To better understand how PFAS passes from industry through Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs), the EPA recently proposed an Information Collection Rule (ICR) focused on PFAS in wastewater influent, effluent, and biosolids. Paul Jackson, Pace® Analytical Program Manager for Environmental Compliance and Emerging Contaminants, delivered a webinar covering the basics of the proposal and its impact on our customers. In this post, I will cover some of the critical highlights. I also invite you to watch the webinar on-demand for a deeper dive.

On February 2nd, Pace® delivered a live webinar titled “A Deep Dive into the Third Revision of Draft Method 1633.” This webinar was widely attended, and as anticipated, we received a number of questions using the Q&A feature on the portal. Since there were too many questions to answer in the time allotted and the questions received are relevant to the entire PFAS stakeholder community, we decided to create a downloadable FAQ.

Even as EPA Draft Method 1633 goes through revisions, it’s already become the go-to method for many regulatory programs. For example, the U.S. EPA strongly encourages Draft Method 1633 for NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permitting. The Department of Defense calls for Draft Method 1633 when testing AFFF (Aqueous Film-Forming Foam) and F3 (Fluorine-Free Foam) for PFAS. At least twelve states have even updated their lab accreditation programs to include Draft Method 1633.

A Closer Look: EPA Draft Test Method 1633

The U.S. EPA’s 2021-2024 PFAS Strategic Roadmap has a much greater focus on PFAS in wastewater than ever before. For example, the Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELGs) are a tool the EPA already uses to enforce regulatory limits on pollutants in wastewater discharged into surface waters and municipal sewage treatment facilities. As noted in the roadmap, the EPA plans to use this tool to take a more proactive approach to restricting PFAS levels in wastewater discharge across several key industries.

One of the questions we often get asked is whether wastewater treatment processes remove PFAS. Here’s the bottom line. You won’t be able to rely on your local wastewater treatment plant to solve your PFAS problem for you. That’s because traditional wastewater treatment processes do not remove PFAS. In fact, they can convert PFAS precursors into PFAS.

5 takeaways from the epa's interim wastewater discharge permitting strategy for pfas

The EPA continues to make progress on the PFAS Action Plan they released in 2019. Their most recent action is a memorandum detailing an interim strategy for controlling PFAS through wastewater discharge permitting. In this post, we’ll break this announcement down into what you need to know.