PFNA
Overview
Perfluorononanoic acid, one of the PFAS family. A longer-chain compound used in industrial processing and found as a breakdown product of other PFAS. EPA set a federal limit of 10 parts per trillion for it in 2024.
In Florida, PFNA was found in 8 community water systems serving about 2,830,340 people. 1 of those readings was above the federal legal limit, together serving 242,172 people.
The highest reading relative to the limit was at Emerald Coast Utilities Authority (ECUA) in Escambia County, at 162% of it.
Where it comes from: Industrial manufacturing and processing; breakdown of other fluorinated compounds; landfill leachate.
The standards
Enforceable. A utility must stay at or under this.
Health-based, not enforceable. Often lower than the limit, sometimes zero.
EPA maximum contaminant level goal (2024), PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation, 89 FR 32532, April 26 2024. EPA set this as the level with no known or expected risk to health, with an adequate margin of safety. It is a health goal, not a limit: unlike the legal limit, no test of what utilities can afford went into it.
Health effects the EPA associates with it: EPA links PFAS exposure to decreased immune response, increased cholesterol, and developmental effects in infants and children.
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
Granular activated carbon, anion exchange resin, or reverse osmosis, on the same basis as the other long-chain PFAS. Media must be replaced on schedule.
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.