Congressional action was taken in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act to list certain PFAS on the Toxics Release Inventory, but a loophole has enabled polluters to release dangerous PFAS chemicals and skirt reporting mandates.
Reps. A. Donald McEachin (VA-04), Dan Kildee (MI-05), and Antonio Delgado (NY-19) led a bipartisan group of 38 lawmakers in urging the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention to immediately close the reporting loophole that allows hundreds of PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – chemicals to be manufactured, processed, used and released in the United States.
“We are writing to urge the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention to swiftly take action to close the reporting loopholes for the 176 PFAS chemicals listed on the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)… the way in which the EPA codified the TRI-listed PFAS into law allows polluters to utilize exemptions to significantly underreport or avoid reporting its PFAS releases entirely,” the lawmakers said.
In the PFAS Strategic Roadmap, the EPA proposed a solution to the loopholes that would be published in March 2022. The release of this proposed rule is currently delayed, pushing back the implementation timeline. Industries will be able to continue underreporting these dangerous releases until at least 2024.
“Based on this timeline, we will have flawed data until at least 2025, leaving communities exposed to toxic PFAS with no knowledge of where and in what volume these chemicals are being dumped into their neighborhoods,” the lawmakers continued. “Furthermore, we are highly concerned that the agency is running behind its own schedule as a recent EPA news release indicates that the proposed rule is now expected to be released this summer.”
Additional signers include Reps. Jake Auchincloss, Nanette Barragán, Earl Blumenauer, Steve Cohen, Peter DeFazio, Diana DeGette, Debbie Dingell, Brian Fitzpatrick, Jesús García, Raúl Grijalva, Jahana Hayes, Jared Huffman, Mondaire Jones, Ro Khanna, Derek Kilmer, Ron Kind, Annie Kuster, John Larson, Andy Levin, Alan Lowenthal, Nancy Mace, Tom Malinowski, Doris Matsui, Betty McCollum, James McGovern, Marie Newman, Eleanor Norton, Deborah Ross, Linda Sánchez, John Sarbanes, Robert “Bobby” Scott, Albio Sires, Darren Soto, Melanie Stansbury, Haley Stevens, Dina Titus, Bonnie Watson Coleman, and Peter Welch.
The letter is endorsed by Earthjustice, Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans, River Network, Sierra Club, Safer Chemicals Healthy Families, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Center for Environmental Health, and Clean Water Action.
Read the full letter here.
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