Actor Mark Ruffalo: ‘Amazing’ that PFAS chemicals still aren’t regulated

Read the full article by Garret Ellison (MLive)

“WASHINGTON, DC — Actor Mark Ruffalo lent some celebrity heft on Tuesday to an announcement by Michigan Congressional delegates about the reintroduction of legislation that would force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to start regulating PFAS chemicals in drinking water and officially designate them as hazardous substances.

Ruffalo, who portrayed attorney Rob Bilott in the 2019 film ‘Dark Waters,’ said he’s amazed that industrial chemicals known by manufacturers and regulators for years to be dangerous to humans are still being discharged into the country’s air and water every day.

‘What’s amazing is the EPA has known about the risks posed by PFAS for decades and done nothing to regulate the discharges under federal laws — the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act,’ said Ruffalo, an environmental activist whose film told the true story of PFAS contamination in West Virginia and Ohio drinking water.

‘The PFAS Action Act, which is what we’re talking about today, will simply set deadlines for the EPA to act,’ Ruffalo said. ‘That’s it. The bill doesn’t give the EPA any new powers. It just tells the EPA to use the powers that Congress gave the EPA more than 40 years ago.’

Ruffalo joined U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor and Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, on Tuesday, April 13 on a call with reporters organized by the Environmental Working Group to announce a new attempt to get the PFAS Action Act through the U.S. House and Senate.

Dingell and Upton expressed optimism the bill can clear the Senate with a Democratic majority after stalling last year after passing the House with bipartisan support.

‘There’s been a learning curve with a number of colleagues and, obviously, communities across the country that frankly didn’t pay a lot of attention but now know a little bit more about (PFAS),’ said Upton. Bill sponsors aim to ‘build upon that support and work with an administration that I’m convinced would accept this if it gets to the president’s desk…'”