From Inside PFAS Policy

For Now, New Mexico Eyes Working With EPA On RCRA Rules For PFAS

New Mexico’s top environment official says the state will seek to work with the Trump administration on developing long-awaited PFAS rules under the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA), though the state is not ruling out suing over the Biden EPA’s failure to finalize two pending rules in the future. “We look forward to working with the new administration on PFAS issues impacting New Mexico,” New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Secretary James Kenney said in a Jan. 28 statement, in...

Air Force Renews Bid To Keep PFAS Waste-Permit Test Suit In Federal Court

The Air Force is renewing its efforts to ensure federal courts have jurisdiction over its novel case contesting New Mexico’s authority to regulate PFAS in a waste permit, a suit that tests whether federal law waiving sovereign immunity in waste cases eliminates federal courts’ jurisdiction or whether state and federal courts have concurrent jurisdiction. At issue is the service’s long-running challenge to New Mexico’s first-time effort to regulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the waste permit for Cannon Air...

EPA Guide Pushes Use Of Site-Specific PFAS Limits In NPDES Permits

Departing Biden officials earlier this month issued guidance for how states can add site-specific, technology-based effluent limits for PFAS to Clean Water Act (CWA) discharge permits, bolstering environmentalists’ calls for states to set such limits after the Trump EPA withdrew a stalled plan setting PFAS effluent guidelines for the chemical sector. EPA quietly issued the short how-to guide in the form of a fact sheet this month, saying it “provides information on implementing case-by-case technology-based effluent limitations for PFAS, but...

Intervenors Defend PFAS Water Rule Amid Uncertain Trump EPA Position

Environmentalist-intervenors are defending the Biden EPA’s landmark rule setting strict drinking water limits for six PFAS, endorsing and supplementing the agency’s earlier defense amid uncertainty over how the Trump administration will handle industry’s pending challenge. EPA’s National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR) for six per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “reflects rational, well-supported EPA decisions that are consistent with the best available science and the best reading of the Safe Drinking Water Act [(SDWA)],” the environmentalist-intervenors say in a Jan. 17...

New Paper Downplays PFOS Risks, Bolstering Critics Of EPA’s SDWA Limit

A collaborative of scientists led by a former Trump EPA toxics office nominee has published a long-awaited paper that recommends a less-stringent risk safety dose range for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) than that used by EPA in its drinking water limit, bolstering efforts by industry and other critics who are pushing the new administration to ease the limit. The group of 29 scientists from nine countries earlier this month published their paper , “Range of the Perfluorooctane Sulfonic Acid (PFOS)...

Biden Defends PFAS CERCLA Rule Amid Uncertainty Over Trump’s Plans

In their final hours in office, Biden EPA officials filed a legal brief defending the agency’s landmark rule designating two PFAS as Superfund “hazardous substances” and vigorously rebutting industry’s calls to vacate the measure though it is unclear if the Trump administration will continue to defend the controversial regulation. In its Jan. 17 brief in Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, et al. v. EPA , Biden officials in particular dispute industry’s contention that EPA misinterpreted the...

EPA Seeks To Clarify Timing Of Supplier Notices For TRI-Listed PFAS

EPA is proposing a rule to clarify the timing for when suppliers of PFAS-containing products must notify downstream facilities regarding mixtures or trade name products containing PFAS that were automatically added to the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) the previous year, a response to industry questions. In a proposed rule to be published in the Jan. 17 Federal Register (FR) , EPA plans to require supplier notifications to downstream facilities of any per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) used in a mixture...

IRIS Analysis Retains PFHxS Risk Values, Finding Immune, Thyroid Effects

EPA has finalized a risk assessment for the PFAS known as PFHxS -- which is widely used in an array of products and is already regulated under the agency’s drinking water rule -- that retains proposed risk values and earlier findings that the chemical is likely to cause adverse thyroid and developmental immune impacts in humans. The agency Jan. 13 released its final Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) toxicity assessment for perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS) and its related salts. The document...

EPA Finds Health Risks From Disposal Of Sewage Sludge Containing PFAS

A long-awaited draft EPA risk assessment has found that two key methods of disposing of sewage sludge --landfilling and land application -- pose human health risks to nearby populations from legacy PFAS, a finding that will likely drive a lengthy debate in the incoming Trump administration and beyond over how to regulate the practices. “Based on the central tendency modeling results presented in the draft risk assessment, the EPA finds that draft risk estimates exceed the agency’s acceptable human health...

Plaintiffs Increasingly Cite EPA Superfund Rule In PFAS Recovery Claims

States and other entities are increasingly turning to the Superfund law’s cost recovery provision to recoup funds from the military and other potentially liable parties for PFAS cleanups, citing EPA’s landmark rule designating certain PFAS as “hazardous substances” as support for their claims while signaling other suits are likely to follow. While New Mexico last July acted immediately after EPA’s Superfund rule became effective to add cost recovery claims under section 107(a) of the law to its existing suit against...

Awaiting Assessment, Stakeholders See Uncertainty Over PFAS In Biosolids

As EPA continues to miss its target for releasing its highly anticipated risk assessment of two legacy PFAS in biosolids, a recent agency report shows states and other stakeholders are warning of a patchwork of rules and significant regulatory and technical uncertainty amid growing concerns that the material’s disposal is spreading PFAS. EPA was slated to release its risk assessment of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), the two most studied per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), in biosolids...

New Mexico’s Action Over PFAS Spill Escalates Permit Battle With Air Force

Escalating a battle over regulating PFAS in a state waste permit, New Mexico regulators have filed an enforcement action against Cannon Air Force Base (AFB) for an accidental release of more than 7,000 gallons of firefighting foam wastewater containing PFAS, arguing it violated permit mandates and signaling the state may revoke the permit. The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Jan. 7 filed an administrative compliance order against the service requiring Cannon AFB to come into compliance with the state’s Hazardous...

Maryland Cites EPA CERCLA Rule In Novel PFAS Cleanup Suit Against Gore

The state of Maryland is suing W.L. Gore & Associates, a company that uses PFAS in various product applications, for ongoing and future cleanup costs and natural resource damages, in what is one of the first state claims to cite EPA’s PFAS “hazardous substance” listing under the Superfund law to make cost recovery claims. “The State brings this action to redress Gore’s contamination of Maryland’s natural resources with toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (‘PFAS’), including but not limited to the...

EPA Adds Nine PFAS To Toxics Release Inventory, Boosting Total To 205

EPA has added another nine PFAS to the list of chemicals that regulated facilities must report to the agency under the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program, part of an annual revision that requires officials to automatically update the inventory after the agency finalizes a toxicity value for the chemical or undertakes certain other regulatory activities. The additions bring to 205 the total number of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) subject to TRI reporting, EPA says in a Jan. 3 press...

Citing Flaws, Industry Urges EPA To Reconsider PFAS TRI Listing Proposal

An industry coalition is warning EPA that its proposed rule to subject more than 100 PFAS to reporting requirements under the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) fails to meet legal or scientific standards and should be reconsidered, arguments that are likely to win favor with the incoming Trump administration. In Dec. 9 comments , the coalition, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, charges among other things that the listing lacks sufficient scientific rigor and goes beyond what the fiscal year...

ATSDR PFAS Report Exacerbates Community Frustrations Over Data Request

A federal health agency’s report on PFAS environmental sampling from two communities near military bases with PFAS contamination is renewing frustrations and pushback from a participating community in Massachusetts because the report lacks specific “de-identified” data the community is seeking to better assess their PFAS exposures. The new report comes as the community group continues to wait for a response from the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry (ATSDR) on its 2023 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) appeal seeking...

EPA Defends Landmark PFAS Drinking Water Rule Against Legal Challenge

EPA is defending its landmark PFAS drinking water rule against a legal attack by drinking water utilities and the chemical sector that charges a variety of alleged missteps by the agency, contending the challenge lacks merit and that it seeks to advance arguments that conflict with the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) or with court precedent. “Petitioners’ arguments challenging the Rule lack merit,” EPA says in a Dec. 23 brief filed in American Water Works Association (AWWA), et al. v....

‘Best Practice’ Frameworks Weigh PFAS, Climate In NRD Assessments

An ad-hoc industry group has released “best practice” frameworks for addressing PFAS, climate change, remediation and emergency response in natural resource damage assessments, as a result of a collaborative effort involving legal experts, industry, academia, professional environmental groups and federal and state trustee representatives. The Ad-Hoc Industry Natural Resource Management Group -- a long-standing group that represents major companies in various industry sectors -- Dec. 10 released the four topic-specific Best Practice Approach Frameworks, “which are intended to aid practitioners...

Judge Allows POTWs To Intervene In Suit Seeking PFAS Limits In Biosolids

A federal judge is allowing publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) to intervene in litigation seeking to force EPA to set limits for PFAS in biosolids, finding that if environmentalists prevail, the POTWs will face increased costs for biosolids management but the agency may not adequately represent their interests. The Dec. 16 ruling from Judge Dabney Friedrich of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia also grants permission for POTWs, represented by the National Association of Clean Water Agencies...

EPA Proposes CWA Criteria To Protect Human Health From Three PFAS

EPA has released draft human health water quality criteria for three PFAS, a key step in addressing human exposure to PFAS that states have been eagerly awaiting and which follows the agency’s recent finalization of water quality criteria to protect aquatic life. In a Dec. 19 press release, EPA unveiled long-awaited draft criteria for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS), risk-based measures that will assist states, tribes and other regulators in setting regulatory values...

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