Featured-PFAS

Preparing For ELGs, EPA Poised To Seek Data On Metal Finishing PFAS

EPA is preparing to ask the White House for permission to collect PFAS discharge data from the chrome finishing industry in order to support an expected proposal to revise technology-based effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) for the metal finishing sector, one of two sectors the agency has identified for revised ELGs. The agency is slated to take comment on a new proposed information collection request (ICR) that it will eventually submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval,...

EPA Alumni Accuse WHO Of Undercutting Agency’s PFAS Water Rules

Former EPA officials and staff are accusing the World Health Organization (WHO) of attempting to undercut the agency’s upcoming drinking water regulations for PFAS, saying the international group’s recently issued proposal for technology-focused guidelines fails to fully take into account the health risks from the persistent and toxic chemicals. “WHO should wait for EPA to provide this invaluable information before proceeding with a document that mischaracterizes and omits many critical studies on both health effects and treatment technology,” the Environmental...

Industry Outlines Potential Legal Arguments Opposing CERCLA PFAS Rule

Industry groups and some water districts are outlining legal arguments that could preview an eventual challenge to EPA’s plan to designate certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as Superfund hazardous substances -- such as EPA’s refusal to weigh cost as part of the rule -- if the agency finalizes its recent proposal. Designating perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act (CERCLA) “will result in a substantial cost burden...

California Sues PFAS Makers, Users Over Broad Range Of Alleged Harms

California Attorney General (AG) Rob Bonta (D) is suing dozens of PFAS manufacturers and downstream users in one of the broadest cases to date seeking monetary penalties and cleanup over a wide variety of alleged environmental, defective product, unlawful business practices, fraud and failure to warn violations. In a Nov. 10 suit , The People of the State of California v. 3M Company, et al . alleges the defendants knew or should have known about the dangers of the “forever...

Industry Urges EPA To Withdraw CERCLA PFAS Rule, Use Other Authorities

Major industry groups are urging EPA to withdraw its proposed rule to designate the two most studied PFAS as Superfund hazardous substances, listing a litany of deficiencies with the precedent-setting proposal to argue it will slow, not speed, cleanups and detailing how other waste, water and air laws can target sites for cleanup. A Superfund “hazardous waste designation under [section] 102(a) has never been promulgated by the Agency, and it is the wrong tool to address substances that EPA says...

OEHHA Drafts Revised PFAS Health Goals Following Peer Review, Comments

California’s health hazard office is drafting a revised proposal to set first-time drinking water public health goals (PHGs) for two high-profile PFAS, in the wake of a peer review of its initial proposal made last year and while weighing numerous stakeholder comments. “We don’t have a specific timeline for it yet, but the next step will be the release of a second public comment draft,” says a spokeswoman for the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). “Once that comment...

Regulators Back CERCLA PFAS Rule But Note Implementation Concerns

Former EPA staff and current state waste regulators are expressing wholehearted support for EPA’s proposed Superfund PFAS rule, backing its legal position and the creation of a consistent national framework while also suggesting ways to mitigate implementation challenges, such as water utilities’ liability concerns, through enforcement discretion and other policies. State regulators are also pointing to the need to correspondingly fill certain gaps as the rule moves forward -- particularly researching technologies to address remediation and destruction of per- and...

Former Trump EPA Official Charges PFAS CERCLA Rule Rushed, Political

A former top Trump EPA official says that “politics and impatient activists” are pushing EPA to rush its Superfund rule to designate two PFAS as “hazardous substances” without a full understanding of their scientific impacts or a clear disposal plan, previewing similar criticisms from industry and Republican critics ahead of a Nov. 7 comment deadline. In a Nov. 2 Washington Times opinion piece that also ran on the website of “ Independent Women’s Forum ,” a conservative non-profit group,...

EPA Agrees To GAO Call To Bolster EJ Analysis Of PFAS Contamination

EPA is agreeing to calls from Congress’ investigators to use data on dozens of PFAS that utilities will begin reporting next year to assess the environmental justice (EJ) impacts of the chemicals, a move that will bolster pending EPA analysis and help state and federal regulators “ensure adequate protection from PFAS in disadvantaged communities.” “The EPA Administrator should conduct a nationwide analysis using comprehensive data--such as the forthcoming fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule data [UCMR5] --to determine the demographic characteristics...

Chemours Targets North Carolina’s PFAS Permit Limit Based On EPA’s HAL

Chemical company Chemours is appealing North Carolina regulators’ likely first-time use of EPA’s conservative drinking water health advisory as an effluent limit for GenX as well as its adoption of lowered technology-based limits for two other PFAS in a recently issued discharge permit for its manufacturing plant in the state. The company’s Oct. 14 appeal , filed with the state’s Office of Administrative Hearing, as well as the company’s pending legal challenge to EPA’s health advisory level (HAL), underscores critics’...

EPA Enforcement On PFAS-Tainted Pesticides Could Spur Court Battle

EPA’s threat to take enforcement action over its findings that certain fluorinated plastic containers contaminated pesticides with PFAS could set off a legal battle with manufacturers or users over the scope of a chemical-safety rule that the agency cited in its warnings, according to one industry attorney. During an Oct. 12 webinar hosted by the law firm Keller and Heckman on Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) issues, partner Tom Berger said whether per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination traced to...

WHO’s Draft PFAS Values Bolster Industry Challenge To EPA Advisories

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) recently released draft drinking water guidelines for the two most-studied PFAS are bolstering chemical industry challenges to EPA’s strict interim drinking water health advisories and the science the agency used for setting them though environmentalists are blasting the WHO document as flawed. The American Chemistry Council (ACC), which is suing EPA over its advisories, says it is looking to WHO’s proposed guideline levels for two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) -- which are much weaker...

Researcher Outlines Next Phase Of Landmark PFAS In Rainwater Study

The author of a recent groundbreaking study that showed PFAS levels in rainwater exceed EPA health advisory levels says the next phase of his research includes further examination of how the persistent chemicals, which find their way into oceans, are being recycled into the air to contaminate land and groundwater. Ian Cousins of Stockholm University discussed ongoing research that he and his colleagues are conducting after the release of their landmark study in August showing that levels of per- and...

EPA Research Shows Pyrolysis Destroys PFAS In Biosolids, Officials Say

EPA research officials say their recent study at a wastewater treatment plant demonstrated that the thermal process of pyrolysis destroyed PFAS in biosolids produced by the facility, highlighting the technology’s effectiveness in addressing an emerging disposal problem for the wastewater sector but potentially complicating EPA’s consideration on how to regulate the units’ emissions. “Something that we found was, we went and sampled, and we did see PFAS within the wastewater, but that the produced biochar…the material that ran through the...

Environmentalists Eye New PFAS Testing To Target Chemours Expansion

Environmentalists are using a 2019 state court order requiring the chemical giant Chemours to conduct new toxicity testing on several PFAS it released into North Carolina’s Cape Fear region to aid their opposition to its landmark bid to expand its facility there, saying that the company is already dragging its feet on that process. Speakers at an Oct. 3 meeting of North Carolina’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) said that while there has been movement on the testing agenda, the state...

Environmentalists Fail To Convince EPA To Tighten Limits On Two PFAS

Environmentalists have failed to convince EPA to strengthen limits on the use of two PFAS that it first enacted in 2009 when the chemicals were originally brought into use, a possible sign that the agency may not look favorably on a broader push to strengthen orders governing hundreds of other PFAS uses the agency has previously approved. EPA on Sept. 29 finalized eight significant new use rules (SNUR) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for more than a dozen...

Senators Urge DOD To Boost PFAS Focus, Seeing Lack Of Budget Planning

A group of 40 senators -- 36 Democrats, two independents and two Republicans -- is pressing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to prioritize the Defense Department’s (DOD) efforts on addressing PFAS, charging the military appears ill-prepared to handle the influx of funding Congress has provided to address contamination at as many as 700 bases. “Simply put, DOD is not sufficiently prioritizing PFAS testing, remediation and disposal as part of its annual budget process, nor is the Department adequately developing the appropriate...

PFAS Research Bill Gains Momentum Following House Approval

The House has approved bipartisan legislation that requires EPA to commission sweeping National Academy of Sciences (NAS) studies on the toxicity, environmental fate, and options to address resulting contamination of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), boosting the bill’s prospects after its recent introduction in the Senate. The House July 26 voted 359-62 to approve H.R. 7289, also known as the Federal PFAS Research Evaluation Act. Among other things, the measure requires EPA to contract with NAS on two studies that...

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