On May 18, 2026 EPA announced two proposals affecting the PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation, published in the Federal Register on May 20, 2026. Neither is final.

What is proposed

• Compliance extension. Systems that request and receive a federal exemption would have until April 2031, rather than April 2029, to meet the enforceable limits for PFOA and PFOS.
• Rescission. A separate proposal would rescind the regulatory determinations and standards for PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA (GenX) and the Hazard Index mixture.
• Monitoring is untouched. Monitoring and reporting timelines follow the April 2024 final rule as written.
• Systems at or above 12 ppt would still have to implement short-term mitigation during any exemption period.

The comment period closed July 20, 2026 after a July 7 public hearing (docket EPA-HQ-OW-2025-1742).

What it means in the field

The headline is a later deadline, but the practical takeaway is the opposite: sampling schedules have not moved, so systems still need results in hand on the original timeline. And a result is only as clean as the equipment that produced it — wetted parts and containers still have to keep fluoropolymers away from the sample. See drinking water and distribution and PFAS sampling.

Sources: EPA — proposed PFOA and PFOS compliance extension; EPA — proposed PFAS rescission rule; Federal Register.