PFAS POLICY

Colorado Cases Test States’ Ability To Set PFAS Limits In Water Permits

A Colorado administrative court will hear a pair of competing challenges to a water discharge permit state regulators issued for an oil refinery, in a test of states’ ability to include PFAS limits in such permits as EPA is continuing to press states to do so. In the dual appeals, environmentalists are seeking stricter per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) discharge limits while Suncor Energy Inc., the owner of the refinery, is seeking to ease PFAS monitoring terms and the compliance...

State AGs Struggle To Make Case For Bellwether Process In PFAS MDL

More than two dozen state attorneys general (AG) are continuing to push for a bellwether trial of their claims in multidistrict litigation (MDL) over PFAS contamination from firefighting foam but are struggling to change the mind of the supervising judge who has repeatedly expressed skepticism on whether the states’ claims have any commonality, a criterion for a bellwether process. Danielle Robertson, an assistant attorney general for South Carolina who is helping to lead the states’ push for a bellwether, told...

California Advances Bill Prohibiting Sale Of Firefighter PPE Containing PFAS

California lawmakers are advancing a bill that would prohibit, beginning July 1, 2026, the sale and use of firefighter personal protective equipment (PPE) containing intentionally added PFAS, and that would require state regulators to align worker-safety rules with a future national standard for PFAS-free firefighting gear. The legislation comes amid a growing push to ban per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in firefighting turnout gear, with Massachusetts and New Hampshire currently considering similar bills. “Twenty years ago heart disease was the...

Colorado Poised To Expand Product-Specific Ban On Added PFAS

Colorado is poised to expand its ban on the sale of specific products with intentionally added PFAS, joining just two other states that have targeted nearly identical lists of products such as cookware, dental floss, cleaning products and ski wax. The Colorado legislation follows Maine’s enactment earlier this month of a similar targeted ban, although Colorado’s law started as an effort to expand the state’s regulation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in products while Maine’s law was a response...

Environmentalists Intend To Sue Chemours Over Plant’s PFAS Discharges

Update Appended A West Virginia environmental group plans to file suit against PFAS-manufacturer Chemours for allegedly violating conditions under its Clean Water Act (CWA) discharge permit governing PFAS discharges from its Parkersburg, WV, plant, arguing the company has failed to comply with a first-of-its-kind EPA order issued a year ago. West Virginia (WV) Rivers Coalition announced April 26 it had notified EPA of its intent to file a lawsuit against Chemours for alleged ongoing violations at its Washington Works...

Industry Fears CERCLA PFAS Rule Will Drive Expanded Five-Year Reviews

Industry attorneys are criticizing EPA’s assurance that it will refrain from requiring sampling of the two PFAS designated as “hazardous substances” at sites deemed final or deleted from the Superfund list, saying this is not enough to ease their fears of the new Superfund rule’s widespread effects, particularly as the agency leaves the door open to expanding assessments at sites undergoing five-year reviews. The attorneys argue instead that EPA should set a much higher bar -- based on an “imminent...

MDL Judge Urges Strategic Thinking To Help Advance PFAS Injury Cases

The federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation (MDL) on PFAS contamination from firefighting foam is urging attorneys for plaintiffs and defendants to “think strategically” about preparing for the first bellwether trial involving personal injury cases, suggesting this may allow the parties to overcome a roadblock on how to proceed. The advice from Judge Richard Gergel of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina came during an April 25 status conference where plaintiffs’ attorney Michael London said the two...

Judge Eyes Superfund To Address PFAS Claims Against DOD In MDL

The federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation (MDL) on claims of PFAS contamination from firefighting foam is recommending the creation of a task force to explore how the Superfund law -- and EPA’s recent rule -- may provide an easier way to address claims against the military than pending claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). “It seems to me we've had a major development occur,” Judge Richard Gergel of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina...

Groups Back State In Urging Wisconsin High Court To Reverse PFAS Ruling

Environmental and public interest groups are urging Wisconsin’s top court to reverse a landmark ruling in a PFAS case that they say would “functionally repeal” the state’s longstanding Spills Law and would impose environmental, economic and public health harms throughout the state. The calls for a reversal in Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, Inc., et al. v. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), et al. are reflected in recently submitted amicus briefs filed by the groups in support of...

Industry Calls EPA RCRA PFAS Listing Rule Premature, Seeks Withdrawal

Industry-backed groups are calling for EPA to back away from listing nine PFAS as Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) “hazardous constituents,” arguing the agency’s proposed listing rule is overreaching and premature and lacks scientific support, a robust cost-benefit analysis and clear criteria for listing. The draft rule, which EPA proposed Jan. 31 , “is overbroad as well as arbitrary and capricious as it would add nine PFAS, their salts, and structural isomers to the list of hazardous constituents --...

Amid Struggle, Maine Narrows PFAS Reporting, Reworks Product Bans

Maine has enacted a sweeping overhaul to its landmark prohibition of PFAS in products and related reporting requirements that state officials struggled to implement, narrowing the scope of reporting mandates and extending by two years the deadline for stopping the sale of products with intentionally added PFAS, while also setting earlier prohibition dates for some product categories. Maine in 2021 became the first state to ban the sale of all products containing intentionally added per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), prohibiting...

State Waste Officials Concerned About EPA Rules’ Effects On PFAS Disposal

BOSTON -- State waste officials are expressing overall support for EPA’s recent proposed Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) PFAS rules, although one key official raised major concerns over disposal capacity, treatment and destruction technologies for facilities to use and whether they will be able to handle a larger capacity of waste. Melissa Ferree, chair of the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials’ (ASTSWMO) hazardous waste subcommittee, told attendees at the ASTSWMO mid-year meeting here that, as...

PFAS Water Rule Publication Triggers Deadline For Filing Legal Challenges

EPA’s landmark final rule setting enforceable limits for six PFAS in drinking water is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register April 26, setting off a 45-day window to file suit challenging the regulation with industry and water utilities possibly among the litigants that will seek to overturn or weaken the rule. EPA unveiled the rule April 10 , establishing enforceable individual maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for five per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and applying a novel dose-additivity...

EPA Seeks Test Data On Emissions From PFAS Incineration To Fill Gaps

As the need for PFAS disposal methods grow in the wake of two major EPA rules targeting the chemicals, officials are outlining how technology providers and others should conduct field tests on PFAS emissions from incineration and other thermal destruction technologies as it seeks to fill data gaps on whether full-scale technologies can fully destroy the substances. While EPA in an April 9 update to its interim PFAS disposal guidance highlights hazardous waste incinerators under certain conditions as one of...

Plaintiffs Press To Keep Federal Tort Claims Against DOD In PFAS MDL

Property owners and other entities with land neighboring military sites are urging a federal judge to reject Defense Department (DOD) attempts to dismiss Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) claims in 27 cases in PFAS multidistrict litigation (MDL), saying the government’s “simplistic framing” of the issue “is mistaken” both in terms of the legal framework and factual focus. “Although the scope of liability asserted by these lawsuits is narrow, the importance of this litigation for the public is broad,” plaintiffs involving...

EPA Faces Likely Suits Over PFAS Water Rule’s Science, Novel Approach

EPA appears likely to face litigation from manufacturers and other industry groups as well as water utilities over its landmark final rule regulating six PFAS in drinking water, legal experts say, pointing to potential challenges over the science underpinning the rule as well as the novel “hazard index” approach the agency used to set standards. Doug Benevento, former acting EPA administrator and Region 8 administrator during the Trump administration and now a partner at Holland & Hart law firm, says...

Plaintiffs Urge Judge To Reject DOD Push To Dismiss PFAS MDL Claims

Municipal and other plaintiffs in multidistrict litigation (MDL) involving claims of PFAS contamination from firefighting foam are urging a federal judge to reject the Defense Department’s (DOD) arguments that the Superfund law bars their claims involving certain military sites, countering the provision of the law DOD cites does not apply to the cleanups at issue. DOD has asked Judge Richard Gergel of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina to dismiss several claims in the MDL, arguing...

3M Urges Michigan High Court To Uphold Decision Voiding PFAS Limits

Chemical company 3M is urging Michigan’s highest court to reject reconsideration of a lower court ruling invalidating the state’s drinking water standards for seven PFAS, arguing the decision was correct and the reversal state regulators are seeking would allow state agencies to escape administrative law requirements to estimate compliance costs for rulemakings. At stake in the case is whether Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) will be forced to go back and conduct a wider regulatory cost...

Judge Agrees To Postpone Telomer Bellwether Trial Date To October

The federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation involving claims related to PFAS contamination from firefighting foam has agreed to again delay the trial date for a bellwether trial involving water system plaintiffs and so-called telomer defendants, although the judge is stipulating this is the last extension he will grant. “The motion to extend the various deadlines is granted with one additional provision: there will be no further extensions of the trial date granted,” Judge Richard Gergel of the U.S. District Court...

Federal Judge Remands Vermont PFAS Litigation Back To State Court

A federal judge has returned litigation brought by Vermont against major PFAS manufacturers to state court, finding 3M was too late in trying to move the case to federal court after it learned of a potential connection between PFAS waste in a specific landfill and its facility that made products to military specifications. “Because 3M did not file a notice of removal” to federal court “until January 4, 2024, more than 30 days after its receipt of” an email from...

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