Charting a Roadmap for PFAS Management in Canada!

On June 16 th , Urban Water TMU hosted 14 speakers and 100 experts to chart Canada’s roadmap for PFAS Management. The Symposium was built upon the Findings of the PFAS Management in Canada Workshop held on September 16th 2025, and the technical realities discussed were eye-opening.

 The Regulatory Reality

On June 30, 2026, the federal Prohibition of Certain Toxic Substances Regulations, 2025 takes effect. Beyond chemical restriction, municipalities face significant class-action liability risks for the slow disclosure of contaminant sources threatening public health.

The Chemistry Blindspot

Alarmingly, PFAS concentrations can be higher in effluent than influent, in fact, PFAS doubles in wastewater treatment plants. Standard monitoring captures only ~10% of extractable organic fluorine in effluent, meaning targeted methods miss up to 90% of PFAS—including short-chain variants, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides.

Advanced Treatment & Destruction

Treat at Source: Concentrated point sources like landfill leachate must be treated at the source. Sending them to WWTPs causes dilution, which prevents (cost) effective treatment.

Destruction Frontiers

Incineration is currently the only EPA-sanctioned destruction method, with fugitive methane potentially acting as a PFAS emissions indicator. However, isolating PFAS into concentrated streams opens up innovative, non-thermal destruction options like Supercritical Water Oxidation, electrochemical oxidation, plasma destruction, and advanced VUV reduction.

The Science and Governance included

- Advancements from Europe (speaker Sarah Hale)

- We need a unified definition of "PFAS-free" to assess technologies. Let’s build on the OECD framework. (speaker Roxana Suehring)

-  PFAS detection at labs:  there is variation in laboratory methodologies and data interpretation causing relaibility challenges (speaker Tammy Chartrand)

Next steps:

-Urban Water TMU will deliver Findings Report and Recommendations to GOC

-The Ontario Environment Industry Association will be hosting 3 webinars in Fall 2026

-Subscribe to the GOC Risk management of the class of PFAS service (external link, opens in new window) 

Thank you to our generous sponsors without whom this Symposium would not have taken place! Thank you to our incredible speakers, partners, organizing committee, and volunteers for helping us put this Symposium together!

Urban Water TMU is uniquely positioned as a non-partisan academic hub to bring together stakeholders from diverse sectors to find solutions to complex problems.