We're kicking off this initiative with the most distinctive real thing in Halifax's public water record: on December 29, 2025, the Halifax Water Department issued a public notice confirming that routine monthly testing at Richmond Park Well 1 had turned up elevated PFAS6 during the fourth quarter of 2025. October's result was 20.1 ng/L and November's was 22.2 ng/L — both individually above Massachusetts' 20 parts-per-trillion legal limit — before December's result of 16.3 ng/L pulled the three-month compliance average back down to exactly 20 ng/L. Under MassDEP's rule, that's a pass, not a violation: "an average of 20 does not exceed the MCL," in the Water Department's own words.
We think that's worth reporting plainly rather than either downplaying it or overstating it. This is about as close as a water system can get to a PFAS6 exceedance without one actually occurring, at a well that supplies part of a town whose other three groundwater sources tested well below the limit (non-detect to 11.4 ng/L). The Water Department says it's using an Emerging Contaminant grant to investigate PFAS removal treatment at Richmond Park and will keep sampling Well 1 monthly. We'll be tracking those results as they come in. See the full breakdown on our Water data page.
Source: Halifax Water Department, Drinking Water PFAS6 Public Education notice, 12/29/2025.
It's a reasonable thing to wonder: Monponsett Pond sits almost entirely inside Halifax, and it's a genuinely important water body for the region. But we confirmed directly against primary sources that Halifax's own drinking water has no connection to it. All of the town's public water comes from four groundwater wells at the Richmond Park and YMCA Camp sites — not from any pond.
What Monponsett actually does is help supply someone else's water system: under a 1964 state act, the City of Brockton diverts water from East Monponsett Pond (and Furnace Pond in Pembroke) into its Silver Lake reservoir every year from October through May, which is Brockton's own primary water source and which Brockton in turn wholesales to other towns. In a twist, 2024 briefly reversed that relationship for Halifax specifically: while the Richmond Park treatment plant was down for major renovations, Halifax purchased about 38 million gallons of treated water wholesale from Brockton to keep its own system supplied. Full details, including MassDEP's long-running nutrient and cyanobacteria concerns for the pond itself, are on our Water data page.
Sources: Massachusetts special act of 1964 (Halifax water diversion to Brockton); 2017 MassDEP administrative consent order with the City of Brockton; Halifax Water Department 2024 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report.
Long before there was a federal PFAS rule, there was a Massachusetts one. In October 2020, MassDEP finalized an enforceable drinking water standard — a Maximum Contaminant Level, or MCL — of 20 parts per trillion for the combined total of six PFAS compounds, a grouping the state calls "PFAS6": PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS, PFNA, PFHpA, and PFDA.
At the time, this made Massachusetts one of a small number of states with any enforceable PFAS standard at all. The federal government wouldn't set its own limits for another three and a half years. For Halifax specifically, this is the exact standard that Richmond Park Well 1's Q4 2025 quarterly average landed precisely on — 20 ppt, at the line rather than over it, which is the reason the town had to notify residents at all.
Source: Mass.gov — Massachusetts PFAS Drinking Water Standard (MCL).
Until April 2024, there was no federal limit on PFAS in drinking water at all — only the Massachusetts state standard set in 2020. That changed when EPA finalized its National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR) for PFAS: the first time PFAS compounds have been individually, enforceably regulated at the federal level.
The rule set limits of 4 parts per trillion (ppt) each for PFOA and PFOS, 10 ppt each for three additional compounds (PFHxS, PFNA, and HFPO-DA), and a combined "Hazard Index" limit for mixtures of those plus PFBS. Water systems nationwide were given until 2027 to complete initial monitoring and until 2029 to come into full compliance. For Halifax, the open question is which of the six PFAS6 compounds actually make up Richmond Park's 20 ppt reading — the Water Department's public notice reports only the combined sum, not a compound-by-compound breakdown, so we can't say whether PFOA or PFOS individually are anywhere near this federal 4 ppt threshold. We'll update this if a breakdown is published.
Source: Federal Register — PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation.
On May 18, 2026, EPA announced two proposals affecting the federal PFAS rule described above. The first would let water systems request a two-year extension — from 2029 to 2031 — to comply with the enforceable limits for PFOA and PFOS. The second would rescind the individual limits for three other PFAS compounds (PFHxS, PFNA, and HFPO-DA/GenX) and the combined "Hazard Index" limit for mixtures of those plus PFBS, on the grounds that EPA says the prior rulemaking didn't follow required Safe Drinking Water Act procedure.
What doesn't change: the 4 ppt limits for PFOA and PFOS individually — the two compounds most consistently linked to health effects in research — aren't part of either rescission proposal. EPA held a public hearing on the proposals on July 7, 2026. As of today, the comment period remains open and is scheduled to close July 20, 2026, with EPA aiming to finalize before the end of 2026 — nothing here is final yet. For Halifax, where one well's PFAS6 average already sits right at the state's own 20 ppt line, this is a rulemaking worth watching regardless of which way it lands.
See the full regulatory timeline for how this fits with the 2020 state standard and the 2024 federal rule.
System-wide data only tells part of the story — service lines, home plumbing, and private wells can all change what actually comes out of your tap.
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