When the utility's PFAS notice arrives, start with the limit it names

PFAS is a family of man-made chemicals, and New Jersey regulates three of them in public drinking water. A notice is the utility's way of telling customers about a result. Read the whole page, since it is the only document that speaks to your system and your date.

What do New Jersey's PFAS limits mean?

They are enforceable state limits on drinking water: PFNA at 13 parts per trillion, PFOA at 14 and PFOS at 13. The state health department says New Jersey became the first state with an enforceable PFAS drinking water standard in 2018, and PFOA and PFOS followed in 2020.

A part per trillion is a very small amount, which is why these limits read so low. Check the number in your notice against the table, and note which chemical it names.

Which rule applies, the state's or EPA's?

New Jersey's limits are the ones the state health department ties to utility action today, and the federal rule runs on its own clock. EPA's 2024 rule set initial monitoring within three years, by 2027, and fixes within five years, by 2029, for levels over its limits.

EPA then changed course in part. In May 2025 it said it would keep the PFOA and PFOS limits and planned to drop the others. On May 18, 2026 it announced two rules to do that. As of November 3, 2026, EPA's page still calls both proposed. A notice citing 4.0 and one citing 14 may both be accurate, so look at which agency's number it uses.

What must the utility do?

It must act to reduce the level. That is NJDOH's plain statement for a public system above a New Jersey limit, and the same handout says many New Jersey systems have reached non-detect.

Ask your utility how often it will notify you afterward.

Can you still bathe, wash dishes and do laundry?

Yes, by the state health department's account. It describes showering, bathing, laundry, dishwashing and rinsing produce as not a significant exposure. If your own notice says something narrower, follow your notice.

For drinking and cooking, go by what the notice tells you, since that is the instruction written for your system and your result.

Will boiling or a home filter deal with it?

Boiling will not. Treatment can. NJDOH's list runs from reverse osmosis to activated carbon, granular or powdered, with ion exchange resins and other specialized media also able to reduce PFAS.

The check is the certification. NJDOH points to NSF/ANSI 53 and says to look at the version of the standard, noting that the 2022 version works to a level below 20 ppt. Ask a seller which version the unit was certified to and for which chemicals. The state health department said in January 2023 that New Jersey has "no State regulations for water treatment professionals," so that paperwork is yours to read. Households on their own wells have a different path, set out in our story on PFAS in private wells.

Where can you see results for your system?

NJDOH sends readers to NJDEP's Drinking Water Watch, and the annual report is the other place to look. Our brief on those reports explains the tables.

One local example shows what a clean line looks like. The Lacey MUA reports that its 2025 tests, covering regulated and unregulated PFAS alike, all came back non-detect, and that testing goes on quarterly in 2026. Lacey's town page has the rest.

Has an Ocean County system sent one?

We found no public PFAS notice for Lacey, Brick, Toms River or NJ American Water in the county, and that clears nobody. Apart from Lacey's statement above, this site makes no claim about any supplier. Who supplies which town shows where each report stands.