water. However, there has been relatively little conversation about the presence of these chemicals in our everyday lives and the public’s sheer exposure to PFAS through primary contact from commercial products used in our everyday lives. Several peer...

Entities providing essential public services such as safe drinking water, wastewater treatment, water recycling, biosolids recycling, and municipal solid waste management firmly believe in our collective mission to ensure safe drinking water, wastewater treatment, and sanitation services. We acknowledge and embrace our role as environmental and public health stewards and our continued...

Drinking water treatment systems, wastewater treatment facilities, and municipal solid waste landfills are not “producers” or users of PFAS, and none of these essential public service providers utilize or profit from PFAS chemicals. Rather, they are “receivers” of these chemicals used by manufacturers and everyday consumers, and merely convey and/or manage the traces...

Recent legislative and regulatory efforts to address PFAS contamination tend to not differentiate between concentrations at producer and heavy user contaminated sites and common background concentrations in drinking water, groundwater, recycled water, wastewater, biosolids, or landfill leachate. The concentrations of PFAS found in these two scenarios are dramatically different and must...

The USEPA has set a drinking water health advisory level of 70 ppt individually or combined for PFOA and PFOS in drinking water. Through USEPA’s Action Plan5 the Agency is currently evaluating the need to develop maximum contaminant levels (MCL) for these and possibly other PFAS compounds. The Agency similarly proposed preliminary groundwater...

States that are establishing, or have adopted, strict PFAS standards for drinking water could also ultimately impact discharge limits on wastewater treatment plants effluent, recycled water, as well as the management of biosolids and leachate. Because PFAS are ubiquitous in households, consumer products, food, and the environment generally, some trace levels reflecting this ubiquitous broad use of...

Legislators, regulators, and drinking water, wastewater, and solid waste agencies must work collaboratively to examine how to manage PFAS holistically, with science driving the decision making. We acknowledge and embrace our role as public health and environmental stewards to ensure safe drinking water and sanitation services. However, we know that science is still evolving to...