"Water utilities will face costly challenges meeting the EPA’s new limits on PFAS in drinking water, making litigation nearly inevitable, lawyers and analysts say.

The standards will effectively require drinking water systems to remove any PFAS they detect in their drinking water, and affect many more water systems than the Environmental Protection Agency expects, sparking “a number of legal challenges,” said David Edelstein, partner at Archer & Greiner PC.

When the EPA on Wednesday finalized the first-ever limits on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water, it set safe amounts of the “forever chemicals” to nearly zero.

The limits include an enforceable 4 parts per trillion (ppt) limit on perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) in drinking water. The agency set a non-enforceable maximum contaminant level goal for PFOA and PFOS at zero, reflecting research showing that no level of exposure is risk-free from cancer and other diseases."

Bobby Magill reports for Bloomberg Environment April 11, 2024. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"Explainer: US Limits On PFAS In Drinking Water Could Fuel Litigation" (Reuters) [3]