Environment Hearing: Assessing the Current Statutory and Regulatory Landscape for PFAS
2025-12-18
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Source: Congress.gov
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Subcommittee on Environment will come to order. Chair recognizes himself for five minutes for an opening statement. Welcome to today's hearing before the Subcommittee on Environment. This year, we've revisited some of our country's most important environmental laws and confronted emerging challenges protecting our environment, and promoting a regulatory climate that encourages innovation and economic growth. Among other things, we've identified shortcomings with the administration of the Toxic Substance Control Act that delayed newer, safer chemistries from reaching consumers, explored opportunities to revitalize brownfield sites for crucial infrastructure projects, evaluated the state of technologies to improve our recycling systems, and passed Common Sense Clear Air Act reforms. Today, we're examining EPA's decision last year to designate two PFAS chemistries, PFOA and PFOS, as hazardous substance under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, also known as CERCLA, or the Superfund Law. CERCLA was enacted in 1980 to facilitate the cleanup of the most contaminated sites around the country and to establish a scheme to hold liable for cleanup costs the parties responsible for that contamination. Superfund imposes strict and joint several liability on parties. In other words, a responsible party could be responsible for the entire cost to clean up a contaminated site, even if its contribution to the pollution was minimal. Circle excludes exemptions as well as defenses to liability for certain parties, such as bona fide prospective purchasers and innocent landowners, as they are referred to. However, in the context of the hazardous substance designations for PFOA and PFOS, there are concerns that existing exemptions and defenses may not adequately protect a class of parties commonly known as passive receivers who did not manufacture or use PFOA or PFOS, but may have acquired, used, or disposed of material containing these chemicals.
Today, we will examine the impacts of potential liability for PFAS contamination on these entities. Congress has clarified and expanded liability protections before, such as by passing the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of 2002. We will consider how concerns about PFAS liability may deter a range of economic activities and whether changes to CERCLA or other legislative action are needed. Additionally, at our March hearing on reauthorization of of the Environmental Protection Agency's brownfields program, we discussed the tremendous potential of the estimated 450,000 brownfield sites in our country for housing important infrastructure such as power generation, semiconductor manufacturing facilities, and data centers. We hope to examine whether concerns about liability for PFAS hinder the redevelopment of these sites.
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Mr. Lawerence Falbe
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Ms. Emily Donovan
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Ms. Emily Donovan
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a large class of chemicals commonly used in firefighting foams, food packaging, nonstick cookware, and water-resistant fabrics. These chemicals are remarkably persistent in the environment and incredibly toxic and dangerous to human health, even at very small concentration levels. PFAS exposure has been linked to kidney disease, thyroid dysfunction, and various forms of cancer. Almost all Americans have had some PFAS exposure and drinking water contaminations have been found in many communities across our country. This includes the town of Hoosick Falls in New York's 20th congressional district that I represent. It has been nearly a decade since PFOA was detected in Hoosick Falls, which helped sound the alarm for many others to test their water. Since that time, this committee has held numerous hearings examining PFAS. Ms. Donovan, who is testifying today, also testified at our initial hearing more than seven years ago. In years since that hearing, there has been increased public awareness, improved scientific understanding, significant funding for remediation included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and major regulatory actions taken at the state and federal levels to address PFAS risks and hold polluters accountable. EPA released the PFAS Action Plan during the first Trump administration and a PFAS Strategic Roadmap during the Biden administration. Actions were taken across program offices and under multiple environmental laws, including the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, TSCA and CERCLA. Many of these actions have focused on the two long chains of PFAS, PFOA and PFOS. These are certainly the best known PFAS, but domestic manufacture of these specific chemicals largely stopped years ago. Real and ongoing risks for future exposure will come as companies substitute these PFAS with dangerous replacements such as Gen X.
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Ms. Emily Donovan
After many years of sounding the alarm and developing plans, We're really only now just beginning to see a federal regulatory response take effect, headlined by drinking water standards and a hazardous substance designation being finalized for PFOA and PFOS during the Biden administration. But we have also seen some troubling actions taken this year by the Trump EPA to undo past progress. including approving pesticides containing PFAS, eliminating drinking water standards for four short-chain PFAS, including Gen X, delaying drinking water compliance deadlines for PFOA and PFAS, and limiting PFAS reporting requirements under TSCA. To its credit, to date, the Trump EPA has left in place the hazardous substance designation of PFOA and PFOS. This CERCLA enlisting is incredibly important. It requires the reporting of releases and compels those responsible for contaminations to remediate.
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