England's waterways now carry less of two well-known 'forever chemicals' than they did a decade ago, according to an Environment Agency report released on Thursday 12 November. The agency attributes the improvement partly to restrictions and targeted government action.
Ten years of data
The report compares measurements from 2016 with those from 2025. River concentrations of PFOS dropped by around 30% over that period, while PFOA was down 29%, the agency says. It gives a fish figure only for PFOS, which declined by approximately 49% in freshwater species.
In the agency's view, these results show that regulation, including government controls on PFOS and PFOA, can produce measurable cuts in key legacy PFAS. It cautions, however, that PFAS are still found widely. It links this to a long history of use and to ongoing discharges from certain sources.
What PFAS are
PFAS are a large family of chemicals found in many products and industrial processes. Many of them degrade extremely slowly, taking hundreds of years, and may accumulate in the environment over time, the agency says, which explains the 'forever' label. The new report, titled PFAS sources, pathways & environmental data, updates the agency's 2021 assessment and rests on a much bigger pool of data and improved monitoring and analysis.
Reaction
Dr Robert Bradburne, the agency's Chief Scientist, said it can now track far more of these substances, and more precisely, than in 2021. He called the decline in some older PFAS encouraging but said more remains to be done.
Environment Minister Emma Hardy welcomed the report and said the government was determined to cut how much people and nature are exposed to these substances.
Manchester Metropolitan University's Dr David Megson, a reader in chemistry and environmental forensics, said the findings mark considerable progress and could help pinpoint the places where contamination is most severe. He also praised the agency for adopting methods that look at total PFAS and use non-targeted analysis.
Next steps
The government published the UK's first PFAS Plan earlier this year, and the report is meant to support its delivery. Measures listed in the plan include more testing in coastal waters and estuaries, safer substitutes for products such as water-repellent clothing and footwear, a public information website, and guidance for regulators and industry on old contamination in land. The government is also considering limiting forever chemicals in firefighting foams and intends to legislate against further persistent organic pollutants.
According to the agency, its expanded monitoring now includes groundwater, lakes, rivers, estuaries, coastal waters and landfill leachate. It also tracks recently introduced compounds, along with substances that can degrade into more worrying PFAS. Future research will cover monitoring of air, thresholds for water and possible substitutes for PFAS.
