Lab Tests Find PFAS 'Forever Chemicals' in Tap Water at the Capitol and EPA HQ

Exclusive lab tests published July 3, 2026 by WJLA’s I-Team found PFAS “forever chemicals” in tap water at 11 sites across Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia — including inside the U.S. Capitol and the lobby of EPA headquarters, the building nominally in charge of regulating these compounds out of the water supply. More than a third of the samples contained PFOA, one of the two PFAS chemicals with the tightest federal limit, and a related compound called PFHxA turned up in nearly every sample tested, including at the Capitol and EPA. The findings land two weeks before EPA’s own July 7 public hearing on a proposal to rescind four of its six PFAS drinking-water limits, sharpening the contrast between the agency’s regulatory posture and what is actually flowing from taps in its own backyard.

What the Testing Found

The I-Team, led by investigative reporters Lisa Fletcher, Andrea Nejman, Alex Brauer, and Larry Deal, commissioned independent lab analysis of water samples collected from 11 locations spanning the District, suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia. The site list included the U.S. Capitol building and the lobby of EPA’s own headquarters — chosen deliberately to test whether PFAS contamination reaches even the buildings where federal PFAS policy is written and debated.

Results showed PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) in more than a third of samples. PFOA is one of two PFAS compounds — alongside PFOS — that EPA’s 2024 rule set at a 4 parts-per-trillion maximum contaminant level, the tightest drinking-water standard the agency has ever finalized for any chemical. A second compound, PFHxA (perfluorohexanoic acid), was detected in nearly every sample collected, including at the Capitol and EPA headquarters. PFHxA is a shorter-chain PFAS chemical that manufacturers introduced partly as a replacement for longer-chain compounds like PFOA, on the theory that it would be less persistent — a theory increasingly challenged by continued detections like these.

Why This Investigation Matters Beyond DC

A single round of testing at 11 sites is not a systematic monitoring program, and the I-Team’s methodology does not replace the compliance sampling utilities must report under the Safe Drinking Water Act. But the story’s significance is less about the specific parts-per-trillion readings than about timing and location. It arrives as EPA has proposed rescinding limits on PFHxS, PFNA, and the GenX chemicals, and as agency data separately reviewed by the Environmental Working Group estimates 176 million Americans are exposed to PFAS in their tap water. Testing positive for PFAS inside the building that regulates PFAS is a symbolically potent data point in that larger debate, regardless of the concentrations involved.

PFAS chemicals are called “forever chemicals” because their carbon-fluorine bonds resist virtually all natural breakdown processes. Once in a water source, they persist for decades and accumulate in the human body over repeated exposure. The EPA has said peer-reviewed studies link certain PFAS exposure levels to decreased fertility, developmental delays in children, increased risk of kidney and testicular cancers, and reduced immune response — the same health basis the agency cited when it finalized limits in 2024, and the same body of evidence now being reweighed in the rescission proposal.

The Regulatory Backdrop

This story sits inside a rollback effort WaterVerge has tracked closely since spring 2026. EPA’s 2024 PFAS rule set enforceable limits on six PFAS compounds for the first time. In 2026, a new administration proposed walking back four of those six limits while leaving the PFOA and PFOS standards technically in place — though a separate proposed rule would extend utility compliance deadlines for even those two. EPA holds its public hearing on the rescission proposal July 7, with written comments accepted through July 20.

Meanwhile, $13.6 billion in 3M and DuPont settlement funds remains available to help utilities pay for PFAS treatment — money that does not depend on the outcome of the federal rulemaking, but that hundreds of eligible systems have yet to claim ahead of looming deadlines.

What Residents Should Do

You don’t need to wait for a federal rulemaking to reduce your own PFAS exposure. A few concrete steps:

Check your utility’s PFAS results. Every community water system reports detections in its annual Consumer Confidence Report — see our guide to reading the CCR — and national test results are also searchable through UCMR 5 monitoring data.
Filter at the point of use. A reverse-osmosis system is the most reliable PFAS-removal technology for home use; an NSF/ANSI 53-certified under-sink filter rated for PFOA/PFOS reduction is a lower-cost alternative.
If you’re on a private well, especially near an airport, military base, or industrial site, PFAS rules don’t apply to you at all — see our private wells and PFAS guide for independent testing options.
Pregnant residents and households with infants face the sharpest health stakes from PFAS exposure; our pregnancy and infant water-safety guides cover filtration and formula-mixing specifics.
Read up on the chemistry in our PFAS explainer if you want to understand why these compounds behave so differently from other contaminants.

What Comes Next

EPA’s July 7 hearing and July 20 comment deadline will shape whether PFHxS, PFNA, and GenX limits survive in any form. Whatever the outcome, PFOA and PFOS limits are expected to remain the enforceable floor — the open question is how long utilities get to comply and how much settlement money gets claimed before deadlines close. The I-Team has indicated further reporting is planned as more lab results come back from additional sites.

How WaterVerge Tracks This

WaterVerge integrates EPA UCMR 5 monitoring results and SDWIS violation data into every city’s water profile, including PFAS detections reported by utilities across the DC-Maryland-Virginia region. As the rescission rulemaking and settlement claim deadlines resolve, those changes will show up in the affected cities’ data. Search your city to see current PFAS results for your utility.