On February 13, 2023, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan visited Maysville, North Carolina to announce $2 billion in grant funds available to help rural water treatment systems remove PFAS from their drinking water supplies. This announcement precedes the publication of a draft rule that will propose national drinking water standards for PFOS and PFOA. The draft rule is anticipated to be published in the Federal Register in March 2023.
In 2019, Maysville’s water was detected with surprisingly high levels of PFAS in the water. Used in a wide range of manufacturing and food packaging products, PFAS have been named “forever” chemicals due to their lack of degradation and their ability to move throughout water and the surrounding environment. To help communities like Maysville that are on the frontlines of PFAS contamination reduce PFAS in drinking water, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will invest billions over the next five years to fund infrastructure upgrades and water quality testing.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan visited Maysville, North Carolina
Today’s actions demonstrate the current administration’s commitments to combat PFAS pollution and safeguard drinking water. To date, EPA has:
- Proposed to designate two PFAS as CERCLA hazardous substances. Designed to increase transparency around PFAS releases and hold polluters accountable for cleaning up their contamination.
- Released drinking water health advisories. Four PFAS were issued drinking water health advisories.
- Enhanced testing and data on PFAS. An order under EPA’s National PFAS Testing Strategy now requires companies to conduct PFAS testing, and nationwide sampling through the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule for 29 PFAS in public drinking water systems.
- Furthered the understanding of PFAS. The Agency has performed extensive researched and created a PFAS Thermal Treatment Database.
- Coordinated EPA’s cross-agency PFAS efforts. This included updating EPA’s contaminated site cleanup tables, developing new PFAS methods and conducting toxicity assessments, and issuing draft national recommended water quality criteria to protect aquatic life.
- Engaged with the public. Public webinars, stakeholder meetings, Congressional testimony, and engagement with EPA’s federal advisory committees were means to educate the public about this emerging threat.
TRC has been closely tracking EPA’s latest regulations and actions on PFAS for approximately six years. Our nationally recognized PFAS subject matter experts, who have communicated and provided consultation to municipalities, regulators, attorneys, senior congressional staff and corporate management, are available to answer your questions on the ever-evolving science and emerging regulations. Our expert team can provide engineering services to municipalities to encompass treatment options, permitting, design, bid support and construction oversight related to the installation of PFAS treatment systems.