PFAS POLICY

EPA Ends Review Of PFAS Reporting Rule Petition After Its Withdrawal

EPA has ended its review of an industry coalition’s petition seeking to narrow the Biden-era PFAS reporting rule after the petitioners withdrew their request in the wake of the agency’s recent plan to again extend the rule’s reporting deadlines and pledges to narrow its scope. In a May 22 letter , EPA says it has “closed” its consideration of the industry petition, which sought to scale back the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) rule requiring a range of companies to...

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...

Lawyers Urge Parties To Weigh PFAS Liability Amid Changing Regulations

Legal and regulatory experts are urging stakeholders to be aware of their potential PFAS liability amid increasing litigation and a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape, emphasizing the importance of monitoring relevant rules and examining any PFAS-related risks in transactions that could leave them liable for contamination. “The scope of PFAS liability is vast and does not just impact PFAS manufacturers,” said Kathleen Hardway, a partner at law firm Venable, during a May 15 webinar the firm hosted, titled “From Litigation Trends...

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...

OMB Reviews Plan To End Procurement Of PFAS-Containing Paper Straws

The White House has begun reviewing a draft proposed rule that aims to end the federal procurement of PFAS-containing paper straws, a measure that makes good on an Earth Day pledge by President Donald Trump to reverse the Biden-era procurement policy, though some observers downplay its significance. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) May 21 received the proposed amendment to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), a set of regulations overseeing the federal procurement process that is jointly...

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...

Maryland Adds RCRA Claims To Novel Superfund PFAS Suit Against Gore

Maryland is adding Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) claims to its pending Superfund cleanup and cost recovery suit against materials manufacturer W.L. Gore & Associates, in an effort that appears aimed at bolstering one of the first state actions seeking recoveries using EPA’s designation of certain PFAS as “hazardous substances.” The addition, contained in a May 12 amended complaint in State of Maryland v. Gore , could bolster the state’s existing Superfund cleanup and cost recovery claims at 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...

Bipartisan House Bill Would Fund R&D For PFAS-Free Firefighting Gear

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers -- eight Republicans and 11 Democrats -- has reintroduced a bill, backed by a firefighter association, to create a $25 million annual grant program to fund research and development (R&D) of PFAS-free turnout gear, renewing their effort to enact legislation that stalled in the last Congress. “Firefighters’ jobs are already dangerous enough without worrying about the long-term health risks of being exposed to dangerous PFAS in their turnout gear,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI),...

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...

Maine Authorizes Regulators To Set First-Time PFAS Limits For Food

Maine could become the first state to set PFAS limits for food after the governor signed legislation to allow agriculture regulators to establish and codify such maximum levels, shortly after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also indicated it is considering whether to set federal thresholds in response to a citizen petition. Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed the legislation, LD 130 , May 9 after the state legislature voted “under the hammer” -- a vote that assumes approval unless...

States Raise Compliance Concerns Over Stormwater Permit PFAS Monitoring

State water regulators are raising concerns about the Biden-era first-time PFAS monitoring requirements in EPA’s proposed multi-sector general permit (MSGP) for industrial stormwater, arguing the quarterly monitoring requirements for the five-year duration of the permit are overly burdensome on states, particularly if PFAS is not even detected. “At the moment, there is limited lab capacity within the states to handle this potential significant increase in sampling, were all 47 state permitting authorities to embrace the same frequency and duration,” the...

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...

Water Utilities Unlikely To See Lower Costs With Pared-Back SDWA Rule

EPA’s plan to rescind portions of the Biden-era PFAS drinking water rule -- retracting and reconsidering limits for four of six PFAS -- is not expected to significantly lower costs for water utilities even as the new administration is stressing its actions on PFAS aim to reduce costs and ease compliance challenges for drinking water systems. Under the plan , the agency intends only to retain the regulation’s limits on perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) -- the...

Environmentalists Urge EPA To Reject PFAS-Containing Pesticide Ingredient

Environmentalists are urging EPA under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) to reject a proposed pesticide ingredient, cyclobutrifluram, because it is a PFAS, arguing the agency failed to recognize it as a perfluoroalkyl substance in its recommendation to unconditionally approve the ingredient and products containing it. “This issue is not merely semantic; EPA also fails to account for the risks associated with cyclobutrifluram’s PFAS properties,” Earthjustice said in a May 6 comment letter signed by four other environmental...

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...

U.S. PFAS Imports May Drop After Stockholm Convention Bans LC-PFCAs

Members of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) have agreed to ban the production, use, import and export of long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (LC-PFCAs) and products that contain them, an action that could limit imports of the chemicals even in non-member countries like the United States, sources say. “I think that although the U.S. is not a Party to the Convention, it will affect global markets and availability for import,” Pamela Miller, co-chair of the International Pollutants Elimination Network...

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