Your Guide to PFAS Reporting Requirements, Part 2: EPA Action

Walden recently published a guide detailing reporting requirements for PFAS chemicals. In Part 1 of this blog series, we provided background information on PFAS, including the negative impacts that they can have on human health. Here, we will discuss actions that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken to research and regulate PFAS.

Initial Research

The EPA started researching the health effects of PFAS in 1998, when a manufacturing company alerted the EPA that they found a buildup of a specific PFAS chemical, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), in the blood of employees. This notification kickstarted an interest in the health effects of PFAS.

Over the next ten years, the EPA evaluated toxicity studies, initiated priority reviews, and launched a voluntary agreement allowing certain companies to “phase out” the use of some PFAS. Up until 2006, products containing PFAS were still thought to be safe to use.

The First Regulations

In 2009, the EPA published a “provisional health advisory” for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and PFOS, two widely used PFAS chemicals. These are only two out of thousands of PFAS chemicals.

Regulatory PFAS monitoring was first implemented in 2012. At this point, public water systems were required to complete one-time monitoring, which did not include all PFAS chemicals.

The Action Plan

In 2019, the EPA issued an Action Plan but failed to meet their self-assigned deadline to set an enforceable legal limit for PFOA and PFOS in drinking water. Since that time, the EPA has been working on the following tasks:

• Fulfilling the goals of this Action Plan
• Investing in research and development to increase understanding of PFAS
• Restricting PFAS use to proactively prevent these chemicals from entering air, land, and water
• Remediating existing PFAS contamination to protect human health and ecological systems

The PFAS Strategic Roadmap

In 2021, the EPA published a National PFAS Testing Strategy to begin identifying the toxicity levels of the hundreds of PFAS commonly used in commercial applications but on which little to no data exists. Part of this testing strategy included adding 175 PFAS to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), which required facilities that manufacture, process, or otherwise use those PFAS to report releases and other waste management information to the EPA every year. Since then, 30 more PFAS chemicals have been added to the TRI list.

2021 was also the year that the EPA:

• Released interim guidance on the proper destruction and disposal of PFAS-containing materials
• Updated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) PFAS-related rules
• Finalized the PFAS Significant New Use Rule, which prevents companies from starting or resuming the manufacture or processing of over 300 PFAS chemicals

The EPA includes these recent actions in its “PFAS Strategic Roadmap,” which summarizes its progress since 2021 and provides an outline of its future goals to restrict, remediate, and research PFAS. The ultimate goal is to achieve fundamental health protections for Americans by minimizing exposure to PFAS.

Why Was PFAS Not Regulated Sooner?

The road to understanding PFAS and restricting its use has been long. Lack of technology, budget cuts, difficulty quantifying trace amounts, improper documentation, comment periods, and rule amendments have all contributed to the slow release of updated information and new regulations. Because of these factors, it took many years for regulatory agencies to recognize PFAS as a problem and start taking action to address it.

How Walden Can Help

Walden tracks PFAS-related updates and publishes blogs to keep our readers apprised of the latest news. If you are interested in reading about some of the newest PFAS regulations, click here.

In the upcoming Part 3 of this blog series, we will detail the current PFAS reporting requirements. You can also read Part 1 and download our complete PFAS guide for additional information. Contact Walden at 516-559-6976 to discuss PFAS with an experienced consultant!