EPA's First Ever PFAS TECH Strategy Spurs Innovation In Research And Technology To Address PFAS

DENVER, CO – Today, at an event in Commerce City, Colorado, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin launched the first ever agency-wide PFAS Technology, Evaluation, Coordination, and Harmonization (PFAS TECH) strategy. This new effort will help catapult technology innovation on PFAS while supporting practical tools, funding, and technical assistance to benefit communities addressing local PFAS challenges. 

“The Trump EPA is laser-focused on making America healthy again by developing real and tangible agency-wide strategies to protect Americans from exposure to PFAS,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. “Technology innovation is essential to accelerating our efforts to address these contaminants, and EPA’s new PFAS TECH strategy will advance scientific discovery, demonstrate the real-world feasibility of advanced technologies, and help reduce PFAS in the environment.” 

The PFAS TECH strategy prioritizes collaboration between EPA, federal partners, states, local leaders, and the private sector. EPA’s goals through this new strategy are to: 

• Power innovation in research and development by accelerating new PFAS treatment and destruction technologies through funding, forming new partnerships, and supporting early-stage innovation. In keeping with the Trump EPA’s commitment to cooperative federalism, this effort includes working with federal partners, states, local businesses, universities, and water systems to test promising methods like foam fractionation, supercritical water oxidation, and other emerging treatment approaches. 
• Demonstrate what’s possible through pilot-scale initiatives by conducting projects at Superfund sites, military facilities, wastewater treatment plants, and drinking water systems that will test performance under real conditions, lower technical risk, and show communities what PFAS cleanup options are practical and scalable. 
• Translate progress into practical actions by creating user-friendly guidance, launching the Break the Bond Navigator, sharing updated technology information, and helping water systems access funding and technical assistance.  

“Partnerships are the key to unlocking innovation and next-generation technologies. To that end, EPA’s Office of Water is actively pursuing public-private partnerships to promote research, development, and scalable water treatment technologies for PFAS removal,” said EPA PFAS Lead and Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water Jess Kramer. “These partnerships will accelerate technology breakthroughs to reduce PFAS in water while also reducing the cost of treatment to save money.” 

In addition to developing partnerships, EPA intends to issue grant funding for research related to the destruction of PFAS. For example, funding will be available under the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) grant program and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant program. 

"EPA is prioritizing research and development on PFAS and ensuring our science is gold standard and directly applicable to needs in local communities as they work to address PFAS pollution,” said Teresa Booeshaghi, Associate Administrator for the Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions. “One such study is conducting full scale pilot tests to optimize the performance of drinking water treatment methods being deployed all over the country.”  

To catalyze the development and use of new technologies for treatment of PFAS in communities, we must work to test the technology in real-world scenarios and make the new innovations scalable to the needs. EPA’s PFAS TECH strategy will demonstrate what is possible through pilot-scale initiatives.  

“Hazardous waste cleanup sites managed by EPA project managers are actively addressing PFAS contamination, and they can provide excellent opportunities for advancing critical technology to sample for and remediate PFAS,” said Steven Cook, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Land and Emergency Management. “We have pilot projects ongoing across multiple regions, ranging from foam fractionation for PFAS removal from groundwater to evaluation of the efficacy of incremental sampling, which could drastically lower sampling costs.” 

Advancing EPA’s PFAS TECH strategy is essential to achieving the shared goal of addressing PFAS by harnessing next-generation advanced science and technology with a focus on pragmatic actions and real-world impact. A key to success is cultivating partnerships across federal agencies, states, local officials, industry, associations, technical assistance providers, and other stakeholders to unleash research and development, conduct pilot projects, and provide practical actions that are grounded in real-world experience. To learn more, or to get involved, visit https://www.epa.gov/pfas/pfas-tech