EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Jessica Kramer announced PFAS OUTreach (PFAS OUT) on April 14, 2026 — a federal initiative aimed at directly engaging roughly 3,000 drinking water systems with known PFOA and PFOS challenges, well ahead of the 2031 federal compliance deadline. The program offers location-specific webinars, technical assistance, and a navigation layer over existing federal funding sources. EPA pitched it explicitly at small, rural, and disadvantaged systems — the systems least likely to have the in-house engineering capacity to plan multi-million-dollar treatment builds.
What PFAS OUT Is
PFAS OUT is not a new regulation, a new funding stream, or a new standard. It’s an outreach and technical-assistance program that sits on top of EPA’s existing PFAS regulatory framework. The pieces:
- Direct engagement with ~3,000 water systems flagged with PFOA/PFOS detections in UCMR 5 monitoring or other federal data — roughly 2% of all U.S. community water systems.
- Location-specific resources — webinars, technical guides, and one-on-one outreach matching each system to relevant funding programs and treatment technologies.
- Funding navigation — pointing utilities to Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) money, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Emerging Contaminants funding, and other federal sources rather than appropriating new dollars.
- Technical assistance — engineering support for selecting between granular activated carbon (GAC), ion exchange (IX), and reverse osmosis (RO) treatment trains, the three EPA-recognized best available technologies for PFAS.
EPA framed PFAS OUT as a complement to its 2031 compliance deadline for the 2024 PFAS rule — a deadline that, under the May 2025 PFAS regulation rollback, was extended from the originally scheduled 2029. The agency held the 4 parts per trillion (ppt) Maximum Contaminant Levels for PFOA and PFOS but pushed compliance back two years and proposed to rescind the MCLs for PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA (GenX), and the PFAS mixtures Hazard Index.
Why a Compliance Assistance Program
The 2024 PFAS rule was always going to be hardest on small systems. EPA’s own regulatory impact analysis estimated that systems serving fewer than 10,000 people would carry roughly 60% of the implementation burden despite serving a much smaller share of the population. The reasons are structural:
| Challenge | Effect on Small Systems |
|---|---|
| Capital cost | $500K–$5M+ for GAC, IX, or RO treatment builds, vs. limited ratepayer base |
| Engineering capacity | Few small utilities have in-house chemical engineers or PFAS-specific expertise |
| Funding navigation | DWSRF and BIL funds require detailed applications and matching dollars |
| Operations & maintenance | Ongoing media replacement, monitoring, and disposal costs |
| Residuals management | Spent GAC and IX media now classified as PFAS-containing waste in some states |
A utility serving 8,000 people that needs to install GAC treatment to reach 4 ppt PFOA/PFOS may face a per-customer capital cost of $1,000 or more — a number that doesn’t pencil without state and federal subsidy. PFAS OUT is, in effect, a triage program: identify the systems where the gap between need and capacity is widest, and walk them through the funding maze.
What This Doesn’t Change
PFAS OUT does not alter the MCL, the compliance deadline, or the underlying rule structure. It also does not address:
- Source water control. PFAS continues to enter water supplies from AFFF firefighting sites, industrial discharges, and biosolids application. PFAS OUT addresses end-of-pipe treatment, not upstream contamination.
- The four rescinded MCLs. PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA, and the Hazard Index for mixtures remain in regulatory limbo pending EPA’s formal rescission rulemaking. PFAS OUT focuses only on PFOA and PFOS — the two MCLs EPA is keeping.
- Private wells. Roughly 13% of U.S. households drink from private wells, which fall outside the Safe Drinking Water Act and outside PFAS OUT’s scope. Well users with PFAS detections need to install treatment themselves; see our well water testing guide for sampling and the PFAS contaminant profile for treatment options.
What This Means for Your City
If your utility appears on EPA’s PFAS OUT list — which the agency has not yet published in full, but which will be drawn primarily from UCMR 5 monitoring results — the practical effect is that your utility now has dedicated federal staff to help plan and finance treatment. That should accelerate timelines and reduce the risk that a small system simply can’t afford to comply.
If your utility is not on the list — either because UCMR 5 detected no PFAS or because detections were below the regulatory threshold — PFAS OUT does not directly affect you. The 2024 rule’s compliance deadlines and monitoring requirements still apply.
For a state-by-state look at where federal action matters most versus where state PFAS standards already control, see our coverage of state-level PFAS actions. The rollback context is in our PFAS regulation rollback explainer.
What You Can Do
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Check your city’s UCMR 5 PFAS detection data. Search your city on WaterVerge to see whether your utility has detections above 4 ppt for PFOA or PFOS. Cities flagged for PFAS OUT engagement will likely correspond closely to UCMR 5 detections.
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Don’t wait for utility-level treatment. Even with PFAS OUT support, most affected systems will not have treatment installed before 2028–2030. Point-of-use filtration is available now. The proven options for PFAS removal:
| Method | Removal Rate | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Reverse osmosis | 90–99% | Drinking and cooking water, point-of-use |
| Activated carbon (GAC) | 80–95% | Whole-house treatment, longer media life |
| Ion exchange | 90–99% | Whole-house, particularly short-chain PFAS |
For RO systems, see our best reverse osmosis systems. For under-sink carbon filters certified to NSF/ANSI 53 and P473 for PFAS, see our best under-sink water filters. For whole-house options, see our best whole-house water filters.
- Read the practical guide. Our PFAS in drinking water guide covers what each PFAS compound does, where they come from, and how to interpret UCMR 5 data.
How WaterVerge Tracks This
WaterVerge integrates UCMR 5 PFAS detection data directly into city pages, flagging detections at the federal 4 ppt threshold for PFOA and PFOS as well as the (now-contested) 10 ppt levels for PFHxS, PFNA, and GenX. As EPA publishes the PFAS OUT engagement list and as utilities receive funding awards and announce treatment timelines, WaterVerge will reflect those changes. Search your city to see current PFAS data for your utility.