The EU will set new threshold values to certain PFAS in water. However, solution is production ban

Brussels – Three and a half years have passed since the European Commission, in October 2022, presented a list of more than 20 substances and a group of 24 PFAS to be added to the list of pollutants affecting surface and groundwater. Finally, it won’t be long before that list is put down on paper: on 17 February, the Council of the EU gave its final approval, and the last step will be the European Parliament’s confirmation vote, scheduled for the next plenary session from 9 to 12 March. 

The vote in the Strasbourg Chamber should be only a formal vote to confirm a text already agreed with the Member States in  September 2025 (conditionality is a must, given the variable majorities in the European Parliament today). The new directive—which amends the Water Framework Directive, the Groundwater Directive and the Environmental Quality Standards Directive—extends the list of hazardous substances subject to rules on monitoring and reducing releases into surface water and groundwater. 

The list of substances to which environmental quality standards apply, in the form of threshold values, will thus include pharmaceuticals—such as painkillers—pesticides, bisphenols, and 24 PFAS, the notorious perfluoroalkyl substances, also known as “forever chemicals” due to their persistence in the environment and in organisms. There are many more PFAS, several thousand synthetic, non-stick, water- and oil-repellent chemical compounds, which have been used for over half a century to produce cookware, clothing and footwear, cosmetics, packaging, fire-fighting foams, tents, carpets, paints, and floor wax. 

So far, under the directive adopted in 2018, Member States are not required to monitor the use of PFAS and their presence in groundwater. However, if Parliament also gives its final approval to the text, they will have until 2039 to comply with the new standards for both surface water and groundwater. For substances with revised and more stringent environmental quality standards for surface water, the compliance deadline is 2033. 

According to data held by the European Commission, 46 per cent of surface waters and 24 per cent of groundwater in the EU do not meet current environmental quality standards, with significant differences between Member States. With regard to PFAS pollution, at the end of last month, the EU executive published a lengthy report estimating the actual costs between now and 2050, hypothesising four different scenarios: maintaining current pollution levels, strict enforcement of drinking water standards (in force since 12 January), compliance with the new environmental quality standards for surface and groundwater adopted today by the Council, and a total ban on the production and use of PFAS. 

Surprisingly, the highest costs would be incurred in the third scenario. If the new water quality standards were applied, health and pollution control costs would reach €1.7 trillion by 2050. The exorbitant increase in costs (around 450 billion in the first two scenarios) would result, despite a simultaneous reduction in healthcare expenditure, from the remediation and treatment required to meet wastewater threshold values without stopping the use of PFAS in production. 

The results of the EU executive’s study show that a blanket ban on the production and use of these persistent pollutants would also be the most economically efficient solution. A total ban on PFAS would cost “only” around €330 billion until 2050: while remediation and water treatment costs would remain constant, the ban would reduce emissions and lead to a gradual decline in healthcare costs.