States and U.S. EPA Consider Expanding PFAS Regulations and Tackle Widespread Contamination

Despite their use in the manufacturing of consumer products for more than 70 years, contamination found in drinking water resulting from the use and disposal of per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFAS) has only recently become the focus of environmental and regulatory agencies. As the effects of PFAS become better understood, state governments are taking significant actions to regulate or ban them in consumer manufacturing. That includes calling on the federal government to make substantial changes to how it regulates the chemicals, not only in water, but in the air as well.

Last month, environmental regulatory agencies in North Carolina, New Mexico, and New Jersey filed a joint petition calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to expand its regulatory framework to include PFAS in air emissions. The petition calls for the addition of four PFAS–perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), and HFPO dimer acid (HFPO-DA or GenX)–to be added to the Clean Air Act list of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs).

While the EPA has taken steps to address PFAS contamination in drinking water, including new water limits and funding allocations for testing and remediation, no federal regulations currently exist to control PFAS air pollution. The EPA’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap does include a goal to address PFAS emissions under the Office of Air and Radiation, including an evaluation of listing compounds as HAPs. However, as of publication, the roadmap’s goal only goes as far as doing research to “inform potential regulatory and non-regulatory mitigation options” when it comes to air contamination by PFAS.