The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to propose, by the end of the year, a primary drinking water standard for two types of “forever” chemicals that seem to be found in everything, everywhere, including human tissue—agency officials said Oct. 10 at the Water Environment Federation (WEF) annual conference.
The standard would set enforceable limits for PFOA and PFOS, the two most used and studied of the broad category of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, collectively known as PFAS. The standard would also require monitoring of public water supplies as part of EPA’s overall strategy for addressing the prevalence of PFAS in drinking water sources, wastewater and biosolids.