The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is releasing the first set of data collected under the fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5).
In the latest action to deliver on EPA’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap, UCMR 5 will provide new data that will improve the EPA’s understanding of the frequency that 29 PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and lithium are found in the nation’s drinking water systems, and at what levels. The monitoring data on PFAS and lithium will help the agency make determinations about future actions to protect public health under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
The data collected under UCMR 5 will ensure science-based decision-making and help the EPA better understand national-level exposure to these 29 PFAS and lithium, and whether they disproportionately impact communities with environmental justice concerns. This initial data release represents approximately seven percent of the total results that the EPA expects to receive over the next three years.
The agency will update the results quarterly and share them with the public in EPA’s National Contaminant Occurrence Database (NCOD) until completion of data reporting in 2026. The EPA continues to conduct research and monitor advances in techniques that may improve our ability to measure these and other contaminants at even lower levels.
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NGWA has long been an industry leader in providing PFAS research, education, and resources to the public and scientific communities. Learn more by visiting NGWA.org/PFAS, which is a complete resource center about the groundwater contaminants featuring a recently updated top-10 facts sheet, a position paper, and more.
Also found there is Groundwater and PFAS: State of Knowledge and Practice, which NGWA published in 2017 and is one of the first PFAS guidance documents to be released. The Association hosted its second conference last year in Westerville, Ohio, focused entirely on PFAS science and remediation.