In recent years, federal, state, and international authorities have established various health-based regulatory values and evaluation criteria for a number of specific per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in response to growing concerns with contamination. At this time, the U.S. has no federally enforceable PFAS standards, leaving individual states to navigate various avenues for addressing PFAS contamination. Some states have established legally enforceable values for certain PFAS in drinking water, groundwater, surface water, soil, or other environmental media. Other states and regulatory agencies have opted for non-enforceable values such as guidance levels, screening numbers, or advisories that may apply to PFAS for which promulgated standards do not exist.
The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) in 2019 compiled information on state PFAS standards, advisories, and guidance values. Sharing data and regulatory approaches helps federal, state, and international authorities avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts, as well as understand and communicate about differences in guidelines. This paper outlines ECOS’ findings on state efforts and considerations for future regulatory activities on PFAS. The document was initially published in February 2020 (see original publication), and was updated on March 2, 2021 with new information and state participants. The most recent update on April 29 reflects the addition of Hawaii. ECOS will continue to update it annually as appropriate.
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