Throughout the first half of 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced several actions in pursuit of the goals it laid out in its PFAS Strategic Roadmap — the blueprint it released last October outlining plans for addressing widespread PFAS contamination in the United States.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a group of more than 9,000 synthetic chemicals that pose serious risks to human health, including increased blood pressure and cholesterol levels, abnormal liver function, decreased birth weights, and certain cancers. Exposure to even extremely low levels of certain PFAS are unsafe for humans.
For most people, the primary source of PFAS exposure is drinking water contaminated by industrial discharge and runoff of PFAS-containing foam used by firefighters and members of the military. Through a comprehensive analysis of state and federal reports, the Environmental Working Group found PFAS contaminates thousands of water systems across all 50 states, and PFAS contamination likely affects upward of 200 million Americans, disproportionately impacting low-income communities and communities of color.
Despite the links to serious health conditions, PFAS are also added to countless industrial and consumer products because they are water-, oil-, and heat-resistant. PFAS exposure can come from everyday activities like wearing water-repellant outdoor gear, using nonstick cookware, eating fast food packaged in grease-resistant containers, or applying cosmetics.
Put simply: PFAS are everywhere. They're also incredibly durable and do not degrade naturally, so the chemicals accumulate indefinitely in soil, water, and food — and inside our bodies. Frighteningly, nearly all U.S. adults have detectable levels of PFAS in their blood.
Falling behind
As the nation's chief environmental regulatory body, EPA is responsible for protecting the public from these toxic "forever chemicals." The Biden administration's EPA has demonstrated its current commitment to addressing PFAS and is taking action. Most recently, it released drinking water advisories for four of the worst PFAS chemicals on June 15.
But EPA health advisories are unenforceable, are not regulations, and are only intended to provide technical guidance to state and municipal public health officials. The most current research establishes that any level of PFOS and PFOA — two of the most common and well-understood PFAS compounds — in drinking water is unsafe for humans, so these advisories are only an early step in addressing PFAS contamination.
Meanwhile, EPA's strategic plan is falling behind schedule: Ten proposed actions that were intended for completion by this past spring are still pending or overdue. Further, dozens of measures in the plan have no deadline, leaving them susceptible to being swept aside when political pressures and agency priorities change.
To protect the public, Congress must require timely action on PFAS contamination. Affected communities need transparent and enforceable deadlines for federal action on PFAS. Indeed, statutorily imposed responses to the PFAS crisis are the firmest way to ensure needed regulatory protections.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (NDAA) contains several provisions addressing contamination on military bases in the United States. The NDAA – which became law in December 2021 – requires PFAS inspection and testing of all military installations in the United States identified as having known or potential PFAS releases and allocates over $515 million for Department of Defense (DOD) PFAS environmental remediation operations.
A key difference between the final NDAA and the original version passed by the House, however, highlights the need for enforceable discharge and drinking water regulations. The unenacted House version of the act would have required DOD PFAS response actions to meet or exceed EPA health advisory levels, even in the absence of other federal standards. The final NDAA does not contain such a requirement.
Members of Congress have introduced several bills to get PFAS contamination under control.
Rep. Debbie Dingle's (D-Mich.) PFAS Action Act of 2021, which passed the House with bipartisan support, would require the EPA to issue a national primary drinking water regulation for PFOA and PFAS within two years of the passage of the act and, within one year of the act's passage, to categorize PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, or Superfund).
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's (D-N.Y.) Clean Water Standards for PFAS 2.0 Act of 2022 would require the EPA to establish effluent limitations for PFAS discharge caused by nine priority industries.
Additionally, Sen. Susan Collins's (R-Me.) No PFAS in Cosmetics Act and Sen. Maggie Hassan's (D-N.H.) Keep Food Containers Safe from PFAS Act of 2021 would address Americans' extensive PFAS exposure by prohibiting intentionally added PFAS in everyday consumer products.
Currently, these bills are sitting in committee, but the bipartisan support for Dingle's PFAS Action Act and the PFAS-related provisions in the NDAA indicate that legislation addressing the PFAS crisis may be achievable, despite the past decade of congressional gridlock.
Importantly, legislative action would create enforceable standards for PFAS in drinking water, industrial discharge, and consumer products — a much-needed step beyond the EPA health advisories. Advocacy organizations are working with partners in the U.S. Senate to pass the PFAS Action Act. Communities across the country have suffered from the harmful impacts of PFAS production for decades, and Congress must respond with a bold, resolute strategy for management and remediation.
Absent legislation from Congress, advocates for safe drinking water and consumer products must keep up the pressure on the Biden EPA to ensure PFAS contamination remains a federal priority and the agency continues pursuing the regulatory efforts described in its strategic plan.
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Grace DuBois | July 5, 2022
Throughout the first half of 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced several actions in pursuit of the goals it laid out in its PFAS Strategic Roadmap -- the blueprint it released last October outlining plans for addressing widespread PFAS contamination in the United States. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a group of more than 9,000 synthetic chemicals that pose serious risks to human health, including increased blood pressure and cholesterol levels, abnormal liver function, decreased birth weights, and certain cancers. Exposure to even extremely low levels of certain PFAS are unsafe for humans.
Robert Fischman | June 30, 2022
In West Virginia v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court slayed a phantom, a regulation that does not exist. Why? The justices in the majority could not contain their zeal to hollow out the EPA’s ability to lessen suffering from climate change in ways that impinge the profits of entrenched fossil fuel interests.
James Goodwin, Shelley Welton | June 29, 2022
These days, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission can no longer be described as a technocratic, under-the-radar agency that sets policies on energy infrastructure and market rules, rates, and standards. As energy policy has become front-page news, FERC has begun updating its regulations to meet new exigencies. The agency has taken big steps to support affordability and a transition to cleaner energy, including proposing updates to the way it permits natural gas pipelines and beginning to overhaul how regions plan and pay for the expansion of electricity transmission infrastructure. These moves have provoked controversy because their stakes are high: Billions of dollars of infrastructure expenditures are on the table. What gets built, who pays, who hosts this infrastructure, and who makes those decisions also have major implications for equity and racial justice.
Katrina Fischer Kuh, Rebecca Bratspies | June 28, 2022
In November 2021, over 70% of New Yorkers voted to amend the state's constitution to explicitly protect New Yorkers' fundamental right to clean air, clean water, and a healthful environment. New York thus joins Montana and Pennsylvania in enshrining robust constitutional environmental rights in the state constitution. Unsurprisingly, corporate defendants argue that the new right doesn't change anything.
Daniel Farber | June 27, 2022
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has been called the most important environmental agency that no one has heard of. Recently, the D.C. Circuit decided two undramatic FERC cases that illustrate the agency's environmental significance. One involved a bailout to coal and nuclear plants, the other involved water quality.
James Goodwin | June 23, 2022
Any high school student can tell you that water follows the path of least resistance. A similar rule might be said to apply to corporate polluters and small government ideologues who now see the federal judiciary -- especially a U.S. Supreme Court stocked with Trump-era judicial activists -- as the path of least resistance in pursuing their agenda of the "deconstruction of the administrative state." The first case they have teed up for the October session of oral arguments is Sackett v. EPA, which the Court could use to gut the Clean Water Act.
Michael C. Duff | June 23, 2022
The Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously struck down a Washington state law that was aimed at helping federal contract employees get workers' compensation for diseases arising from cleaning up nuclear waste. The case, United States v. Washington, concerned the federally controlled Hanford nuclear reservation, a decommissioned facility that spans 586 square miles near the Columbia River. The reservation, formerly used by the federal government in the production of nuclear weapons, presents unique hazards to cleanup workers.
Alice Kaswan | June 22, 2022
On June 23, California's Air Resources Board (CARB) -- the state's air pollution control agency -- is holding a public hearing on its comprehensive roadmap for achieving the state's daunting climate goal: carbon neutrality by 2045 at the latest, a goal established by Gov. Gavin Newsom in a 2018 executive order. Although states are increasingly adopting 100 percent clean electricity targets, California's goal goes considerably farther, covering emissions from the entire economy, including transportation, industry, buildings, waste disposal, and agriculture.
Catalina Gonzalez | June 22, 2022
On June 23, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will hold its first public hearing on its draft plan (the Draft 2022 Scoping Plan) for achieving the state's climate goals and for getting to carbon neutrality no later than 2045. Including actions that prioritize California's overburdened and underserved communities will be vital to the success of the proposed plan.