TLDR
Companies that made or imported PFAS ("forever chemicals") were supposed to start reporting to EPA what they made, how much, and where it ended up. That deadline has been pushed back three times. No data has been collected. The new deadline is January 2027.
What Are PFAS?
PFAS stands for a group of thousands of chemicals that humans invented starting in the 1940s. They're used to make things non-stick (like Teflon pans), waterproof (like rain jackets), and grease-proof (like fast food wrappers and pizza boxes). They're also in firefighting foam used at airports and military bases.
Here's the problem: these chemicals basically never break down. Once they're made, they stick around — in the soil, in the water, and in our bodies. That's why people call them "forever chemicals."
How "forever" are we talking?
Most things in nature break down over time. A banana peel decomposes in weeks. A plastic bottle might take hundreds of years. PFAS? Scientists aren't sure they ever fully break down. They've been found in rainwater, in Arctic ice, in the blood of nearly every person tested in the United States, and even in the blood of newborn babies.
Research has linked PFAS exposure to kidney cancer, thyroid disease, immune system problems, high cholesterol, and complications during pregnancy. The science is still growing, but what we know so far isn't good.
What Was EPA Trying to Do?
In 2023, EPA created a rule that said: if you're a company that made or imported PFAS (or products containing PFAS) between 2011 and 2022, you have to tell us about it. Specifically, you have to report what chemicals you used, how much, where they went, and what you know about exposure and health effects.
This wasn't a ban. It wasn't a cleanup order. It was just: tell us what you know. EPA said they needed this information to understand the full picture of PFAS contamination in the country.
Think of it like a doctor asking for your medical history.
Before a doctor can treat you, they need to know what's going on. What symptoms do you have? What medications are you taking? What have you been exposed to? EPA is in the same position with PFAS — they can't fully address the problem until they know the scope of it. This reporting rule was supposed to be the medical history.
What Happened?
The reporting was supposed to start in late 2024. But EPA hadn't finished building the website where companies would submit their data. So they pushed the deadline to 2025. Then they pushed it again to April 13, 2026. Now they've pushed it again to January 31, 2027.
On top of that, EPA proposed scaling back the rule in November 2025 — exempting some types of PFAS from reporting and changing the reporting period. They received over 9,000 public comments on those proposed changes and say they need more time to review them.
Where things stand right now
The rule still exists — it hasn't been canceled. But three years after it was finalized, not a single company has submitted any data under it. The information EPA said it needed to protect public health from PFAS remains uncollected.
Why Does This Matter?
While the reporting deadline keeps moving, PFAS contamination keeps being discovered — at military bases, near factories, in municipal drinking water systems, in private wells. Communities across the country are dealing with contaminated water right now. EPA has set drinking water limits for six specific PFAS compounds, but there are thousands more in use, and without this reporting data, regulators are making decisions about which ones to worry about with an incomplete picture.
Every delay in collecting data is a delay in understanding the problem. And every delay in understanding the problem is a delay in fixing it.
The bottom line
Nobody is arguing that PFAS aren't a problem. The question is how quickly the government is going to get the information it needs to address it. Right now, the answer is: not quickly at all.
Sources: Federal Register (April 8, 2026); EPA TSCA PFAS Reporting Rule (88 FR 70516, October 2023); NJBIA analysis; Akin Gump legal analysis. Have a correction? Contact us.