Federal Regulatory Efforts to Address PFAS - American Chemistry Council

Advancing an Effective Approach

PFAS are a large and diverse universe of chemistries that are critical to the products that power our lives – the cellphones, tablets and telecommunications we use every day to connect with our friends and family; the aircrafts that power the U.S. military; alternative energy sources; and medical devices that help keep us healthy. PFAS are being used to support COVID-19 testing equipment and to provide lifesaving protection in medical garments – both uses that have helped save lives around the world in the midst of the pandemic.

PFAS are vital to enabling our lives in the 21st century. ACC strongly supports the responsible production, use and management of PFAS and supports a comprehensive approach to managing PFAS that will help to ensure protection of human health and the environment, taking into consideration the diversity of physical and chemical properties and similarly diverse environmental and health profiles of these substances.

The Four Pillars of a Comprehensive Approach Include

Prioritize

Assess, categorize and prioritize PFAS substances based on science and risk

Manage

Manage priority PFAS in an expedited manner through regulation and stewardship

Track

Assess effectiveness of overall PFAS efforts and determine need for any future action

Remediate

Advance remediation of priority media and sites

Progress

To date, ACC has worked with regulators and lawmakers at the federal and state levels on a host of initiatives to address key issues of concern while continuing to allow for the important uses and benefits of PFAS technologies. In October 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified several activities as part of its PFAS Strategic Roadmap, many of which ACC and its members support.

EPA’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap, 2021-24:

The EPA is addressing PFAS concerns with a comprehensive approach through its PFAS Strategic Roadmap. Many concrete steps are already underway, including:

In Drinking Water

✓ On April 26, 2024, EPA published the 2024 National Primary Drinking Water Regulation, which set maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for six PFAS substances

✓ EPA is collecting national drinking water occurrence data for 29 PFAS for which validated text methods exist as part of the Agency’s Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5).

✓ EPA is developing methods for detecting a broader range of PFAS in environmental media beyond drinking water.

In Commerce

✓ EPA has identified about 600 PFAS chemistries currently in commerce.

✓ EPA issued expanded significant new use restrictions (SNURs) that will prevent the reintroduction of PFAS no longer manufactured or imported into the United States without initial thorough review by the Agency.

✓ EPA has finalized a requirement for manufacturers and importers of PFAS to report the quantities of materials produced or imported since 2011.

For Toxicity Testing

✓ EPA has developed a National PFAS Testing Strategy that divides this large class of substances into subgroups to assist in the prioritization for testing and evaluation.

✓ EPA has developed toxicity values for several priority PFAS and is currently conducting assessments of additional substances.

For the Environment

✓ EPA has made interim recommendations for acceptable levels of the two most commonly detected PFAS, PFOA and PFOS, in groundwater.

✓ EPA has used its emergency authority under various laws to eliminate exposure to PFAS and expedite cleanup of contamination.

✓ EPA has added more than 180 PFAS to its Toxic Release Inventory, which requires that release of these substances to air and water from industrial sources be reported annually.

✓ EPA has initiated efforts to categorize and prioritize industrial sources of PFAS to limit the release of PFAS to US surface and ground water.

✓ On April 17, 2024, EPA designated two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFOA and PFOS, as hazardous substances under section 102(a) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, or Superfund) to better monitor releases of these two substances and to assist in the identification of parties responsible for contamination.