The UK government published its PFAS Plan in February 2026, committing to continued annual monitoring of freshwater environments in England, completion of a PFAS prioritisation map by the end of 2026 for use by public sector bodies, and a series of research and investigation programmes to identify and characterise contamination sources. A House of Commons Environment Committee inquiry, published in April 2026, found that PFAS are now widespread in UK rivers, soils, and human populations, and recommended that the government consult by March 2027 on establishing a national PFAS Remediation Fund to address legacy contamination from industrial and other sources. For drainage professionals, local flood authorities, and surface water managers, the committee’s findings confirm that surface water runoff is an active pathway for PFAS transport from contaminated catchments into receiving water bodies and wastewater systems.
Treatment Technologies and Mainstream Deployment
Advanced treatment technologies capable of removing PFAS from surface water and wastewater effluent are available but not yet standard across the industry. Advanced treatment technologies—specifically granular activated carbon adsorption, ion-exchange resins, and high-pressure membranes (nanofiltration and reverse osmosis)—have proven effective at removing PFAS across pilot- and commercial-scale evaluations. Granular activated carbon has been deployed at several UK water treatment works for drinking water protection and is increasingly being evaluated for surface water treatment and wastewater polishing. The technical challenge lies in cost and operational complexity, since PFAS treatment at scale requires large capital investment, ongoing media replacement or regeneration, and careful management of the concentrated waste streams produced by ion exchange and membrane processes.
The regulatory pressure to deploy advanced treatment is building through multiple channels. The EU’s revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, which entered into force on 1 January 2025, introduces new monitoring requirements for emerging pollutants, including PFAS and microplastics, at wastewater treatment works. This creates a regulatory reference point against which the UK’s own approach is likely to be benchmarked. The Environment Agency is advancing its PFAS permitting approach through Environmental Permitting Regulations notices to operators in high-risk sectors, moving towards permit conditions governing PFAS discharges. For treatment technology providers, the transition from pilot deployment to mainstream procurement is being propelled by this regulatory tightening, and the AMP8 capital cycle provides the funding mechanism through which utilities can commit to advanced treatment infrastructure at scale.
Urban Drainage UK 2027 addresses PFAS treatment from the perspective of the drainage and surface water sector, examining how contamination enters surface runoff from urban catchments, what treatment technologies are demonstrating effective removal across pilot programmes, and how the regulatory monitoring and permitting regime is evolving to create both compliance obligations and commercial opportunities for treatment technology providers, water utilities, and environmental consultancies.
