From Inside PFAS Policy

Consultants Grapple With ‘Due Diligence’ For Biosolids Containing PFAS

Environmental consultants are grappling with whether the application of PFAS-containing biosolids to farmland triggers “due diligence” requirements for landowners under a Phase I environmental assessment due to EPA’s Superfund PFAS rule or if those requirements can be avoided per the Superfund law’s exclusion for fertilizer application. The effects of these legal questions are potentially significant because it could create uncertainty in real estate transactions since prospective purchasers seeking protection from potential Superfund liability are required to comply with the relevant...

EPA Seeks Additional 45-Day Stay In Suit Challenging SDWA PFAS Rule

EPA is asking the D.C. Circuit to again extend the stay of litigation challenging the Biden-era rule setting limits on PFAS in drinking water, seeking another 45 days to determine next steps in the case after announcing last month that the agency would retain part of the rule while rescinding and reconsidering other aspects of it. The agency June 4 filed an unopposed motion to continue abeyance in American Water Works Association (AWWA), et al. v. EPA for an...

State Regulators Criticize Lack Of Guidance From EPA On PFAS Actions

NEW YORK -- State PFAS regulators are raising concerns about the lack of guidance and information they have received from the Trump administration on PFAS regulations, such as recent changes made to the Biden-era drinking water rule, amid continuing efforts to tackle contamination at the state level despite significant costs. “I think all of the states right now are having some challenges interacting [with EPA],” Joaquin Esquivel, board chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, said during a...

EPA Faces Looming Deadlines To Make Key Decisions On Major PFAS Rules

EPA has outlined general policy plans for addressing PFAS contamination but it remains ambiguous on the details of just how far it will go in regulating the chemicals and how it may address competing interests, sources say, though the agency has little time to make some key decisions as it faces looming court deadlines. “You can only regulate and posture by press release for so long,” one industry attorney says, referring to press releases issued by EPA in recent weeks...

Doubting Justification, Industry Urges EPA To Cut PFAS Monitoring In MSGP

PFAS manufacturers and other groups are urging the Trump EPA to drop first-time PFAS monitoring requirements from the Biden administration’s proposed multi-sector general permit (MSGP), arguing that EPA fails to justify why such extensive and costly stormwater monitoring is necessary for 23 of 30 sectors subject to the permit’s requirements. In recent comments, several groups urged EPA to withdraw and repropose the draft permit without the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) monitoring requirements the plan currently contains. “The Agency has...

Trump EPA Still Evaluating Path Ahead For PFAS Rules, Top Official Says

NEW YORK -- The Trump EPA is still figuring out how to move ahead with PFAS regulations, such as the landmark Biden-era drinking water and Superfund rules, a top official says, as the agency seeks a range of stakeholder feedback to determine how to mitigate costs and other compliance issues. “Everything was on the table for each of the actions that we have been reviewing and [we’re] really trying to understand what is the best path forward,” Travis Voyles, EPA’s...

EPA Faces Competing Pressures Over Plans For CERCLA PFAS Rule

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers -- 40 Democrats and 4 Republicans -- is urging EPA to retain the Biden-era rule designating two PFAS as Superfund “hazardous substances” while industry groups call for its repeal, highlighting the tricky task the agency faces as it weighs next steps in litigation over the measure. The competing pressures come as a top EPA official says the agency is likely to ask a federal appellate court for more time to decide what to do...

DOD Finds At Least 574 Sites Require RI/FS For PFAS Contamination

The Defense Department (DOD) has completed preliminary investigation work examining PFAS contamination at 99 percent of the more than 700 military bases where the defense law required such testing, finding that 574 require a remedial investigation/feasibility study (RI/FS) to determine cleanup actions while no action is required at 131 sites. As of September 2024 -- the end of last fiscal year -- DOD says it determined that 722 of its properties -- active military bases; Base Realignment and Closure, or...

4th Circuit Denies States’ Bid For En Banc Review Of PFAS Venue Ruling

The 4th Circuit has denied Maryland and South Carolina’s petition for the full court to reconsider a panel’s ruling that clears the way for 3M to remove the states’ PFAS contamination suits to federal court, where the company will be able to defend against liability claims by arguing it acted as a government contractor. In a May 28 order , the clerk said the petition was circulated to all active judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th...

EPA Eyes Compliance Waivers From SDWA PFAS Rule But Some See Limits

EPA is examining section 1416 of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), a rarely used section of the law, to provide utilities with short-term waivers from its scaled-back PFAS standards, though sources say the authority may not be broadly applicable to bigger utilities and is rarely used by states because it is burdensome. “This may be less than it is cracked up to be,” says one water utility source. At issue are provisions in EPA’s May 14 announcement scaling back...

Agencies Ramp Up Study On PFAS’ Risks To Children But Downplay Rules

EPA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are ramping up their efforts to research the cumulative risks that PFAS and other substances pose to children, responding to findings from the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) report, which called for more study on the impacts of such exposures. The May 22 report , “Make Our Children Healthy Again: Assessment,” also touts the Trump EPA’s decision to implement part of the Biden-era drinking water standards as it reconsiders limits...

Industry Urges CERCLA PFAS Rule Repeal After Zeldin’s Reg Support

Industry groups are urging a top White House official to rescind the Biden-era rule designating two PFAS as Superfund “hazardous substances” after EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced his support for maintaining the law’s “polluter pays” model and his plans to work with Congress on targeted liability carveouts for so-called passive receivers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 14 other industry groups May 12 wrote White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought, recommending the administration rescind the...

EPA Faces Likely Legal Hurdles Over Efforts To Overhaul SDWA PFAS Rule

EPA faces likely legal hurdles over its plans to rescind and reconsider Biden-era drinking water limits for four PFAS and to extend by two years compliance mandates for the two remaining PFAS, though the agency and others are suggesting possible legal arguments the government may make to justify any rescission. Environmentalists and others are suggesting that any EPA effort to revise the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) rule may run up against legal hurdles such as the anti-backsliding provision and...

Fearing Superfund, MS4s Urge EPA To Scrap PFAS Monitoring From MSGP

Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s) are urging EPA to drop first-time PFAS monitoring mandates included in a Biden-era proposed multi-sector general permit (MSGP) for industrial stormwater, arguing stormwater systems could become liable under the Superfund law without any Congressional protections for passive receivers. “While EPA has publicly stated that their intention is to not hold MS4s and other public entities liable for PFAS transport, it was stated that EPA does not have the ability to indemnify these entities from...

Lawmakers May Struggle With Scope Of PFAS ‘Passive Receivers’ Relief

Lawmakers could face difficulties in determining which sectors and activities should be categorized as “passive receivers” and be given a waiver for those actions from Superfund liability for PFAS contamination, even as momentum within the Trump administration and Congress to provide such relief has built. While environmental groups continue to oppose such carveouts, action to try to provide such relief appears more likely than in the last Congress, with Republicans now controlling the Senate and as EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin...

3M, New Jersey Reach $450 Million Deal For Manufacturer’s PFAS Liability

PFAS manufacturer 3M has reached a proposed settlement of up to $450 million with New Jersey over long-running PFAS cleanup and natural resource damages (NRD) claims, as well as the state’s claims over the company’s production of firefighting foam under multidistrict litigation (MDL) -- the largest such PFAS settlement in the state’s history. 3M’s decision to settle comes just a week before a federal court is set to hold the first of a series of mini-trials focused on the New...

EPA Plan To Scale Back SDWA PFAS Rule Draws Environmentalist Outrage

EPA plans to give water systems an additional two years to comply with the Biden-era drinking water limits for the two most studied PFAS while it rescinds and reconsiders that rule’s regulation of four additional PFAS and a novel approach for regulating mixtures -- prompting outrage from environmental groups who are promising to fight the changes in court. The agency in a May 14 announcement first reported by The Washington Post says it will give water providers until 2031...

EPA Delays PFAS TSCA Reporting Rule, Prepares To Ease Requirements

EPA is once again delaying the reporting period for companies to submit information under TSCA about their PFAS uses, arguing the agency needs more time to ready its Central Data Exchange (CDX) reporting system while also noting that officials will use the additional time before the reporting period begins to consider easing the rule’s requirements. The submission period under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) rule will now begin April 13, 2026, and end Oct. 13, 2026. The original start...

Industry Urges EPA To Limit State PFAS Actions, But Lawyers Say It’s Unlikely

An industry group is urging the Trump EPA to regulate PFAS, likely through TSCA, in a way that would preempt the growing swath of state regulations of the chemicals, such as product prohibitions, but lawyers and other regulatory experts say it is unlikely the agency in the near future would be able to restrict or limit any state actions. “Right now, I’m at a loss to know . . . how state activities could be curtailed, or whether there could...

Air Force, New Mexico Say PFAS Case Should Proceed Despite New Law

The Air Force and the New Mexico are each urging the 10th Circuit to continue hearing a case deciding whether state or federal courts should hear the service’s challenge of a state waste permit covering PFAS, despite a recently adopted state law to list discarded PFAS-containing firefighting foam as “hazardous waste.” While the Air Force’s appeal deals with the procedural issue of which venue should hear the permit challenge, the state points out that the new law strengthens the New...

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