Illinois e-News Release

November 24, 2025

Kim Biggs, Illinois EPA

217-558-1536

Springfield – Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Acting Director James Jennings announced the issuance of a health advisory for the PFAS 6:2 Fluorotelomer Sulfonic Acid (6:2 FTS), in accordance with Illinois groundwater regulations. Health advisories are issued when there is detection of a chemical substance(s) harmful to human health for which no numeric groundwater standard(s) exists, and resampling confirms the presence in a community water supply well.

“Through Illinois EPA’s proactive statewide sampling of PFAS chemicals in Illinois Community Water Supplies, we have identified chemicals that present potential public health impacts and developed health advisories to ensure the public has clear, science-driven information about potential exposures and associated risks from these chemicals. Health advisories, like the 6:2 FTS advisory, also provide community water supplies important information to determine whether any additional protective steps are warranted,” said Acting Director Jennings. “The Illinois EPA considers established health advisories when groundwater cleanup and action objectives are established for any of its regulatory programs.”

Health advisories are published in the Environmental Register, a publication of the Illinois Pollution Control Board, and placed on the website:  https://pcb.illinois.gov/Resources/News. The health advisories are also available on the Illinois EPA website at:  https://epa.illinois.gov/topics/water-quality/pfas/pfas-healthadvisory.html

*Updated health advisory guidance level

To ensure that Illinois’ groundwater quality standards match current scientific data and methodologies, Illinois EPA proposed, and the Illinois Pollution Control Board (Board) adopted, amendments to the Board’s groundwater quality regulations to establish new groundwater quality standards for PFAS analytes in which Illinois EPA had previously issued health advisories. Those PFAS are perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS), perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), pefluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Therefore, the groundwater quality standards for these PFAS analytes replace the previously issued health advisories. A groundwater quality standard was also established for hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid, also known as GenX (HFPO-DA).

In 2021, the Illinois EPA completed a statewide PFAS investigation, which sampled drinking water at every community water supply in Illinois. If PFAS chemicals were confirmed at concentrations above laboratory minimum reporting levels, the Illinois EPA worked directly with those community water supplies to ensure residents were informed and determined next steps for reducing exposure. Many community water supplies continue to sample for PFAS chemicals, which is how the recent detections were made. A complete listing of sample results from the statewide investigation is available on the interactive map established by Illinois EPA at: https://illinois epa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/bd611162a7f74cfe88b6928c926416c3. Further, from 2023-2025, U.S. EPA is conducting PFAS testing in the State of Illinois under the fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5) which is available at: https://www.epa.gov/dwucmr/fifth-unregulated-contaminant-monitoring-rule-data-finder#data-finder.