Expansion of PFAS Analytical Capabilities in Australia
On 7 April 2026, SGS Australia announced the expansion of its accredited PFAS analytical testing suite to cover 73 distinct compounds across soil, water, and packaging matrices. The announcement marks a significant advance in the analytical tools available to Australian environmental practitioners, directly addressing a well-documented limitation in standard testing approaches. For contaminated land consultants, site auditors, developers, and environmental lawyers, the availability of a rigorously validated 73-compound suite changes the baseline expectation for what constitutes a thorough site investigation in Australia.
The expansion is particularly timely given the publication of the PFAS National Environmental Management Plan 3.0 (PFAS NEMP 3.0) in March 2025, which raised the bar for comprehensive site characterisation across Australian jurisdictions. As regulatory scrutiny continues to intensify, the gap between what standard analytical suites detect and what is actually present at a site carries direct financial and legal consequences for site owners, vendors, and their advisors. The SGS development targets this gap by including compound classes that have historically evaded detection under conventional testing protocols, including the widely used Total Oxidisable Precursors Assay (TOPA).
The practical significance extends beyond laboratory capability. Improved detection means more accurate conceptual site models (CSMs), more defensible remediation validation data, and a stronger evidentiary basis for risk assessments presented to regulators, courts, and financiers. For any party involved in the sale, remediation, or approval of a potentially PFAS-affected site, the adequacy of the analytical suite underpinning a site investigation is no longer a minor technical footnote. It is a core element of due diligence.
Key details of the 73-compound PFAS testing suite
The SGS Australia expanded suite covers 73 distinct PFAS compounds, a substantial increase on the 30 to 40 compound suites that have historically been standard across the Australian market. The suite has been validated and accredited across three matrices: soil, water, and packaging. The compound classes targeted by the expansion include polyfluoroalkyl phosphinates (PFPis), chlorinated perfluoroalkane sulfonates such as 8-chloro-perfluorooctane sulfonate (8Cl-PFOS), and a full complement of nine cationic and zwitterionic PFAS species. These are compound classes that standard suites routinely omit, not because they are necessarily rare in the environment, but because standard methodologies were not designed to detect them reliably.
The TOPA methodology has been the industry’s primary tool for estimating total PFAS burden at a site, particularly where precursor compounds are suspected. TOPA works by oxidising precursor PFAS into measurable perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), providing an indirect estimate of the total oxidisable PFAS mass present. However, the process has a fundamental constraint: compounds that resist complete oxidation under the TOPA conditions do not convert into detectable PFAAs. This means their contribution to total PFAS mass is either underestimated or entirely absent from the result. Cationic and zwitterionic PFAS species, as well as certain phosphinate-based compounds, are known to behave in this way, producing an artificially suppressed total PFAS reading when TOPA is used as the primary or sole characterisation method.
The behaviour of cationic and zwitterionic PFAS in environmental matrices compounds the detection problem. Unlike conventional anionic PFAS such as perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which carry a negative charge and interact with soil and sediment in broadly predictable ways, cationic and zwitterionic species carry a positive or dual charge. This alters their sorption behaviour to soil particles and changes their mobility in groundwater. A site characterised using only standard anionic-focused suites may therefore have an inaccurate CSM, with predicted plume boundaries and transport pathways that do not reflect the actual distribution of PFAS across the site. This is not a theoretical concern: it has direct implications for the design and validation of groundwater monitoring networks and remediation systems.
The inclusion of 8Cl-PFOS in the expanded suite is particularly notable from a regulatory standpoint. Chlorinated PFOS analogues share structural and toxicological similarities with PFOS itself, which is subject to strict guideline values under the PFAS NEMP 3.0 and the Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality (ANZG 2018). At sites where PFOS contamination is the primary concern, the undetected presence of chlorinated analogues may mean that the actual hazard burden is greater than the analytical results indicate, which in turn affects the risk assessment outcome and the adequacy of any subsequent remediation validation.
Australian context: PFAS NEMP 3.0, NEPM 2013, and the analytical standard of care
The PFAS NEMP 3.0, published by the heads of environment protection agencies in March 2025, represents the current national framework governing the investigation, assessment, and management of PFAS contamination across Australian jurisdictions. It establishes expectations for site characterisation that go beyond the detection of legacy compounds such as PFOS and PFOA alone. The NEMP 3.0 framework acknowledges the diversity of PFAS compounds encountered in the environment and expects practitioners to apply analytical approaches capable of characterising the full range of compounds relevant to a given site context. Where an analytical suite fails to capture significant compound classes, the site characterisation underlying a risk assessment may be considered inadequate by a regulator or auditor.
References and related sources
- Primary source: www.sgs.com
- PFAS National Environmental Management Plan (NEMP)
How iEnvi can help
iEnvi provides specialist consulting services relevant to this topic. Our team includes CEnvP Site Contamination Specialists with experience across contaminated land, groundwater, remediation, ecology, and regulatory compliance.
- iEnvi contaminated land services
- iEnvi remediation services
- iEnvi expert services and independent review services
This is an iEnvi Machete news summary. Prepared by iEnvi to summarise the source article for contaminated land, groundwater, remediation, approvals and site risk professionals.
Published: 08 Apr 2026
Need advice on this topic? Speak to an iEnvi expert at hello@ienvi.com.au or 1300 043 684, or contact us online.
Need advice on this issue? iEnvi provides practical, senior-led environmental consulting across contaminated land, remediation, ecology and environmental risk.
Contaminated land advice Remediation services Groundwater services Ecology consulting Talk to iEnvi