With apologies to Mr. Shakespeare, and respect to the American Water Works Association, PFOS and PFOA, only two of the hundreds of "forever chemicals" collectively known as PFAS, are either as concerning as the hundreds of...more
As students around the country journey home for Thanksgiving break before final exams, EPA has reported on its progress implementing its ambitious PFAS road map. It was just over a year ago that EPA unveiled that road map and...more
I was surprised to see a former EPA official opining that identifying two of the hundreds of forever chemicals known collectively as PFAS as "hazardous substances" under Federal law would "increase legal liability". ...more
For years almost 2000 plaintiffs have been litigating in Federal Court in South Carolina against dozens of manufacturers and distributors of fire-fighting aqueous film-forming foams (AFFFs) that contain perfluorooctanoic acid...more
Within days of Office of Management and Budget and Science Advisory Board blessings, EPA has formally proposed that PFOA and PFOS, two of the hundreds of "forever chemicals" collectively known as PFAS, be included among the...more
Now that EPA has designated as "hazardous substances" at least two of the hundreds of "forever chemicals" known collectively as PFAS, does it make sense for the hundreds if not thousands of cities and towns across the country...more
This week EPA's Science Advisory Board issued its final report on EPA's assessment of the risks associated with drinking water containing two of the hundreds of forever chemicals collectively known as PFAS. Unless you have a...more
EPA has been cleared by the White House Office of Management and Budget to list two of the hundreds of chemicals collectively known as PFAS as "hazardous substances" under the Federal Superfund statute. This is one of the...more
A committee of the prestigious National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine this week recommended that the blood of perhaps tens of millions of Americans be tested for the presence of the ubiquitous "forever"...more
Lara Beaven of Inside EPA reports that the House Appropriations Committee intends to give EPA every dollar it has requested to implement its ambitious and wide-ranging plan for addressing the ubiquitous "forever" chemicals...more
Today we learned EPA is deviating from its less than one year old PFAS road map by issuing new health advisory levels for certain PFAS ahead of the finalization of EPA's PFAS Toxicity Assessment and the establishment of...more
In the mid-1990s the Massachusetts Attorney General, Scott Harshbarger, made national news by suing tobacco manufacturers for, among other things, the monumental health care costs borne by the Commonwealth resulting from...more
Inside EPA reports that EPA has been looking at "techniques and procedures" to apply CERCLA, also known as the Superfund statute, differently to "folks who are not responsible for causing" PFAS releases even though those...more
Inside EPA reports that the United States Chamber of Commerce has objected to the inclusion of the forever chemicals known collectively as PFAS in the 2021 ASTM standard for Environmental Site Assessments that EPA was...more
Inside EPA reports today on the concerns of water suppliers needing to remove PFAS from drinking water.
Among other things, PFAS removal results in residuals, or what you and I might call sludge, that won't be going the...more
Bloomberg Environment reports that Maine Governor Janet Mills is about to sign legislation banning the land application of biosolids in Maine unless those biosolids are determined to be free of PFAS. Practically speaking,...more
But the less good news is that New York's first offshore wind project has to deal with endless NIMBY challenges at all after doing the work necessary to obtain the many federal, state and local permits the project needs, all...more
With all the attention on PFAS over the past few years, you might assume that your standard Environmental Site Assessment would assess the possibility that the property you're buying has been impacted by PFAS, the "forever...more
This morning we have a seventy five page decision by a Federal District Court Judge in New York dismissing a lawsuit by a water supplier against the nation's most well-known manufacturer of PFAS to recover the costs of...more
Inside EPA reports that six North Carolina-based NGOs, represented by a prior EPA Deputy Administrator and Senior Policy Counsel, think EPA should modify its incredibly ambitious PFAS road map to include toxicity testing of...more
All the pressure Congress is all of a sudden exerting on the Executive Branch of our Federal Government when it comes to PFAS brings to mind a great line by one of the great comics of my youth. Steve Martin exclaimed "you...more
Bloomberg Environment reports the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will set a drinking water limit for two of the thousands of "forever chemicals" known as PFAS joining several other states that have already set limits of their...more
The monumental infrastructure bill that President Biden signed yesterday will send $10 billion to the States to pass on to drinking water suppliers to test for the "forever chemicals" known collectively as PFAS and then...more
EPA has released its risk assessment for GenX, one of the hundreds of "forever chemicals" known collectively as PFAS that are ubiquitous in our environment owing to decades of use in everything from fire suppressants to pizza...more
Yesterday EPA announced a new layer to EPA's PFAS roadmap unveiled only last week. Now four of the hundreds of chemicals collectively known as PFAS will eventually be regulated as hazardous waste under RCRA in response to a...more