From Inside PFAS Policy

Industry Urges EPA, Congress To Cut Lookback In PFAS Reporting Rule

Manufacturing and technology industry groups are urging EPA to work with Congress to significantly cut the lookback period that companies are currently subjected to when reporting information about their PFAS-containing products under TSCA, arguing the reporting data should reflect current PFAS uses rather than historical uses. EPA’s Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) rule requiring manufacturers to report on their per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) uses in products, which Congress required the agency to craft in fiscal year 2020 defense legislation,...

House Appropriators Seek To Bar Final EPA Biosolids PFAS Assessment

House Republican appropriators are seeking to bar EPA from moving forward with a Biden-era draft risk assessment of two legacy PFAS in biosolids that could result in new regulation, one of several policy riders in draft fiscal year 2026 spending legislation that aim to limit past environmental policies. “None of the funds made available by this or any other Act may be used to finalize, implement, administer, or enforce” the draft risk assessment of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic...

Parties Provide New Details On Injunction Bid In Chemours PFAS Permit Suit

Environmentalists and PFAS manufacturer Chemours are providing a federal district court with additional arguments on whether environmentalists have met standing and “irreparable harm” requirements to obtain a preliminary injunction that could require an immediate limit on PFAS discharges at Chemours’ West Virginia facility. The new briefs from Chemours and West Virginia Rivers Coalition (WVRC) are the latest in a series of filings following a May 21-23 preliminary injunction hearing before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West...

NDWAC Meeting May Provide Details On EPA’s SDWA PFAS Rule Revisions

EPA’s plan to consult with its drinking water advisory committee at a public meeting later this month on proposed revisions to its PFAS drinking water limits may provide a first glimpse of much-anticipated details on how the agency expects to retain part of the Biden-era rule while rescinding and reconsidering other aspects of it. In a notice published in the Federal Register July 10, EPA announces that its Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water will meet with the...

House Lawmakers Push Bill To Boost DOD Transparency On PFAS Cleanups

Two House lawmakers from Michigan are pushing legislation that would increase the Defense Department’s (DOD) accountability to the public on its efforts to clean up PFAS contamination, as DOD undertakes investigations and cleanups of the chemicals at hundreds of bases that are expected to exceed $9 billion. Reps. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-MI) and Jack Bergman (R-MI) introduced the Military PFAS Transparency Act June 27, aimed at getting the military to provide more information to more than 600 communities across the...

House Lawmakers Urge VA To Assess Cancer Links With PFAS Blood Testing

House lawmakers are advising the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to employ advanced blood testing methods to detect PFAS as part of its efforts to determine potential links between exposure to the chemicals during military service and kidney cancer, while also targeting specific funds for PFAS cleanup at BRAC bases. The advice is included in the House Appropriations Committee report , dated June 10, attached to the fiscal year 2026 military construction, veterans affairs, and related agencies appropriations bill. The...

EPA Seeks Fourth Extension In Case Challenging CERCLA PFAS Rule

The Trump EPA is asking the D.C. Circuit to once again delay industry litigation challenging the landmark Biden-era rule listing two PFAS as Superfund “hazardous substances,” the fourth time the agency has sought such a delay to give officials more time to decide on how or whether they will seek to revise the rule amid competing interests. EPA July 2 filed an unopposed motion asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to continue abeyance for...

Pentagon Readies Another Deadline Extension For Ending PFAS-Foam Use

Pentagon officials are briefing lawmakers on their plans to exercise a second one-year waiver for the military’s upcoming deadline to end use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam, citing various difficulties including the large number of assets that need to transition, a shift in Defense Department (DOD) priorities and disposal limitations. “Although the Department has made significant progress, it needs additional time to ensure a methodical and safe transition of over 1,000 facilities and over 6,000 mobile assets,” the Office of the...

DOJ Awaits EPA Decision On PFAS Rule, Stalling Talks On CERCLA Suits

Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys are delaying settlement talks in the first set of Superfund cost recovery claims in multidistrict litigation (MDL) over PFAS contamination from firefighting foam as they await the outcome of EPA’s review of the Biden-era rule designating two PFAS as Superfund “hazardous substances.” Such claims rely on EPA’s Superfund per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) rule to assert a cause of action, which means any decision by EPA to rescind the rule would likely have a significant...

Resisting Zeldin, Lawmakers Offer Bill To Codify Biden’s SDWA PFAS Rule

Two House lawmakers -- one Democrat, one Republican -- are pushing a bill to codify the Biden EPA rule regulating six PFAS in drinking water, an attempt to preserve the rule in the face of efforts by Administrator Lee Zeldin to rescind and reconsider standards for four contaminants and allow more time to comply with the remaining two. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI), co-chairs of the bipartisan Congressional PFAS Task Force, introduced H.R. 4168 , June 26,...

Bolstered By New Law, New Mexico Sues Air Force Over PFAS Releases

New Mexico is again suing the Air Force in state court over its alleged failure to control PFAS releases and mitigate off-base contamination at Cannon Air Force Base (AFB) under its hazardous waste permit, bolstered by a new state law that regulates firefighting foam containing PFAS as “hazardous waste.” The June 23 suit brings the state’s long-running fight with the Air Force over its per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) releases and cleanup demands at Cannon AFB full-circle, after originally filing in...

EPA Support For PFAS Science May Not Save Biden-Era Water Criteria

The Trump EPA’s support for the science behind the Biden-era drinking water standards for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) may undercut industry calls for the agency to scrap the prior administration’s draft water quality criteria to protect human health (HHC) which are based on the same science. But one environmentalist says that even though the Trump EPA is backing the science underlying the PFOA and PFOS drinking water standards, officials may still decide to scrap or significantly...

Courts Expected To Settle CERCLA Liability Question Over Biosolids Use

As questions grow over potential Superfund liability for application of PFAS-containing biosolids, attorneys say they expect courts will be drawn into settling unresolved legal questions that are intensifying uncertainty for those seeking to dispose of biosolids, parties involved in real estate transactions at disposal sites, their consultants and others. Among other things, the attorneys expect that courts will ultimately have to decide whether such applications are covered by the exclusion under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)...

EPA Efforts To Collect PFAS Air Data May Aid In Assessing Incineration

The Trump EPA’s plan to boost long-running efforts on crafting air measurement methods and collecting data on PFAS air emissions may aid the agency in setting parameters for thermal destruction technologies as it looks to place a greater focus on assessing destruction and disposal methods, attorneys say. Under the agency’s April 28 general outline of “major EPA actions” that the agency plans to undertake to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is a focus on air emissions data collection and...

States’ PFAS Work Likely To Suffer Under EPA’s FY26 Budget Cuts

EPA’s plan to slash funding for state environmental and water infrastructure programs in its fiscal year 2026 budget is expected to significantly undercut states’ abilities to finance upgrades to drinking water systems to meet upcoming PFAS requirements and may undermine state efforts to regulate PFAS on their own, utility and other sources say. “We knew the Trump administration would gut the EPA staff and funding but hoped that states would take the lead on [per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)] in...

Trump EPA Draws Industry Criticism After Backing PFOA, PFOS Science

Industry-aligned scientists are criticizing the Trump EPA for upholding the Biden-era drinking water standards for the two most-studied PFAS, arguing the science underlying the standards for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) is flawed. The Trump EPA “missed the mark by not removing the regulations for PFOA and PFOS,” Susan Goldhaber, an environmental toxicologist, wrote in a June 2 article published by the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), a research nonprofit with a history of industry...

California Lawmaker Scales Back Bill For Future PFAS-Product Bans

A leading California lawmaker is significantly scaling back his bill to ban a variety of products containing intentionally added PFAS by dropping prohibitions slated to take effect in 2035 and 2040, amid strong opposition by industry and business groups. “We’re still in negotiations with the industry to lock those details down,” says a spokesman for Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), author of the measure, SB 682 . “Even with those details coming into effect though, it is not misleading to...

Parties Battle Over ‘Irreparable Harm’ For Injunction In PFAS Permit Suit

Environmentalists and PFAS manufacturer Chemours are at odds over how to define “irreparable harm” to satisfy requirements for a preliminary injunction in litigation over the company’s wastewater permit violations, as a court weighs whether to act now to force the company to limit its discharges at a facility in line with an existing permit. At issue is whether a company’s continuing violations of water quality-based permit limits for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) -- which in the case of its...

D.C. Circuit Grants EPA’s Request For Another Stay In SDWA PFAS Case

The D.C. Circuit has granted EPA’s fourth request to delay litigation challenging the Biden-era drinking water rule, giving the agency until July 21 to determine next steps in the case after officials announced they would extend compliance deadlines for two of the six PFAS subject to the rule while reconsidering limits for the other four. In a June 5 order , the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted EPA’s request to continue abeyance in American...

California Advances Bills Targeting PFAS, Chemical Use In Products

California’s Senate and Assembly are advancing several bills to ban PFAS from certain products, and restrict other chemicals in food and consumer products, though the state’s $12 billion budget deficit has created a new layer of uncertainty over whether bills with significant price tags will be enacted. “These bills reflect growing momentum in California to close dangerous loopholes in chemical safety,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, a senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which is a cosponsor of...

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