NASF Meets with White House on EPA Move to Propose Rule to List PFOS and PFOA under the Federal Superfund Clean Up Law

EPA’s proposed rule to list PFOS and PFOA as hazardous substances has cleared White House review and will likely be issued for public comment soon. Agency officials continue to state publicly that the listing is a top priority for the agency. NASF and other industry associations have called for statutorily required risk evaluation and impact analysis as a condition to support the decision.

The agency has never before sought to issue a rule to list a chemical as a Superfund hazardous substance. As such, the rule is facing significant scrutiny from industry and other potentially liable parties, who fear it will drive significant new cleanup liabilities. In the meantime, environmental advocacy groups submitted a July 27, 2022 letter to EPA urging the agency to issue the rule promptly. A group of U.S. House of Representative members sent a similar letter to EPA on August 3, 2022.

Massive Impact for US Manufacturing

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce conducted a study that found cleanup costs would be nearly $1 billion a year, in contrast to EPA’s cost estimate of less than $100 million annually, which coincidentally is the threshold for determining whether rules are economically significant and should be subject to heightened cost-benefit scrutiny and potential review of impact on small business.

NASF Meeting with White House on Industry Success, Remaining Challenges

NASF recently participated in an industry meeting with the White House discussing the potential cost-benefit and small business impacts the proposed listing could have on the surface finishing industry. On behalf of NASF, The Policy Group noted that the surface finishing industry is the only industry to request and receive a major federal standard that included the industry’s phase-out by 2015 of the use of PFOS – which EPA itself earlier recommended to reduce emissions of hexavalent chromium. Despite these proactive efforts, the industry continues to face legacy issues from its past use and could potentially be subject to significant Superfund liability for cleanup costs.

If you have any questions or would like additional information regarding this issue, please contact Jeff Hannapel or Christian Richter with NASF at jhannapel@thepolicygroup.com or crichter@thepolicygroup.com.

This update is courtesy of the National Association for Surface Finishing (NASF). For more information or to become a member, visit nasf.org.