WC142 MayJune 2025 - Magazine - Page 16
INNOVATION
PFAS Treatment: A New Era
Government updates and a look at the 昀椀rst municipal project in North America
OW THAT PUBLIC AWARENESS of highly toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” has grown, so has the
pressure to phase out their production and remove
them from the environment. A production ban has
been called for within the EU Parliament, and the
U.S. EPA released a PFAS report in January. In late March,
the Government of Canada announced plans to designate
all PFAS as “toxic” under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and progressively phase out their use. However,
N
Treena Hein is an award-winning
freelance science and technology
writer based in eastern Ontario.
16
WATER C AN ADA • M AY/JUNE 2025
details about what will be required for detection and treatment
are yet to be determined, explains Robert Haller, Executive
Director of the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association.
“As municipalities, we have to wait for clear federal directives from Health Canada (HC) and Environment and Climate
Change Canada (ECCC),” Haller notes. “Usually, a Maximum
Acceptable Concentration (MAC) for substances is needed for
provinces to develop enforceable regulations. PFAS will be a large
topic at our national biosolids conference in October and also our
national CWWA conference in November.”
Looking at municipal PFAS news, in late March the council
of West Nipissing in northern Ontario voted for a little extra
PFAS testing at the water treatment plant because of concerns
about leachate from the nearby landfill. In the same region, the
WAT E R C A N A D A . N E T
Getty Images
BY TREENA HEIN
