DEQ presents statewide PFAS testing, treatment options and federal compliance timeline to Senate Health and Welfare Committee

Tyler Fortunati, chief of the Drinking Water Bureau at the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee that the state is preparing to adopt the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent drinking-water rule for PFAS and that monitoring has already identified detections statewide.

The presentation focused on what PFAS are, EPA's April 2024 national drinking-water regulation for several PFAS compounds, and what the state's sampling and funding picture looks like as Idaho prepares to incorporate the federal rule by reference (docket 58-0108-2401). "PFOS is a group of upwards of 15,000 man made chemicals," Fortunati said, and the EPA rule sets maximum contaminant levels in parts per trillion for six PFAS analytes.

Why it matters: Fortunati told the committee that detections have been found in both military and civilian public water systems and that the federal rule sets monitoring and compliance deadlines that will affect community and nontransient noncommunity public water systems across Idaho.

What DEQ told the committee

Fortunati said EPA's rule requires initial monitoring to be completed by April 2027; that monitoring will determine the frequency of ongoing sampling beginning May 2027; that systems must include PFAS information in…