Featured-PFAS

1st Circuit Weighs Upholding Class Certification In PFAS Deposition Case

Judges on a 1st Circuit panel appear to support a lower court’s partial certification of a PFAS property damages case, grilling counsel for a plastics manufacturer on his argument that the liability claims are individual, rather than common, across the class while pondering how to address the lawsuit’s damages claims, which were not certified. "We're talking past each other here," Judge Lara Montecalvo told the attorney for Saint-Gobain during a discussion on whether the trespass claim should have been certified...

Georgia Plaintiffs Seek To Consolidate PFAS Suits Amid Judge’s Doubts

Georgia citizens and environmentalists are urging a federal district court to consolidate their respective PFAS contamination suits against utility and industry defendants, arguing that their cases are largely similar and consolidation would save judicial resources, but the judge has previously signaled her skepticism at such efforts. The pair of suits , pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, test whether the Superfund law or the Clean Water Act (CWA) should govern the cleanup of land...

Judge Pauses CERCLA Cost Recovery Cases In AFFF MDL, Citing Shutdown

The judge overseeing multidistrict litigation (MDL) governing PFAS firefighting foam contamination has granted the United States’ request to stay 22 Superfund cases brought against it by local governments until the federal shutdown ends and the Justice Department’s (DOJ) funding is resumed. Judge Richard Gergel of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina Oct. 31 granted a motion by the U.S. government to stay action in the cases due to the lapse in funding for DOJ that began...

Industry Urges New Mexico To Extend Existing Waivers To PFAS Label Rule

Industry groups are raising concerns about New Mexico’s first-time proposed labeling requirements for PFAS-containing consumer products, arguing that the product categories that are already exempt from prohibitions and reporting requirements under the law should similarly be exempt from labeling requirements. “In our view, the draft regulations are inconsistent with the intent of the statute, given the multitude of specific product categories that are entirely exempt from the most substantive provisions of [the] law, including the Currently Unavoidable Use provision and...

Group Disputes Chemours’ Charge Of Broad Impact From PFAS Injunction

Environmentalists are urging the 4th Circuit to preserve a lower court injunction that requires chemical manufacturer Chemours to comply with its PFAS permit limits when discharging into the Ohio River, pushing back on the defendants’ argument that the Clean Water Act (CWA) allows plaintiffs to obtain injunctive relief automatically for every violation. “Chemours insists that the district court improperly assumed that a CWA permit violation automatically establishes sufficient harm for standing,” West Virginia Rivers Coalition (WVRC) says in an Oct...

States Ask High Court To Review Venue For PFAS Contamination Suits

Maryland and South Carolina are urging the Supreme Court to review and reverse an appellate ruling that backed 3M’s bid to remove their PFAS suits from state to federal court, charging that the appellate court broadened what qualifies as a federally directed action and failed to credit the states’ disclaimers that they would not recover for PFAS from firefighting foam. The case, if reviewed by the Supreme Court, is likely to impact a host of other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances...

3M Again Seeks To Remove Illinois PFAS Cleanup Litigation To U.S. Court

3M is once again seeking to move to federal court Illinois’ suit that targets the company’s PFAS contamination from a specific facility, arguing the state violated its concession to an appeals court that it would not seek relief for contamination related to aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF). “In an about-face, the State now admits that it seeks to recover at sites near the Cordova Facility with PFAS contamination stemming from multiple sources, including in places that are also plausibly contaminated with...

Local Officials Resist U.S. Push To Stay MDL Review Of CERCLA Claims

Local governments and the state of New Mexico are resisting Justice Department (DOJ) efforts to stay consideration of Superfund cost claims against the federal government for remediating PFAS from firefighting foam in multidistrict litigation (MDL), testing plaintiffs’ ability to rely on the Superfund law in pursuing timely cleanups. In an Oct. 23 brief filed in the MDL, nearly two dozen plaintiffs with claims for cost recovery or contribution under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act (CERCLA) oppose the...

Lawmakers Urge DOD To Revert To Faster 2024 PFAS Cleanup Schedule

Dozens of House lawmakers are urging Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to discard an updated timetable that would delay PFAS cleanups at 140 sites and instead commit to a faster schedule as reflected in a 2024 plan, while questioning the top Pentagon official on the reason behind the slowdown and the lack of transparency over the changes. In an Oct. 22 letter to Hegseth, 36 House members also press DOD to speed cleanups at sites where investigations should have already taken...

Absent Federal Policy, Key Democrat Sees Ongoing State PFAS Patchwork

Despite significant industry concerns, the state patchwork of regulations tackling PFAS contamination from consumer products is “going to be the defining feature of PFAS regulation over the next decade,” a key House Democrat says, especially given slim prospects for a unified federal approach from EPA or Congress. “I understand that industry gets heartburn about a patchwork of state policies,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) said during an Oct. 22 event, “Chemistry Solutions Forum,” in Washington, D.C., hosted by the U.S. Chamber...

New Mexico Proposes First-Time Product Labeling Requirements For PFAS

New Mexico could become the first state to adopt widespread labeling requirements for PFAS-containing consumer products, as the state’s environment board considers proposed rules requiring manufacturers to affix labels to their products that say they contain intentionally added PFAS, alongside rules for prohibitions, reporting and exemptions. Ahead of an Oct. 22 public meeting on the proposed rules, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) on Oct. 8 petitioned the state’s Environmental Impact Board (EIB) to adopt the proposed rules to implement...

Court Rejects Stay, Finds 3M Unlikely To Succeed In Texas PFAS Case Appeal

A federal district court has rejected 3M’s emergency bid to stay the court’s remand of a Texas PFAS suit to state court pending an appeal, with the federal court finding that 3M is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its appeal argument that the case should be classified as a class action under federal jurisdiction. At the same time, the case was given a 30-day automatic stay that is due to end Oct. 24. At issue in the case...

Key House Democrat Presses Zeldin On Delayed PFNA Risk Assessment

A key House Democratic appropriator is pressing EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to release a delayed risk assessment for perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), a long-chain PFAS linked to developmental harms, questioning its delay this spring at the same time Zeldin moved to rescind drinking water limits for PFNA and other PFAS. “The delay in issuing the PFNA report coincided with EPA’s decision, in May of this year, to rescind some PFAS Safe Drinking Water Act regulations, one of which happens to be...

IPI Seeks To Bolster PFAS Research, Fearing Studies Underestimate Effects

A progressive think tank is urging federal and state policymakers to pursue research into both non-legacy PFAS compounds as well as exposure pathways other than drinking water, raising concerns that existing studies underestimate the significant economic and other impacts from the chemicals and prohibit a class-based approach to regulations. “By addressing these research gaps, policymakers will be better equipped to conduct robust cost-benefit analyses, leading to more informed and effective regulations that minimize the economic and societal burden of PFAS...

3M Tests CAFA’s Reach In Bid To Remove Texas’ PFAS Suit To U.S. Court

3M is urging the 5th Circuit to allow it to appeal a lower court ruling that remanded to state court Texas’ litigation alleging 3M and DuPont misrepresented the safety of their PFAS-containing consumer products, in a potentially precedent-setting case that tests the jurisdiction of the federal Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) of 2005. The company and the state are battling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit over whether the state’s suit against 3M and other per-...

In Win For Industry, Newsom Vetoes Bill Banning PFAS In Cookware

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) veto of a bill that would have banned PFAS from cookware and several other product categories marks a win for industry groups that sought the veto after failing to prevent several other states from adopting similar prohibitions. Newsom on Oct. 13 vetoed SB 682, which sought to ban PFAS from five consumer product categories starting in 2028 and from cookware products beginning in 2030, citing concerns that the measure would trigger a shortage of affordable...

Senate Clears Defense Bill Echoing House Plan For Faster PFAS Cleanups

The Senate has approved its fiscal year 2026 defense policy bill with language that echoes House provisions for expediting PFAS cleanups at military sites, but lawmakers face a conference debate on Senate language that lifts a ban on Defense Department (DOD) procurement of certain items containing PFAS and repeals a temporary incineration ban for the chemicals. The Senate Oct. 9 approved S. 2296, the FY26 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), in a 77-20 vote after the bill had been stalled...

POTWs Fear New Jersey PFAS Deals Curb Recoveries, Undercut Authorities

Wastewater and other local agencies are raising concerns over New Jersey’s landmark proposed PFAS cleanup settlements with major chemical manufacturers, urging state regulators to reconsider the deals’ broad liability waiver that they say prevents them from recouping adequate funds and undercuts their pre-treatment and other enforcement powers. “Simply stated, the proposed [judicial consent orders (JCO)] would grant 3M an essentially unquantifiable amount of PFAS liability protection[] without demanding nearly enough money in return to address the water contamination caused by...

Chamber Urges Congress To Retain Rollbacks Of PFAS Limits In NDAA

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is urging the House and Senate leaders of the Armed Services committees to include in any final version of the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) measures to extend the phaseout timeline for PFAS-based firefighting foam and other provisions that would roll back PFAS-related restrictions. As lawmakers prepare for an upcoming conference committee to resolve differences in their respective versions of the FY26 NDAA, the Chamber, representing industrial and business interests, appeals to...

EPA Adds PFHxS Salt To TRI Reporting List, Following IRIS Toxicity Value

EPA is adding another PFAS to the list of chemicals that regulated facilities must report to the agency under the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program, as part of an automatic update to the inventory required by law after the agency completes a toxicity value for the chemical or undertakes certain other regulatory activities. The agency’s Oct. 7 addition of sodium perfluorohexanesulfonate (PFHxS-Na) to the TRI means regulated entities must now report 206 PFAS though facilities will not begin tracking their...

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