NGWA responded to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule amending its regulation under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) by adding nine specific per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
The comments were prepared by the NGWA PFAS Task Force and provided on April 2. It addressed three important issues:
Whether to add nine specific per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the RCRA corrective list.
The substances are:
- perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA),
- perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS),
- perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS),
- hexafluoropropylene oxide-dimer acid (HFPO–DA or GenX),
- perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA),
- perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS),
- perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA),
- perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA), and
- perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA)
NGWA supports the listing of the nine PFAS and “removal from the environment to the extent possible. This removal can occur through the corrective action processes of RCRA for active sites of generation, use, transportation, storage, and disposal.”
- The lack of clarity for the relation of this regulatory action to other regulatory actions under other statutes and rules.
Superfund which proposed listing the same PFAS as hazardous substances, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) regulations listing all PFAS as chemicals of concern to be reported, the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) proposal which identifies seven PFAS for regulation in drinking water, and the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) 5th monitoring round which collected data on 29 PFAS.
NGWA states in its comments that it is not clear how these statutes and regulations relate to each other in the EPA’s PFAS strategy and what the implications of regulating them under one statute mean for regulating them under another statute.
- A question of how selective enforcement across programs affects the implementation of this rule at the 831 facilities with highest likelihood of handling PFAS across the nation.
In its comments, NGWA noted that the EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance indicated in a March 2023 policy statement addressing PFAS that it will selectively take enforcement action against municipal solid waste landfills and treatment works, farms that use biosolids, and airports. If this is the case, NGWA asked in its comments “What is the EPA’s enforcement of this new rule going to be?”
Read the full comments from NGWA here.