Press Release: 8/12/2025

PFAS and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority

 

August 11, 2025

By Clint Richmond

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) supplies all or part of the drinking water to about 2.7 million people in forty-seven municipalities in the eastern part of the Commonwealth. This represents almost 40% of the population of the state.

REGULATED PFAS REPORTING

The MWRA recently released its annual water quality report. The quality of finished MWRA drinking water is excellent, but the report and their website underplay the impact of PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances). PFAS are concerning "forever chemicals" many of which have well-documented impacts on human health. This MWRA webpage of PFAS in Drinking Water lists the MWRA’s qualitative results for eight chemicals: the combination of the state’s 6 regulated PFAS (PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFHxS, PFHpA, PFDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s 6 PFAS (PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFHxS, HFPO-DA, PFBS) under the final 2024 rule (since rescinded for the latter four chemicals). The MWRA lists four of these chemicals (PFOA, PFOS, PFHpA, PFBS) as being detectable qualitatively at "trace" levels. The MWRA should reveal the quantitative results even if they are estimated under the analysis protocols, as these estimates still provide useful information.

 

The 2024 EPA rule is stronger than the state standards that were developed in 2019. The EPA standard operates at near trace levels. The current EPA health advisories indicate that there is basically no safe level for PFOA or PFOS. These levels are nearly zero (0.02 parts per trillion or less!) – far below the detection limits of existing laboratory tests (currently about 0.5–2 ppt).

 

The EPA standard is 4 ppt for PFOA and PFOS individually. Massachusetts currently allows the levels of regulated chemicals to be added together (based on the understanding that they are equally potent). This especially makes sense for PFOA and PFOS since they have a similar chemical structure (i.e., a linear perfluorinated eight-chain carbon backbone). The most recent published results from October 17, 2023 for the MWRA’s Carroll treatment plant in Clinton, MA, which handles all of eastern Massachusetts, are 1.99 for PFOA and 1.65 for PFOS. Summing these gets close to the EPA threshold of 4 ppt. Those values observed in 2023 for PFOA and PFOS were the highest to date for the Carroll facility. Higher values should be expected over time since PFAS are forever chemicals, and reservoirs cannot be protected from aerial deposition including rain.

THE PROBLEM OF UNREGULATED PFAS

One of the challenges of managing PFAS is that there are over fifteen thousand of them and the regulatory landscape varies across jurisdictions and is changing over time. (We had seen this with PFBS in the US for example.) All of them are potentially chemicals of concern, and source reduction regulations address them all as a class. Generally, the more chemicals that are tested for, the more that are found.

 

Therefore it is important for the MWRA to acknowledge the presence of currently unregulated chemicals in MWRA water, none of which are mentioned on its PFAS webpage. While only six are currently regulated in Massachusetts,  the state is using an EPA Method (537.1) that tests for eighteen PFAS chemicals. Two additional chemicals have been consistently found at trace levels using this test at the Carroll plant: PFHxA and PFBS (the latter is part of the new EPA standard).

 

The MWRA's website briefly discusses the authority's participation in the EPA's ongoing Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) data collection program. The UCMR program tests for an even wider range of 29 PFAS chemicals (by combining Methods 537.1 & 533) [Source]. This program has higher reporting levels than the method the state uses. However, this program has revealed one additional PFAS chemical, 6:2FTS, in MWRA drinking water that is "above EPA's required method reporting levels" 6:2FTS is a common PFOS replacement. This is significant as this is the first reported value that is quantified with certainty (not "estimated"), and at 6.2 ppt is the highest reported value for any individual PFAS in MWRA water to date. (Note that 6:2FTS is already regulated in Denmark although the MWRA value does not exceed the Danish standard.)

 

The Massachusetts Sierra Club has also recently tested MWRA tap water using yet another method, total fluorine, that has indicated the presence of yet more PFAS beyond those routinely tested by the state using EPA Methods.

PFAS IN WASTEWATER

The MWRA has focused almost exclusively to date on PFAS in drinking water, but the larger problem for the authority is the high levels of PFAS in wastewater they process. Reducing PFAS in wastewater requires a reduction in PFAS discharges by manufacturers and a reduction in the use of PFAS in products used by MWRA customers (such as cleaning products or cosmetics). The MWRA could help reduce PFAS levels in wastewater by joining the call to regulate PFAS in products through state legislation. The MWRA should also stop selling biosolids "fertilizer" made from its sewage sludge because it is highly contaminated with PFAS (over 25 ppb) and numerous other harmful synthetic chemicals. This fertilizer is widely applied to gardens, farms and landscaping where residents can be further exposed to PFAS. There are currently no EPA limits on the amount of PFAS in biosolids and no MWRA webpage mentions this risk.

PFAS and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority

August 11, 2025

By Clint Richmond

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) supplies all or part of the drinking water to about 2.7 million people in forty-seven municipalities in the eastern part of the Commonwealth. This represents almost 40% of the population of the state.

REGULATED PFAS REPORTING

The MWRA recently released its annual water quality report. The quality of finished MWRA drinking water is excellent, but the report and their website underplay the impact of PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances). PFAS are concerning "forever chemicals" many of which have well-documented impacts on human health. This MWRA webpage of PFAS in Drinking Water lists the MWRA’s qualitative results for eight chemicals: the combination of the state’s 6 regulated PFAS (PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFHxS, PFHpA, PFDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s 6 PFAS (PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFHxS, HFPO-DA, PFBS) under the final 2024 rule (since rescinded for the latter four chemicals). The MWRA lists four of these chemicals (PFOA, PFOS, PFHpA, PFBS) as being detectable qualitatively at "trace" levels. The MWRA should reveal the quantitative results even if they are estimated under the analysis protocols, as these estimates still provide useful information.

 

The 2024 EPA rule is stronger than the state standards that were developed in 2019. The EPA standard operates at near trace levels. The current EPA health advisories indicate that there is basically no safe level for PFOA or PFOS. These levels are nearly zero (0.02 parts per trillion or less!) – far below the detection limits of existing laboratory tests (currently about 0.5–2 ppt).

 

The EPA standard is 4 ppt for PFOA and PFOS individually. Massachusetts currently allows the levels of regulated chemicals to be added together (based on the understanding that they are equally potent). This especially makes sense for PFOA and PFOS since they have a similar chemical structure (i.e., a linear perfluorinated eight-chain carbon backbone). The most recent published results from October 17, 2023 for the MWRA’s Carroll treatment plant in Clinton, MA, which handles all of eastern Massachusetts, are 1.99 for PFOA and 1.65 for PFOS. Summing these gets close to the EPA threshold of 4 ppt. Those values observed in 2023 for PFOA and PFOS were the highest to date for the Carroll facility. Higher values should be expected over time since PFAS are forever chemicals, and reservoirs cannot be protected from aerial deposition including rain.

THE PROBLEM OF UNREGULATED PFAS

One of the challenges of managing PFAS is that there are over fifteen thousand of them and the regulatory landscape varies across jurisdictions and is changing over time. (We had seen this with PFBS in the US for example.) All of them are potentially chemicals of concern, and source reduction regulations address them all as a class. Generally, the more chemicals that are tested for, the more that are found.

 

Therefore it is important for the MWRA to acknowledge the presence of currently unregulated chemicals in MWRA water, none of which are mentioned on its PFAS webpage. While only six are currently regulated in Massachusetts,  the state is using an EPA Method (537.1) that tests for eighteen PFAS chemicals. Two additional chemicals have been consistently found at trace levels using this test at the Carroll plant: PFHxA and PFBS (the latter is part of the new EPA standard).

 

The MWRA's website briefly discusses the authority's participation in the EPA's ongoing Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) data collection program. The UCMR program tests for an even wider range of 29 PFAS chemicals (by combining Methods 537.1 & 533) [Source]. This program has higher reporting levels than the method the state uses. However, this program has revealed one additional PFAS chemical, 6:2FTS, in MWRA drinking water that is "above EPA's required method reporting levels" 6:2FTS is a common PFOS replacement. This is significant as this is the first reported value that is quantified with certainty (not "estimated"), and at 6.2 ppt is the highest reported value for any individual PFAS in MWRA water to date. (Note that 6:2FTS is already regulated in Denmark although the MWRA value does not exceed the Danish standard.)

 

The Massachusetts Sierra Club has also recently tested MWRA tap water using yet another method, total fluorine, that has indicated the presence of yet more PFAS beyond those routinely tested by the state using EPA Methods.

PFAS IN WASTEWATER

The MWRA has focused almost exclusively to date on PFAS in drinking water, but the larger problem for the authority is the high levels of PFAS in wastewater they process. Reducing PFAS in wastewater requires a reduction in PFAS discharges by manufacturers and a reduction in the use of PFAS in products used by MWRA customers (such as cleaning products or cosmetics). The MWRA could help reduce PFAS levels in wastewater by joining the call to regulate PFAS in products through state legislation. The MWRA should also stop selling biosolids "fertilizer" made from its sewage sludge because it is highly contaminated with PFAS (over 25 ppb) and numerous other harmful synthetic chemicals. This fertilizer is widely applied to gardens, farms and landscaping where residents can be further exposed to PFAS. There are currently no EPA limits on the amount of PFAS in biosolids and no MWRA webpage mentions this risk.