PFAS POLICY

EPA Urged To Use Combustor Rule To Gather PFAS Data For Future Limits

Environmentalists are urging EPA to use its recently proposed rule toughening emissions standards for large municipal waste combustors (LMWC) to gather PFAS data that could be used to regulate the chemicals in the future, though they say the agency should regulate several other pollutants in any final LMWC rule. “EPA should use this rulemaking opportunity to gather data on existing emissions of PFAS to support a future rulemaking requiring emissions reduction,” Colin Parts, an attorney with Earthjustice’s Community Partnerships Program,...

Michigan Airport Appeals Ruling Over First-Time PFAS Enforcement Suit

A Michigan airport is appealing a first-time ruling that found that state courts, rather than federal courts, should preside over the nation’s first state enforcement lawsuit seeking PFAS cleanup from a commercial airport, as the venue will determine whether the airport can eventually sue the federal government to recoup any cleanup costs. The Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority (GFIAA) filed a Jan. 30 appeal asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to review the lower court...

Attorneys Warn Waste Definition Rule May Spur Broader RCRA Cleanups

Industry attorneys are warning that EPA’s newly proposed “hazardous waste” definition rule could have a broader impact than the agency is suggesting, opening the door to requiring investigation and cleanup of PFAS and other emerging contaminants under existing corrective action permits at waste facilities even though the contaminants do not fall under any regulatory definition of “hazardous waste.” In addition, attorneys suggest that a companion proposed rule to list nine per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as “hazardous constituents” under the...

Judge Delays AFFF MDL Telomer Bellwether Trial To September

The federal judge overseeing massive PFAS multi-district litigation (MDL) has pushed back from August to the end of September a planned bellwether trial involving defendants that produced or sold firefighting foam that used PFAS created through a telomerization process, resulting in additional time for one of the defendants to resolve an ongoing dispute with its insurers. Judge Richard Gergel of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina originally set Aug. 23 as the trial date for claims...

Washington Board Orders State To Weigh Impacts Of PFAS In Biosolids

A Washington state administrative appeals panel has ruled state regulators failed to weigh the environmental impacts of PFAS when they finalized a five-year general permit for biosolids management, ordering them to conduct a new environmental analysis in a decision environmentalists view as a “watershed moment” for the state. The Washington Pollution Control Hearings Board (PCHB) Jan. 29 issued an order in Nisqually Delta Association, et al. v. Washington State Department of Ecology , requiring the state to probe the environmental...

Judge Calls 3M Deal ‘Insurance Policy’ Against Litigation, Other Risks

The federal judge overseeing a proposed settlement between drinking water providers and 3M worth up to $12.5 billion to address PFAS contamination from firefighting foam is touting the benefits of the proposed deal in a sign that he is likely to approve the proposed settlement despite efforts by some non-settling plaintiffs to pursue their own cases. During a Feb. 2 hearing about the “fairness” of the proposed settlement -- worth between $10.5 billion and $12.5 billion -- reached between water...

Judges Appear Open To Scrapping EPA’s Novel PFAS Enforcement Orders

Two appellate judges appear open to granting a request from a Texas plastics maker to scrap EPA orders requiring it to halt use of a decades-old fluorination process due to PFAS contamination concerns after they used Feb. 5 oral argument to lob a series of harsh questions at the agency, while voicing little if any criticism of the company’s position. During arguments in Inhance Technologies v. EPA , Priscilla Richman, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the...

Maine Presses 1st Circuit To Keep Non-AFFF Claims In State Court

Maine is asking a federal appeals court to allow it to pursue PFAS contamination claims unrelated to aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) in state court, rather than shifting them to the massive federal multi-district case, arguing that an express disclaimer on any foam claims voids PFAS manufacturer 3M’s push to move the suit to federal court. “The District Court properly remanded this case to state court because the State’s complaint expressly and unambiguously disclaimed seeking relief for AFFF contamination,” Maine...

Michigan Supreme Court Will Review Ruling Striking PFAS Water Rules

Michigan’s highest court has agreed to review a state appeals court decision that invalidated Michigan drinking water standards for seven PFAS due to the state’s failure to calculate all compliance costs -- giving regulators another shot at upholding the PFAS limits and preventing an outcome they say would broadly weaken their rulemaking abilities. The Michigan Supreme Court in a Feb. 2 order granted the state’s request to appeal the Court of Appeals’ Aug. 22 decision in 3M Company v. Department...

EPA Finalizes PFAS Test Methods Expected To Boost CWA Mandates

EPA has finalized a pair of long-awaited test methods that are key to including PFAS limits in Clean Water Act (CWA) discharge permits as well as measuring the chemicals in soil, biosolids, sediment and fish tissue, putting the agency one step closer to mandating such limits in permits. The Office of Water published Method 1633 and Method 1621 on the agency’s website Jan. 31, although the methods will not be nationally required for CWA compliance monitoring until EPA has promulgated...

EPA Proposes To List Nine PFAS As RCRA ‘Hazardous Constituents’

EPA is proposing a rule that would list nine PFAS as Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) “hazardous constituents,” moving to more than double the number of the substances it previously pledged to add to the RCRA list that will give regulators the authority to require cleanup actions for releases from as many as 1,740 waste facilities. EPA Administrator Michael Regan Jan. 31 signed a proposed rule, “ Listing of Specific PFAS as Hazardous Constituents ,” that would add nine...

House Democrats Ask GAO To Investigate DOE’s PFAS Cleanup Work

Democrats on the Energy & Commerce Committee are asking the Government Accountability Office to launch an examination of the Energy Department’s efforts to assess and clean up PFAS contamination, seeking to determine the impact on other cleanup priorities as EPA prepares to finalize two PFAS rules that could affect cleanups. “We are writing today to request that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) examine the Department of Energy’s (DOE) efforts to gather information and act on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances [(PFAS)]...

Regulators Face Challenges In Assessing Risks From PFAS Air Emissions

RALEIGH, NC -- Regulators face a number of challenges assessing PFAS risks from air emissions due to a variety of factors, an atmospheric chemistry scientist said at a recent PFAS conference, including EPA placing a higher priority on other media, few states taking consistent approaches to address emissions, and a lack of sampling methods. Without established standards from the federal government or consistent state approaches, “there are challenges to trying to assess risks associated with exposure to atmospheric air emissions,”...

Textile Industry Questions Need For EPA Focus On PFAS Discharge Data

A coalition of textile industry groups is urging EPA to rethink its planned data collection on PFAS discharges from textile facilities, arguing the sector “is a relatively small player in the PFAS space and getting smaller” and warning increased regulatory burdens on the sector will further drive textile production overseas. Data published in the journal Royal Society of Chemistry in 2020 “demonstrates that the overall impact of textile related PFAS usage is miniscule, relative to other industrial sectors,” the...

3rd Circuit Weighs Threshold Jurisdictional Questions In GenX HAL Case

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit grappled during oral argument with whether it has jurisdiction to hear a case challenging EPA’s drinking water health advisory level (HAL) for PFAS known as GenX chemicals, setting a threshold bar that manufacturer Chemours will have to clear before the court reaches the merits of its challenge. The main focus of questions during the Jan. 31 arguments in The Chemours Company v. EPA was whether EPA’s 2022...

Lummis Presses EPA To Ensure PFAS Regulation Protects Critical Uses

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) is pressing EPA to ensure that any regulation of PFAS protects critical national security uses, saying a Defense Department (DOD) report on the mission-critical impacts of PFAS regulation “sets off some alarm bells about the importance of working closely with DOD.” “While some PFAS chemistries may need urgent regulation to keep our communities safe, I’m concerned that EPA is needlessly restricting critical PFAS chemistries essential for American manufacturing,” Lummis said during a Jan. 24 Environment and...

Lack Of PFAS MCLs Leaves EPA In ‘Gray’ Area On Groundwater Inquiries

RALEIGH, NC -- The lack of enforceable PFAS drinking water limits has led to some uncertainty for how EPA’s waste office handles investigations of the two most studied PFAS, with one EPA official noting the agency has been in a “gray” area since rescinding outdated guidance on groundwater screening levels and preliminary cleanup goals. Instead, the agency has turned to state drinking water limits for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), where they exist, or making determinations through a site-specific process,...

Facing Questions, EPA Warns PFAS Reporting List Is Not Comprehensive

Facing “hundreds of questions” from regulated entities, EPA has released a spreadsheet listing hundreds of PFAS that are known to meet the structural definition of the chemicals subject to its TSCA reporting rule, though agency staff are warning the spreadsheet should not be considered comprehensive. Because EPA used a structural definition of “PFAS” in the rule, “there's not a discrete or exhaustive list of covered substances,” Stephanie Griffen, a team lead in the data collection branch within the Office of...

Michigan Expects Tougher PFAS Biosolids Limits To Drive More Mitigation

RALEIGH, NC -- Michigan’s stricter limits on PFAS in biosolids that went into effect Jan. 1 are not expected to bar the land application of biosolids, although state officials expect to see a number of wastewater treatment facilities adopt additional mitigation measures that will be triggered by the new limits. Michigan’s goal is “to continue driving down PFAS concentrations in biosolids over time,” Sydney Ruhala, with the Emerging Pollutants Section of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy...

EPA Unable To Provide ‘More Definitive’ Advice On PFAS Disposal Options

RALEIGH, NC -- EPA’s forthcoming update to its interim disposal guidance for PFAS will incorporate new test methods and regulations as well as revisions based on public comment but significant data gaps remain, leaving the agency unable to provide “more definitive recommendations” on disposal and destruction methods at this time, a waste office official says. The agency’s position is likely to disappoint stakeholders who have been seeking more certainty since the agency’s 2020 version of the guidance provided limited advice...

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