State Water Board's Next Challenge Under the Safe Drinking Water Act: Tackling the Emerging Threat of PFAS
While plenty of highlights and victories dot the timeline as we celebrate 50 years of the Safe Drinking Water Act and all we do to maintain high-quality drinking water in California, that doesn't mean the work is finished. Keeping the water safe and Californians healthy is a story without an ending.
With daunting new challenges before us, staff members with the Division of Drinking Water and Division of Water Quality are on the case, whether it's leading the way in assessing the threat of microplastics lurking in our waterbodies or investigating the impact of PFAS contaminants and how to address their presence in our drinking water.
Some drinking water challenges have only recently emerged at the State Water Board. That's the case with per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, a group of human-made substances resistant to heat, water, and oil. PFAS have been used extensively in surface coating and protectant formulations due to their unique ability to reduce the surface tension of liquids. Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are two types of PFAS that are no longer manufactured or imported into the United States.
Commonly referred to as "forever chemicals," PFAS are persistent in the environment, can accumulate within the human body over time, and are toxic at deficient concentrations. Exposure to unsafe levels of PFOA/PFOS may result in developmental effects on fetuses during pregnancy, cancer, and a variety of health impacts on the human liver, thyroid, and immune system.
In April 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the final National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR) for six PFAS, setting limits that the agency expects will prevent PFAS exposure for 100 million people, thousands of deaths, and reduce the severity of PFAS-related illnesses.
California has embraced these new standards and plans to go even further by addressing PFAS with treatment techniques that will eventually keep PFAS out of the drinking water for millions of Californians, even without regulatory limits. Getting there will take time and plenty of data from water samples collected and analyzed throughout the state.
The State Water Board team has been investigating the presence of PFAS at designated locations where the chemicals would most likely be, including near airports and industrial sites. Consistent with the board's racial equity commitment, the investigation recently expanded significantly to include PFAS testing in drinking water wells in all disadvantaged communities throughout California. This new component of the PFAS investigation will not only provide a trove of new data and insights but it will also help keep the drinking water safe for many of our most vulnerable communities.
