The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that it will defend the designations of PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, also known as Superfund. As part of the announcement, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called on Congress to pass legislation protecting passive receivers like water and wastewater utilities to help ensure polluters, and not communities, pay for Superfund cleanup costs.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin highlighted in a statement the difficulties for passive receivers. “When it comes to PFOA and PFOS contamination, holding polluters accountable while providing certainty for passive receivers that did not manufacture or generate those chemicals continues to be an ongoing challenge,” Zeldin said in the statement. I have heard loud and clear from the American people, from Congress, and from local municipalities about this particular issue. EPA intends to do what we can based on our existing authority, but we will need new statutory language from Congress to fully address our concerns with passive receiver liability.”
National Association of Water Companies President and CEO Robert Powelson applauded Zeldin’s remarks about passive receivers and the Trump Administration’s commitment to ensuring access to clean water. “We appreciate Administrator Zeldin and the EPA’s work to ensure that polluters are held responsible for PFOA and PFOS contamination in our water and protect passive receivers such as water and wastewater companies that do not use or manufacture these products. It is vital that Congress take action to give EPA the tools it needs to protect water and wastewater systems that are following all applicable rules and regulations for the handling and disposal of PFOA and PFOS by protecting them from legal liability under CERCLA by the actual polluters.”
He added that NAWC, its member companies and its water industry partners are calling on Congress to pass H.R. 1267, the Water Systems PFAS Liability Protection Act, which has strong bipartisan support. “Under the bill introduced by Congresswomen Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Celeste Malloy, Superfund liability would fall on the polluters who created the mess in the first place, not on the innocent families and communities who rely on water and wastewater utilities to keep them safe and protect the environment.”
Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies CEO Tom Dobbins said in a statement that Zeldin is right to recognize that passive receivers like local water and wastewater systems should not get handed the bill for cleaning up after the polluters who released PFAS into the environment. “It will take action by Congress to secure these critical liability protections into law. This is why AMWA strongly supports the Water Systems PFAS Liability Protection Act, and we urge Congress to act quickly on this critical legislation."
