Coordinating a National Response to Emerging Water Contaminants
The Challenge
State water managers are on the front lines when contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), such as PFAS, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals, are detected in drinking water or ambient waters. Yet they often lack the coordinated federal guidance, toxicity data, and analytical methods needed to assess risks and take action. With thousands of chemicals in commerce and limited resources to evaluate them, states face mounting pressure to respond to public concern while navigating significant data gaps, inconsistent federal timelines, and fragmented information across agencies. Without a clear national framework, states are left to independently prioritize contaminants, develop health advisories, and communicate risks, leading to duplicated efforts, inconsistent guidance, and public confusion.
Our Role
Ross Strategic, brought in by the Association of Clean Water Administrators (ACWA) and the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA), convened a national workgroup of state clean water and drinking water administrators, to map the existing regulatory and voluntary processes for managing CECs and identify systemic barriers to timely, effective responses. Through stakeholder interviews and structured facilitation, we guided the workgroup through a detailed examination of how contaminants move through a lifecycle, from initial screening and monitoring to risk assessment and formal management. We helped participants surface shared challenges, assess gaps in federal-state coordination, and develop a set of actionable recommendations to improve how the water sector prevents, identifies, assesses, and responds to CECs. The process resulted in a comprehensive framework organized into five action areas: establishing a national priority-setting process, improving access to chemical toxicity data, coordinating monitoring efforts, expediting risk assessment, and strengthening risk communication.
The Impact
The workgroup’s recommendations, published in the Contaminants of Emerging Concern Workgroup Recommendations Report, provide state and federal water managers with a clear policy roadmap for optimizing CEC response across the entire water cycle. The framework clarifies roles, identifies where coordination can reduce duplication, and outlines specific steps to accelerate the development of health-based guidance and regulatory standards. By highlighting both immediate actions and longer-term policy reforms, the recommendations have informed ongoing state-federal collaboration on CECs and continue to guide national discussions on improving the water sector’s capacity to protect public health in the face of evolving contamination challenges.