Keeping Up With PFAS Rules
Show notes
PFAS regulation now has more moving parts, deadlines, and compliance pathways than ever, but the bottom-line advice for water utilities is simple: keep moving.
In this episode, Amanda Canida of Black & Veatch explains how utilities can navigate the regulatory complexity while advancing the treatment projects needed to meet federal drinking water standards.
Federal monitoring data indicates that roughly 10 percent of public water systems could be affected by the four-parts-per-trillion limits for PFOA and PFOS. Utilities can pursue cleaner water sources or blend supplies, but many are preparing to install treatment at a central plant or directly at an individual well.
EPA has proposed retaining the PFOA and PFOS limits while restarting the regulatory process for several other PFAS compounds and creating a streamlined exemption pathway for systems that need more time. Once that exemption rule is finalized, utilities would have 180 days to apply and may need interim measures such as temporary treatment, alternate water supplies, source-control planning, or public education.
The challenge is increasingly financial, as construction costs have risen and demand has grown for the equipment and treatment media needed to remove PFAS. Utilities are already slowing other capital projects, shifting money between priorities, and setting aside contingency funds to cover emerging treatment needs.
Canida outlines how desktop evaluations and laboratory testing can help systems compare granular activated carbon and ion exchange before committing to longer pilot studies. Utilities must also calculate when treatment needs to be operating—not merely completed—to keep their annual PFAS averages below the federal limit by April 2029.
The path forward is to pursue funding now, prepare customers for difficult decisions, and design treatment systems that can adapt as regulators address more of the thousands of PFAS compounds under review.
Learn more about PFAS from Black & Veatch.
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