Read the full article by Monica Amarelo (EWG)
“WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to propose a new rule, asking chemical companies to provide information on the production and discharge of the ‘forever chemicals’ known as PFAS, which could lead to regulations limiting PFAS discharges into water or wastewater.
Today, the EPA published in the Federal Register an advance notice of the proposal, asking industry to provide such information under the Clean Water Act. The EPA is asking for the information as it considers creating ‘effluent limitation guidelines’ to limit PFAS discharges into surface waters or sent to wastewater treatment facilities.
Those regulations may also include requirements for new PFAS monitoring, which would provide information about ongoing releases into the environment. Information already collected by the EPA identified PFAS discharges from six PFAS manufacturers and three PFAS formulators, including one detection of 777 parts per billion.
Exposure to very low levels of PFAS chemicals is linked to an array of health effects, including cancer, reproductive harms and immune system harms. PFAS are not currently regulated under the Clean Water Act, although they contaminate more than 2,300 sites nationwide and contaminate the drinking water of more than 200 million Americans. EWG estimates there are more than 2,500 industrial dischargers of PFAS…”