NEtFOSAA
Overview
N-ethylperfluorooctanesulfonamidoacetic acid, a PFAS that breaks down into PFOS. It has no federal limit of its own, but what it becomes does.
In Florida, NEtFOSAA was found in 1 community water system serving about 15,561 people. Nobody has set a legal limit for it, so no reading here counts as an exceedance and no utility is required to do anything about it.
Where it comes from: Breakdown of PFOS-related chemistry; historic stain repellents and firefighting foam.
The standards
Enforceable. A utility must stay at or under this.
Health-based, not enforceable. Often lower than the limit, sometimes zero.
No government body has assessed this compound at all. Florida Water Report sets one part per trillion, the level peer-reviewed research on perfluorinated compounds supports as a combined-exposure benchmark, because a measurement with nothing to read it against tells a person nothing.
Health effects the EPA associates with it: No federal drinking-water limit has been set. It degrades to PFOS, for which EPA set a limit of 4 parts per trillion and a health goal of zero.
The health goal is set on health alone. The legal limit is set as close to it as is technically and economically feasible, so treatment cost and available technology are written into the number a utility is measured against. A system at or under the limit is meeting the standard it is required to meet. Both numbers are shown so the distance between them is visible.
What removes it
Reverse osmosis or anion exchange. Because it degrades into PFOS, treating for PFOS treats for this as well.
Treatment guidance describes the methods generally used for this contaminant. What your own tap actually carries depends on your plumbing and your service line as much as on the utility, which is what a test at the house tells you and an annual report cannot.
Where in Florida
Highest reported levels
Data Sources
These figures describe water as delivered by each utility, not what your home’s plumbing adds after it arrives. Informational; not a substitute for testing your own tap.