On May 18, 2026, EPA announced two proposals affecting the federal PFAS rule described below. The first would let water systems request a two-year extension — from 2029 to 2031 — to comply with the enforceable limits for PFOA and PFOS. The second would rescind the individual limits for three other PFAS compounds (PFHxS, PFNA, and HFPO-DA/GenX) and the combined "Hazard Index" limit for mixtures of those plus PFBS, on the grounds that EPA says the prior administration didn't follow required Safe Drinking Water Act procedure in setting them.
What doesn't change: the 4 ppt limits for PFOA and PFOS individually — the two compounds most consistently linked to health effects in research — are not part of either rescission proposal. For Scituate specifically, this matters less urgently than for towns with confirmed exceedances, since current public tracking data hasn't shown any compound above EPA's guidelines here — but the ongoing monitoring requirement through 2029 continues regardless of how these proposals land.
Both proposals were still open for public comment as of this writing, with the comment period on the record scheduled to close July 20, 2026. Nothing here is final; treat the 2024 rule as the current baseline until EPA actually finalizes a change.
See our Water data page for Scituate's current PFAS status.
Until April 2024, there was no federal limit on PFAS in drinking water at all — only the Massachusetts state standard set in 2020. That changed when EPA finalized its National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR) for PFAS: the first time PFAS compounds have been individually, enforceably regulated at the federal level.
The rule set limits of 4 parts per trillion (ppt) each for PFOA and PFOS, 10 ppt each for three additional compounds (PFHxS, PFNA, and HFPO-DA), and a combined "Hazard Index" limit for mixtures of those plus PFBS. Water systems nationwide were given until 2027 to complete initial monitoring and until 2029 to come into full compliance.
For the Scituate Water Division, public tracking data available to us doesn't show any of these compounds above their respective limits as of the latest reporting — a genuinely different picture than towns with confirmed exceedances. That's a status check based on current data, not a permanent conclusion, since Massachusetts requires ongoing PFAS monitoring through 2029 and results can change as new rounds are published.
Source: Federal Register — PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation.
PFAS ("forever chemicals") monitoring in Massachusetts drinking water isn't a one-off test — it's an ongoing requirement under both the 2020 state standard and the 2024 federal rule, and water systems have to keep testing and reporting results as the rules phase in through 2029.
Based on the public tracking data available to us, Scituate's PFAS monitoring has not shown any compound above EPA's health-based guidelines as of the latest reporting we've reviewed. We think it's worth saying that plainly rather than manufacturing concern where the data doesn't support it — but we're also not going to call this permanent. New testing rounds happen on an ongoing basis, and we'll update this page and our Water data page if that picture changes.
Source: Massachusetts DEP and EPA public reporting, as summarized on our Water data page.
Long before there was a federal PFAS rule, there was a Massachusetts one. In October 2020, MassDEP finalized an enforceable drinking water standard — a Maximum Contaminant Level, or MCL — of 20 parts per trillion for the combined total of six PFAS compounds, a grouping the state calls "PFAS6": PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS, PFNA, PFHpA, and PFDA.
At the time, this made Massachusetts one of a small number of states with any enforceable PFAS standard at all. The federal government wouldn't set its own limits for another three and a half years. Every public water system in the state, including the Scituate Water Division's mix of wells, ponds, and the Tack Factory Reservoir, has been required to meet this standard since it took effect.
This 20 ppt combined standard remains the operative Massachusetts rule today, and it's separate from (and less strict, compound-for-compound, than) the individual federal PFOA/PFOS limit of 4 ppt that followed in 2024. Both apply simultaneously — a system has to meet whichever is more protective for a given compound.
Source: Mass.gov — Massachusetts PFAS Drinking Water Standard (MCL).
We're kicking off this initiative with the thing we found most worth flagging: independent public trackers of Scituate's EPA violation history don't agree with each other. One aggregator shows 2 MCL violations on record and 5 contaminants reported above EPA health-based guidelines in at least one area served; another shows zero active violations and nothing above EPA limits since 2010; a separate historical record shows one documented Total Coliform Rule monitoring violation from July 2015. Rather than pick whichever numbers look better, we think that disagreement itself is the useful thing for Scituate households to know — along with where to check the primary sources yourself.
On PFAS specifically, the picture is more reassuring: public tracking data available to us doesn't show any compound above EPA's health-based guidelines as of the latest reporting. See the full breakdown, including exactly which sources disagree and how, on our Water data page.
With five different supply sources feeding the system, what's in your tap can vary more than a single system-wide number suggests.
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