DEQ outlines PFAS detections, asks committee to adopt EPA drinking-water rule; vote deferred

Tyler Fortunati, chief of the Drinking Water Bureau for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee on Feb. 7, 2025, that DEQ is asking the committee to adopt the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s finalized drinking-water rule for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, but that the committee would not vote on the pending state rule until next week.

Fortunati said the EPA finalized a PFAS drinking-water rule in April 2024 that sets maximum contaminant levels for six PFAS chemicals and imposes monitoring, reporting and compliance schedules for public water systems. "Water systems are required to complete initial monitoring ... by April of 2027," Fortunati said, and systems would have to come into compliance with the maximum contaminant levels by April 2029. He added that public-notification requirements under the rule begin in 2029 and that consumer-confidence-report language would start in April 2027.

The presentation summarized three sampling efforts affecting Idaho. The Department of Defense sampled its installations and found PFAS at Mountain Home Air Force Base and Gowen Field; Mountain Home had PFAS detections in multiple public-system sources in…