Five Key Takeaways: EPA’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap

On Monday, October 18, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) released its Strategic Roadmap for PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances). As we summarized in our previous post, the Strategic Roadmap outlines a number of key actions EPA intends to take over the next three years to address the human health and environmental effects of PFAS. (more…)

EPA Releases PFAS Strategic Roadmap, Commits to Numerous Regulatory and Technical Goals Through 2024

On Monday, October 18, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) released its Strategic Roadmap for PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances). The Strategic Roadmap outlines a number of key actions EPA intends to take over the next three years, including rulemakings and technical reviews that will involve a number of the Agency’s offices. EPA’s Strategic Roadmap builds on the work of EPA’s Council on PFAS, convened by EPA Administrator Michael Regan in April 2021. (more…)

California to Ban PFAS in Certain Consumer and Children’s Products

On October 5, 2021, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed A.B. 1200, which bans per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in paper-based food packaging by January 1, 2023, while requiring cookware manufacturers to begin disclosing PFAS and other toxic chemicals used in their products by 2024. The bill also requires manufacturers to use “the least toxic alternative” when replacing PFAS in the food packaging. (more…)

Stricter PFAS Regulations Added to Defense Authorization Bill

On September 22, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a consolidated amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2022 related to the regulation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). If enacted, the bipartisan amendment would require a number of PFAS-related actions, including these: (more…)

EPA Targets PFAS and Environmental Justice in Proposed Effluent Guidelines

On September 8, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) released Preliminary Effluent Program Plan 15 (Preliminary Plan 15), which outlines the Agency’s 2020 annual review of effluent guidelines and pretreatment standards (ELG), identifies new or existing industrial categories for ELG rulemaking, and provides an update on the Agency plan to improve its annual review and biennial planning process. (more…)

EPA Announces Analytical Method for Testing for PFAS

On September 2, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the publication of a laboratory-validated analytical method (Draft Method 1633) for testing for per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances. EPA reported that its Office of Water developed Draft Method 1633 in conjunction with the Department of Defense. The method is reportedly able to test for 40 PFAS compounds in eight different media, including wastewater, surface water, groundwater, soil, biosolids, sediment, landfill leachate, and fish tissue. (more…)

Massachusetts to Adopt Expansive List of PFAS Chemicals Covered by State’s Chemical Regulatory Program

On August 19, 2021, Massachusetts’s Toxics Use Reduction Act (TURA) Administrative Council voted to add PFAS to its TURA List of Toxic or Hazardous Substances here. Specifically, following a public meeting, the council added to its list “PFAS Not Otherwise Listed,” which includes “those PFAS that contain a perfluoroalkyl moiety with three or more carbons (e.g., –CnF2n–, n ≥ 3; or CF3–CnF2n– , n≥2) or a perfluoroalkylether moiety with two or more carbons (e.g., –CnF2nOCmF2m− or –CnF2nOCmFm–, n and m ≥ 1 ).” (more…)

Federal and State Legislative Activity Continues on PFAS

Federal and state lawmakers continue to advance legislative efforts to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS have been used in a variety of consumer products and industrial processes and are often recognized for use in nonstick cookware, waterproof apparel, and fire-fighting foam. The U.S. House of Representatives voted this week to pass legislation that would further regulate PFAS. In a bipartisan vote of 241 to 183, lawmakers advanced HR 2467, the PFAS Action Act of 2021, which would impose federal requirements to address PFAS under many environmental statutes, including the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act.

(more…)

EPA Adds Three Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) to the Toxics Release Inventory

On June 3, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published in the Federal Register a rule adding three more per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the list of chemicals requiring toxic chemicals release reporting under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act and the Pollution Prevention Act, that is, Toxics Release Inventory (TRI).  The PFAS added are perfluorooctyl iodide, potassium perfluorooctanoate and silver(I) perfluorooctanoate, which must be included in TRI reports due July 1, 2022.

(more…)

House Introduces PFAS Action Act of 2021

On Tuesday, April 13, Reps. Debbie Dingell and Fred Upton, both D-Mich., introduced the PFAS Action Act of 2021, seeking further regulation of per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS). Most notably, the bill would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take action to address two PFAS chemicals — PFOA and PFOS — through a number of regulatory provisions: designating PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, designating PFOA and PFOS as hazardous air pollutants under the Clean Air Act, and requiring EPA to establish national drinking water standards for PFOA and PFOS. (more…)