EPA announces strategy to address PFAS

On October 18, the EPA announced its plan to address the presence and management of Per and Polyfluorinated Substances, known collectively as PFAS chemicals, in the environment. PFAS substances were originally developed in the 1940s and grew in popularity as they were used as part of non-stick cookware, stain-resistant carpets, food packaging, water-resistant clothing, cosmetics, fire-fighting products and certain paints and stains. PFAS chemicals, however, have faced increasing scrutiny at the state and federal level due to their persistence and concerns about potential long-term health impacts.

A number of states have implemented regulations requiring increased monitoring and remediation for PFAS chemicals. Although water utilities and chemical manufacturers are the primary industries having to comply with these new regulations, the development sector is increasingly seeing this issue arise in site redevelopment. In practice, this often means enhanced sampling requirements on sites and increased remediation costs when certain PFAS substances are found to be present.  

The EPA plan will focus on:

• Increasing its research on this chemical family to inform rulemaking and remediation strategies;
• Investing greater resources in clean-up of PFAS impacted sites;
• Initiating rulemakings to further regulate the management of PFAS chemicals.

In terms of new regulations, the agency will continue the development of new drinking water standards, under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which will ultimately mandate water utilities to limit the concentrations of certain PFAS chemicals in the drinking water they distribute. This will require water utilities to expand monitoring for these chemicals and increase remediation technologies to detect and remove these PFAS substances. Although money has been set aside to address this issue in the pending infrastructure legislation, it is not anticipated to fully cover these costs. Drinking water users will bear increased costs and water utilities will also seek to re-coup some of these expenditures from the manufacturers and users of PFAS chemicals.

The second primary area of regulation is the upcoming designation of certain PFAS chemicals as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, (CERCLA). This will pull these chemicals into the CERCLA regulatory regime and require enhanced release notification standards as well as increased obligations associated with the management and clean-up of these chemicals.

Additional information on the EPA’s PFAS strategy can be found at www.epa.gov/pfas.