EPA screens drinking water for more than a thousand contaminants at once
In September 2026 the EPA announced a drinking water study using non-targeted analysis (NTA), which finds substances without deciding in advance what to look for.
- Conventional methods measure a handful of pre-selected substances; non-targeted analysis screens the spectrum for thousands of compounds at once, including pharmaceuticals and PFAS.
- The study covers more than a thousand potential contaminants and its results are to guide what the agency tackles next.
- For laboratories it signals where water control is heading: from a list of parameters towards a survey of what is in the sample at all.
- NTA does not replace standardised methods — it does not give a quantitative result comparable with a limit — but it points to substances for which such methods still have to be developed.
Source: US EPA — Study to Better Understand Emerging Contaminants in Drinking Water