ISSUE: Inside PFAS Policy

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...

3M Loses Bid To Appeal Ruling Remanding Texas’ PFAS Suit To State Court

The 5th Circuit has rejected a request from 3M for permission to appeal a district court decision that remanded to state court Texas’ suit alleging the company misrepresented the safety of its PFAS-containing products, denying 3M the opportunity to argue that the case falls under federal jurisdiction by the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) of 2005. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit on Oct. 28 ordered that 3M’s motion for leave to appeal the ruling from the...

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...

PEER Petitions EPA To Walk Back Claims That PFOA Has Been Phased Out

Environmentalists are petitioning EPA to drop statements from its website that claim that chemical manufacturers have phased out the production of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a legacy PFAS, arguing in a just-filed data quality petition that the compound is still being found in fluorinated plastic containers at the heart of long-running litigation. “It is the height of hypocrisy for EPA to pretend these chemicals are no longer being manufactured when they are permeating our chain of commerce,” said Kyla Bennett, science...

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...

Maine Official Urges States To Weigh Biosolids Disposal Options Before Ban

Maine’s environment commissioner is urging other states that may be considering a ban on biosolids land application due to PFAS concerns, as Maine did, to first determine the availability of alternate disposal options, though she declined to comment on whether states should wait until EPA finalizes its biosolids risk assessment before promulgating rules. “I would suggest that any state that is considering a prohibition [on the land-application of biosolids] should plan for where those materials are going to go first,”...

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...

White House Clears Proposal Expected To Ease PFAS Reporting Burdens

The White House has completed its interagency review of EPA’s proposed rule that is expected to scale back reporting on PFAS-containing products, potentially easing the burden on manufacturers by introducing exemptions for certain uses that would decrease overall reporting costs. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) cleared the proposed rule, “Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Data Reporting and Recordkeeping under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA); Revision to Regulation,” on Oct. 24, after it was submitted Aug...

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...

PFAS Face Uncertain Prospects In EPA Plan To Prioritize AI Chemical Reviews

Despite the Trump EPA’s announcement that it would prioritize TSCA reviews for new chemicals related to artificial intelligence (AI) and data center projects, questions remain about whether more PFAS, particularly fluoropolymers that are often used in semiconductor production, would benefit from the new prioritization. “What we don’t know is what new chemicals there are,” Lenny Siegel, a member of CHIPS Communities United, a coalition of unions, environmentalists and community groups seeking a responsible and equitable semiconductor industry, told Inside PFAS...

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...

Newsom Veto Triggers Debate Over How To Regulate Products With PFAS

Industry and environmental groups are at odds over how to regulate PFAS in products after California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) vetoed a bill banning the chemicals from cookware and several other product categories, with industry arguing the state’s green chemistry program should lead the way while environmentalists strongly disagree. “Let’s be clear: the Department of Toxic Substances Control [DTSC] first needs to execute the risk-categorization process that has been in statute since 2008 instead of creating further uncertainty with one-off...

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...

Waterkeeper Seeks FOIA Records On EPA’s SDWA PFAS Rule Changes

Environmentalists are questioning EPA’s transparency in its decision to delay and partially rescind landmark drinking water limits for several PFAS, filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking a range of records related to its planned rule changes, including a stalled risk assessment that may undercut agency efforts to ease the limits. Waterkeeper Alliance Oct. 21 filed a FOIA request with EPA asking for records from Jan. 20 to the present related to the agency’s drinking water rule for...

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...

Bankruptcy Judge Narrows Order Requiring KFI To Detail AFFF Claims

A federal bankruptcy judge is ordering Kidde Fenwal Inc. (KFI), a former seller of aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) containing PFAS, to delineate which claims in multidistrict litigation (MDL) filed by several states will be released under a bankruptcy plan, paring back an earlier order after KFI balked at mandates to detail all claims filed. In an Oct. 16 ruling from the bench, Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware told KFI to provide...

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...

Parties Settle Novel Prop. 65 Suit Against Chrome Platers’ PFAS Discharges

Environmentalists are settling their novel Proposition 65 lawsuit that alleges two chrome-plating firms unlawfully discharged PFAS into drinking water sources, settlements that rely on the law’s rarely used prohibition on unlawful discharges to win soon-to-be-released agreements. The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) “will be settling with Teikuro Corp. in the next few weeks and mediating with Electro-Coatings of California later this month,” according to an attorney representing environmentalists. “I can’t disclose yet, but hopefully we’ll have a signed agreement with...

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...

Bankruptcy Court Doubts Kidde’s Failure To Disclose List Of AFFF Claims

A federal bankruptcy court judge is raising doubt that a seller of firefighting foam has provided the detail she requested on the multitude of PFAS-related claims to be settled under a proposed bankruptcy plan, questioning claims by the bankrupt Kidde Fenwal Inc. (KFI) that it was “impossible and unnecessary” to obtain a breakdown of those claims. During an Oct. 6 hearing, Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware told an attorney for debtor...

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