Guide
PFAS rules in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New York
What the federal limits require, how the four states we cover approached this, and what it means for a household.
The federal position
In 2024 the EPA set the first enforceable national drinking water limits for several PFAS compounds, including PFOA and PFOS, under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Public water systems are required to monitor for them, to report results, and to reduce levels where they exceed the limits.
That was a significant change. Before it, regulation was a patchwork of state standards and health advisories, which is why coverage differs so much depending on where you live and which year you are looking at.
Regulatory detail continues to develop. Treat any specific number you read, including on this page, as something to verify against the EPA and your state regulator rather than as settled.
Why the Northeast is affected
PFAS contamination clusters around particular sources rather than spreading evenly. Firefighting foam used at airports, military installations, and fire training grounds is the most common. Industrial discharge and landfill leachate are the others.
This region has a dense concentration of all of those, plus a long industrial history, plus a large number of public water systems drawing from shallow aquifers near them.
New Jersey acted comparatively early, setting its own state limits for certain PFAS compounds before the federal standard existed. The other three states have worked through monitoring programmes at differing paces.
What this means if you are on public water
Your utility is monitoring, and results appear in the annual Consumer Confidence Report. If a system exceeds a limit it must notify customers and take action, which can include treatment, blending, or taking a source offline.
So the first step is reading your own report rather than buying equipment. If the regulated compounds are non-detect, treatment is not indicated, and installing PFAS media speculatively creates a recurring cost against a risk you do not have.
If your system reports levels near or above a limit, point-of-use treatment at the tap you drink from is the proportionate response while the utility works through its own remedy.
What this means on a private well
Nothing in the federal rule reaches you. Private wells are outside the regulated framework entirely, so no one is monitoring and no notification will arrive.
If you are near an airport, a military site, a fire training ground, or a facility with a history of fluorochemical use, testing is worth doing without waiting for a prompt. Some states and counties have run sampling programmes in affected areas, and it is worth checking whether yours has.
PFAS sampling has strict handling rules, because these compounds are present in many everyday materials that can contaminate a sample. Follow the laboratory's instructions exactly.
Treatment, and the limits of what is certified
Three certified routes: activated carbon under NSF/ANSI 53 for PFOA and PFOS, systems tested to the NSF/ANSI P473 protocol, and reverse osmosis under NSF/ANSI 58.
Each of those is written around named compounds. A system validated for PFOA and PFOS has not been validated against the thousands of related substances in the wider family, so a claim to remove PFAS without qualification overstates what any certification supports.
Breakthrough is invisible. There is no taste or smell when the media is exhausted, so replacement follows the manufacturer's rated capacity in gallons rather than any observation. This is the category where the maintenance schedule does the most work.
Common questions
Will boiling water remove PFAS?
No, and it makes the concentration worse. Water evaporates and the compounds stay behind, so boiling concentrates them. This is worth knowing because boiling is a common instinct for any water worry, and for PFAS and nitrate it is actively counterproductive.
My utility says it meets the limits. Should I still filter?
Generally no. If the regulated compounds are non-detect or comfortably below the limits, treatment is not indicated, and PFAS media has a real recurring cost with no sensory warning when it expires. Where results sit close to a limit, or where you would simply prefer the additional margin for drinking and cooking water, point-of-use treatment at one tap is a reasonable choice.
Does a standard fridge or pitcher filter help?
Only if that specific model is certified for PFOA and PFOS reduction, and most are not. The majority of pitcher and fridge filters are certified under NSF/ANSI 42 for taste and odour. Check the model's certification rather than assuming, because the physical appearance of the filter tells you nothing about what it was tested against.
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