PFAS and your Drinking Water

Each year, TVWD’s Water Quality team year conducts thousands of water quality tests to ensure your drinking water is clean, high-quality, and in compliance with all federal and state drinking water standards.

As part of the EPA’s Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) program, a list of unregulated contaminants is issued every five years that must be monitored by public water systems like TVWD. EPA and water providers use the UCMR program to collect data for contaminants that are suspected to be present in drinking water and do not have health-based standards set under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).

Our agency, along with other regional water supply agencies, tested for six per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) under the EPA’s Third Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR3), a monitoring program that occurred over a 12-month period, beginning in 2014 and ending in 2015. PFAS were not detected in your drinking water system or regional sources during this monitoring period.

Concerns surrounding PFAS in public drinking water continue to grow as public health officials learn more about the impacts from these chemicals. TVWD is committed to providing customers with reliable, resilient, and safe water.

Recent PFAS Testing

TVWD began another 12-month round of PFAS testing in July 2023 under the EPA’s Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR5) which includes testing for an expanded list of 29 PFAS. Testing under the UMCR5 program will allow PFAS to be detected at concentrations as low as 2 parts-per-trillion (ppt), equivalent to two drops of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

TVWD staff recently completed three rounds of monitoring for the 29 PFAS based compounds under EPA’s UCMR5 testing program. This monitoring began July, 2023 and will conclude with one final round of testing in April, 2024. To-date, all samples collected have been confirmed non-detect for the 29 PFAS compounds under UCMR5.

Our water quality experts are closely monitoring this latest research and information about this critical topic. As with previous testing, TVWD will make the results publicly available on our website as the analyses are completed by our independent, certified laboratory. If the results show anything of concern, information will be communicated to customers about the steps TVWD is taking to address this issue and what steps customers can take to reduce their exposure to PFAS.