The PFAS Project Lab has updated two of its data tools: the Known PFAS Contamination Site Tracker and the Presumptive PFAS Contamination Dataset. These tools demonstrate where PFAS have been detected in environmental media outside of drinking water systems and where contamination is most likely, based on site use characteristics. Both datasets and the interactive map are available on the PFAS Project Lab’s website.
As part of a detailed analysis of PFAS sites published in Environmental Science & Technology on August 25, 2025, we used other publicly available datasets to expand both tools. Through comparison with the US Environmental Protection Agency’s PFAS Analytic Tools, a dashboard of information about PFAS testing and possible sites, we were able to add data on a net 280 known PFAS sites and 21,500 sites likely to be contaminated with PFAS, bringing the total of sites included in the Known PFAS Contamination Tracker to 2,219 and the Presumptive PFAS Contamination Dataset to 79,891. The paper is on the publisher’s website, and a non-paywalled authors’ version is available on the PFAS Project Lab website.
We started the Known Contamination Site Tracker in 2016 with just 12 sites, and it has grown over time to now include 2,219 sites with measured PFAS linked to an identified contamination source. In our analysis, we found that 40% of sites in the Known PFAS Contamination Tracker are associated with waste management, 29% are industrial sites, 20% are military facilities, 4% are associated with municipal firefighting activity, and 4% are airports. Yet while the number of known contamination sites continues to increase, some states with many known sites merely appear to be more contaminated because they have done more systematic testing for PFAS. The distribution of site types reflects targeted sampling programs conducted by the federal government, such as testing of Department of Defense sites, and state investigations, which have focused largely on waste facilities, military installations, and particular industries like electroplating.
We developed the Presumptive PFAS Contamination Model in 2022 to address gaps in our knowledge created by the lack of widespread, systematic PFAS sampling. The Presumptive PFAS Contamination Model identifies likely sources of PFAS contamination based on likely PFAS use and emission; airports, military facilities, wastewater treatment plants, landfills, and industrial sites associated with PFAS use are presumptive PFAS contamination sites. When first published, our model identified 58,412 sites of presumptive PFAS contamination that had high-quality, publicly available geolocation information. Drawing on more recent data from the EPA’s PFAS Analytics Tools, the dataset now identifies 79,891 presumptive PFAS contamination sites, consisting of 53% industrial sites, 42% waste management sites, 3% military facilities, 1% incidental AFFF releases, and <1% major airports.
A comparison between the known and presumptive PFAS contamination datasets suggests that current PFAS testing efforts do not adequately address some of the most common types of sites associated with PFAS contamination, specifically industry sites. Widespread, systematic environmental testing for PFAS is needed to fill gaps in our understanding of the scope and scale of PFAS contamination. By identifying PFAS sources and spatial regions of concern, these datasets can inform PFAS testing and multi-scale governance initiatives. They can also facilitate community awareness about environmental health hazards because this type of data is often inaccessible to the public.
Full details of our dataset analyses and methods can be found in Garrett et al. (2025). This analysis and publication was completed by lab members Kimberly Garrett, Vic Say, Sam Ciaranca, Phil Brown, Emily Haberlack, Caroline Hopkins, Michael Lengefeld, and Alissa Cordner.
Contact information for questions or media inquiries:
General PFAS Project Lab contact: pfasproject@gmail.com
Dr. Kimberly Garrett, corresponding author on this publication: Kimberly.Garrett@sph.cuny.edu
PFAS Project Lab Co-directors: Dr. Phil Brown, p.brown@northeastern.edu, and Dr. Alissa Cordner, cordneaa@whitman.edu