PFAS Analytic Tools

As part of its responsibilities under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), EPA implements Section 1445(a)(2), Monitoring Program for Unregulated Contaminants. SDWA requires that once every five years, EPA issue a list of no more than 30 unregulated contaminants to be monitored by public water systems. EPA uses the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) to gather information on contaminants that are suspected to be present in drinking water and do not have regulatory standards set under SDWA.

• UCMR 3 - all Community Water Systems (CWSs) and Non-Transient Non-Community Water Systems (NTNCWSs) serving more than 10,000 people and a representative sample of CWSs and NTNCWSs serving 10,000 or fewer people were required to monitor.
• UCMR 5 - all CWSs and NTNCWSs serving more than 10,000 people, all CWSs and NTNCWSs serving between 3,300 and 10,000 people, and a representative sample of CWSs and NTNCWSs serving fewer than 3,300 people are required to monitor.

UCMR 3, published in 2012, required sampling for six PFAS between January 2013 and December 2015. UCMR 5, published in 2021, requires sampling for 29 PFAS (including the six PFAS required in UCMR 3 and 23 additional PFAS) between January 2023 and December 2025. Results of UCMR 3 monitoring and UCMR 5 to date are publicly available in the UCMR Data Finders and are incorporated into the National PFAS Analytic Tools in this data layer. Occurrence data for UCMR 5 will be updated quarterly in the UCMR 5 Data Finder until completion of data reporting in 2026. In April 2024, EPA announced the final National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR) for six PFAS; those six are among the 29 PFAS being monitored in UCMR 5. UCMR 5 results do not indicate compliance or noncompliance with the PFAS NPDWR Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs). Compliance with the MCLs will be determined by calculating the running annual average of quarterly results for each sample point. For more information, please review the PFAS NPDWR website.

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EPA included six PFAS in the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (Round 3), which required certain public water systems (all those serving 10,000 people or more and a sample of smaller systems) to collect and test samples for contaminants between 2013 and 2015. A number of states and individual public water systems have been testing source water and finished water for larger sets of PFAS, but these records are not submitted to EPA. While the information is not submitted to EPA, SDWIS State was modified to allow states to store PFAS monitoring results in the states’ instances of SDWIS State. Additionally, outside of UCMR testing, EPA is conducting a limited, voluntary program to better understand PFAS in tribal public drinking water systems. That data is also included here.

EPA was able to automate retrieval of PFAS state/tribal sampling data for a select number of states labeled “Automated” below. That information is retrieved on a semi-annual basis. Other states/tribes have not yet been automated, or have not made PFAS sampling data available on public drinking water repository websites. However, some states/tribes have produced manual reports of PFAS sampling information and these are labeled “Manual” in the dashboard. Manually collected reports were retrieved from static files published by individual states/tribes on July 28, 2022. Some states/tribes publish more data elements than others.

The Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) Rule, issued under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), requires manufacturers (including importers) to give EPA information on the chemicals they produce domestically or import into the United States. EPA uses the data to help assess the potential human health and environmental effects of these chemicals and makes the non-confidential business information (non-CBI) it receives available to the public. The non-CBI 1998, 2002, 2006, 2012, 2016, and 2020 CDR data related to PFAS is currently presented in this tool. This data includes national production volume (released in ranges), other manufacturing information, and processing and use information.

The Water Quality Portal (WQP) is a cooperative service sponsored by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Water Quality Monitoring Council (NWQMC) that integrates publicly available multimedia data from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS), the EPA STOrage and RETrieval (STORET) Data Warehouse, and the USDA ARS Sustaining The Earth’s Watersheds - Agricultural Research Database System (STEWARDS). PFAS-related environmental media data is retrieved from the WQP based on a search of specified PFAS chemical names.

Sample results refer to individual chemical results under an Activity Identifier. Often this means that numerous sample results are produced from one field sample (Activity Identifier).

Through the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program, some states have required monitoring of PFAS-related contaminants at different industries and wastewater treatment facilities. State agencies regularly share this monitoring data with EPA. The Discharge Monitoring Report Loadings Tool, which is part of EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO), converts reported concentrations and flow to annual loadings for each pollutant released in wastewater. Both tools are available to the public. This data layer includes PFAS-related discharge monitoring data from 2007 to present.

This visualization presents Superfund sites where PFAS has been detected. Investigation of sites that have PFAS contamination is an ongoing process; the sites included here are at different stages of investigation and response. This information is included in the PFAS Analytic Tools so that users can learn where EPA is involved with PFAS contaminated sites and what is known about these sites. Please note:

• A detection at a site does not indicate whether levels are sufficient to pose a threat to human health or even that humans are exposed to the PFAS. For example, PFAS may have been detected at low levels or in groundwater that no one is drinking. Also, detection at a site also does not indicate a response may be necessary with respect to the PFAS.
• A detection does not necessarily mean there is a risk to the ecosystem.
• PFAS detection also does not necessarily mean the site is the source of the PFAS. The locations provided are the approximate central location at the facility and do not represent specific PFAS sampling or release sites.
• Detection does not identify which specific PFAS are present at the site, or if, for example, PFOA or PFOS are at the site. EPA may not have access to full analytical reports or all available analytical reports.

EPA is gathering information on known and suspected detections at federal facilities. If there has been a detection at a facility, the PFAS Status field will indicate “Known Detection.” However, please note the following:

• A detection at a site does not indicate whether levels are sufficient to pose a threat to human health or even that humans are exposed to the PFAS. For example, PFAS may have been detected at low levels or in groundwater that no one is drinking.
• A detection does not necessarily mean there is a risk to the ecosystem.
• A detection does not necessarily indicate the source of the PFAS.
• The locations provided are the approximate central location at the facility and do not represent specific PFOS/PFOA sampling or release sites.
• Detection does not identify which specific PFAS are present at the site, or if, for example, PFOA or PFOS are at the site. There may be other PFAS at the site, not including PFOA or PFOS.

This data has been gathered from various sources:

• EPA works closely with other federal agencies to address environmental contamination at federal facility National Priorities List (NPL) sites, where EPA is the lead oversight agency. The “Known Detection Source” field indicates “NPL” where this is the case. (These NPL federal facilities are also included on the Superfund Sites tab.)
• The Department of Defense (DoD) identified multiple locations where there is a known or suspected release of PFOS/PFOA (e.g. fire training areas, aircraft crash sites, PFOS/PFOA mist suppressant use) and is prioritizing these locations for investigation and cleanup, if necessary. These data are retrieved from the DoD PFAS website where DoD periodically publishes status updates on an inventory of sites where DoD is performing assessment of PFAS use, potential release, and site contamination.
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Department of Transportation (DOT), and Department of Energy (DOE) locations have known detections and are working in collaboration with local, state, and federal agencies, to investigate and prioritize actions where necessary.
• If ATSDR is listed in the Known Detection Source, additional information about the site is provided on ATSDR's webpage on PFAS.

Please be aware that this information could overlap with other datasets provided in the tool.

The facility data presented within this tab represents a subset of the universe of facilities subject to Clean Air Act (CAA), Clean Water Act (CWA), or Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations. These facilities operate in sectors that have been identified as possibly handling, using, or releasing PFAS chemicals. These industry sectors were identified from literature reviews and other investigations undertaken by EPA.

Inclusion of a facility on this tab is not an indication that PFAS is being manufactured, processed, used, or released at a facility. The search feature is provided so that users can gain more insight into what types facilities are in the area that may be handling PFAS chemicals. If users have suggestions for types of facilities that would be useful in this tool, please send them to Barrette.Michael@epa.gov.

Every shipment of hazardous waste in the U.S. must be accompanied by a shipment manifest, which is a critical component of the cradle-to-grave tracking of wastes mandated by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The RCRA e-Manifest system was launched in mid-2018 and now receives virtually all digital and coded paper manifests. While manifests may be submitted soon after the shipment is complete, e-manifest records in the e-Manifest system are considered complete 90 days after being received by the designated facility.

Please note: An individual manifest contains RCRA waste codes that describe the constituents of the waste. These codes typically refer to industrial processes (e.g., petroleum refinery wastewater treatment sludges), a category of waste (e.g., spent solvents), or characteristics of the waste (e.g., ignitability). When multiple RCRA waste codes are used to describe a waste, it can only be presumed that waste code is present, as only the total amount of the shipment is reported; however, the amount of waste associated with each waste code cannot be determined. Also, the total amount of waste reported includes other commingled materials that may or may not be hazardous.

The National Response Center (NRC) serves as an emergency call center that fields initial reports for pollution and railroad incidents and forwards that information to appropriate federal/state agencies for response. The information from the NRC website contains initial incident data that has not been validated or investigated by a federal/state response agency. Response center calls from 1990 to the most recent complete calendar year where there was indication of Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) usage are included in this dataset. NRC calls may reference AFFF usage in the “Material Involved” or “Incident Description” fields. The full metadata document, which has more details, is available on the PFAS Analytic Tools home page.

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) tracks the management of certain chemicals that may be harmful to human health or the environment by more than 21,000 facilities throughout the United States and its territories. Annual reporting is required to provide information to the public on environmental releases and other waste management activities of TRI-listed chemicals in their communities and to provide EPA with data and information to assist the Agency in determining the need for future regulations. U.S. facilities in covered industry sectors, as well as federal facilities must report annually the quantities of each TRI-reportable chemical they released to the environment and/or managed as waste through recycling, energy recovery, treatment, or have transferred offsite for such purposes. Learn more about the TRI Program.

The TRI data gathered and presented in this tool are restricted to the PFAS added to the TRI chemical list per the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and to other TRI-listed organic chemicals that contain fluorine atoms and also found on EPA’s CompTox Chemicals Dashboard lists of PFAS Structures and PFAS without explicit structures. Note that the chemical substances listed on the two above CompTox Chemicals Dashboard lists are not all considered to be PFAS by EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT).

Reporting on the NDAA TRI PFAS additions occurred for the first time for calendar year 2020. Additional PFAS may be added to the TRI chemical list in future reporting years and will be subsequently added and reflected in future updates of this tool.

It is strongly recommended to confirm PFAS Analytic Tools findings and data results by reviewing reported TRI data and information at the facility, chemical, and/or TRI Form R level.

The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) collects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) data from large emitting facilities, suppliers of fossil fuels and industrial gases that result in GHG emissions when used. This tab includes Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions data for facilities that emit 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per year and emit chemicals identified in EPA’s CompTox Chemicals Dashboard list of PFAS without explicit structures and list of PFAS structures in DSSTox. Fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-GHGs) include the most potent and longest lasting greenhouse gases emitted by human activities. EPA has developed a number of tools and documents to assist in understanding and complying with the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP).