New rules are coming for PFAS in drinking water. See how your water tests.

Water utilities that serve more than 4 million New York and New Jersey residents tested above a new federal threshold for toxic, long-lasting “forever chemicals” at least once last year, according to a Gothamist analysis of data from the Environmental Protection Agency. The list includes water systems serving most of Long Island, four-fifths of Rockland County, and all of Jersey City and Hoboken.

Starting in 2029, utilities must make sure that their drinking water contains no more than 4 parts per trillion of PFOA or PFOS, the EPA announced in April. That’s a far stricter limit than the state laws already in place to curb PFAS in drinking water in New York and New Jersey. The new rule also regulates lesser-known types of PFAS and combinations of multiple PFAS.

The EPA projects the overall cost of compliance with the new rules – including monitoring and treatment of the water supply – at around $1.5 billion per year nationwide. Water utilities across both states are working to get their local water supplies under the new limit, according to interviews with several of the largest utilities that tested over the new limit last year. They’re surveying their facilities, installing expensive carbon filters and estimating the cost of renovations. Some warned the work may lead to higher water bills for customers.

PFAS, often referred to as “forever chemicals,” are a family of human-made chemicals used to make nonstick pans and flame retardants. Because their use in manufacturing was so widespread, and because they take so long to degrade, they can now be found in our soil, waterways, food and bloodstreams, according to the Environmental Protection Agency . Prolonged exposure to high levels of PFAS is linked to increased cancer risk, developmental delays and other serious health problems.

The World Health Organization has classified PFOA and PFOS — the two most common PFAS contaminants — as "carcinogenic" and "possibly carcinogenic" respectively.

“Nationally, EPA estimates that this action will reduce PFAS exposure for approximately 100 million people, prevent thousands of deaths, and prevent tens of thousands of illnesses,” EPA spokesperson Dominique Joseph said in an email to Gothamist.

It’s not clear exactly how many local water companies will have to make changes. Joseph said that the agency will use annual average PFAS readings to determine who’s in compliance and who isn’t. Water companies and utilities will have to start sharing those samples with the EPA in 2027, she added.

Data collected last year under the EPA’s Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, a provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act, provides some indication of which utilities may fall afoul of the new standard. Gothamist analyzed more than 200 local water systems for which recent water samples were available. The analysis uncovered 81 utilities that had tested above the new limit at least once in 2023.

The measurements are one-off test results, not averages, so they can’t tell us for sure whether a water system will need to make changes to comply with the new limit by 2029. But there were some water suppliers with a recent pattern of test results above the threshold:

• Veolia, the water company serving 270,000 Rockland County residents, repeatedly tested above the PFOS and PFOA limits last year. Some samples had two or three times the cutoff concentration of PFOA.
• The Water Authority of Western Nassau County had four samples test above the new limit in June of last year. The utility company serves around 120,000 Nassau County residents, according to the EPA.
• Suffolk County’s water authority, one of the largest water utilities in the region with more than 1 million customers, reported eight results over the PFOS limit and nine results over the PFOA limit last year.
• NJ American Water, which serves more than 330,000 people across Monmouth and Ocean counties, had about half of its PFOA samples come back above the threshold.

Bill Madden, communications director for Veolia, said that the company is adding PFAS treatments to 80 of its plants across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Madden said customers may see their monthly water bills increase as the work progresses, but added that it will be worth the money.

“The cost of taking action on PFAS is clearly less than the cost of doing nothing,” he wrote in an email.

New York City’s water supply, which comes from the Catskills and the Hudson Valley, didn’t record measurable amounts of any of the PFAS regulated by the new rules, according to the data.

“Based on monitoring data to date, we anticipate no issues complying with the federal regulations concerning the New York City water supply system,” Edward Timbers, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, told Gothamist in an email.

Some water companies oppose the new regulations.

Earlier this month, the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, along with another industry group, petitioned the EPA to review the new rule, arguing that the EPA had lowballed its cost estimate and was using an unproven standard for PFAS combinations. Jeffrey Szabo, vice president of the group’s Board of Directors, is also CEO of the Suffolk County Water Authority.

Daniel Dubois, a spokesperson for the Suffolk County Water Authority, declined to comment on the petition. He said around one-third of the utility’s wells already have carbon filtration systems installed.

“The Suffolk County Water Authority has been preparing for this and we are well on our way to meeting all regulatory requirements within the timeframe laid out by EPA,” he added.

Diane Schrauth, water policy director for the advocacy group New Jersey Future, said she trusted the EPA’s judgment but acknowledged the scale and difficulty of the task.

“I understand the frustration of folks in the water utility sector,” Schrauth said. “They have to clean up a pollutant they didn’t create.”

Domestic manufacturers have used PFAS in consumer products since the 1940s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One prominent PFAS synthesizer, the Chemours Company, sued the EPA earlier this month, arguing that the agency had overstepped its authority with the “arbitrary and capricious” new limits. Two chemical industry groups have also filed petitions asking for the law to be reviewed.

In an emailed statement, Chemours spokesperson Cassie Olszewski said the company specifically objected to the EPA’s rules for combinations of PFAS, which she said “had no scientific basis.”

“When a governing agency misuses its authority and does not follow applicable procedural requirements to install a regulation that is based upon scientifically unsound data, we have an obligation to challenge it,” she added. The other two groups did not respond.

“This is a repulsive act,” Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said of the legal challenges. “They should take the money [they’re spending on lawyers] and use that to clean up their mess.”

Water industry veterans say that New York and New Jersey residents are already protected from PFAS by state limits, and that the rules may continue to change as technology advances and scientists can detect even smaller concentrations of PFAS.

“The [state thresholds] were protective, and now they’re trying to make it even more protective,” said Jerry Notte, license operator for the Newark Water Department. Notte said the department recently spent about $5 million installing carbon filtration systems for PFAS. Newark water consistently tested below the new standard for PFOS in 2023, while its PFOA concentrations hovered between 4 and 5 parts per trillion, just above the new cutoff. “These are evolving standards. The EPA’s looking to protect you even further and so is the water utility.”

heading

Learn more about PFAS in your water

image

image

None

caption

body

• This EPA map allows you to explore the data on PFAS in more detail. You can look up your local water system as well as possible sources of PFAS contamination, like chemical companies.
• Many companies also post water quality reports online. You can find a list of report links for New York state utilities here .
• New York City’s water supply is free from detectable PFOA and PFOS, according to EPA data.
• Some water filters may offer protection against PFAS. The EPA recommends choosing a filter with “NSF/ANSI 53” or “ NSF/ANSI 58” listed on the packaging. These codes signify that the filter is certified for PFAS.