EPA and State Inaction on PFAS Puts Public Health at Risk and Leaves Taxpayers to Foot Cleanup Costs

The document criticizes the U.S. EPA and state governments for failing to regulate industrial PFAS discharges, which shifts cleanup costs to taxpayers. It proposes three primary actions: enforcing pretreatment requirements for Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs), codifying Method 1633 for wastewater testing, and establishing Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELGs) to mandate PFAS removal by industries.

• The U.S. EPA and state regulators are accused of negligence regarding industrial PFAS discharges, which results in the contamination of waterways and shifts the financial burden of cleanup to local utilities and taxpayers.
• Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) are currently failing to identify or reject PFAS-laden industrial wastewater because there are no rules requiring them to test for these chemicals, and many plants are not disclosing the presence of PFAS in the wastewater they receive.
• Although the EPA has developed Method 1633 to detect 40 different PFAS in wastewater, the agency has not yet codified it, which prevents the majority of POTWs from utilizing the testing method.
• There is a regulatory gap in Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELGs), as the EPA has not established specific guidelines requiring industrial facilities to remove PFAS from wastewater before it is sent to sewage treatment plants.

APA

Gutiérrez, N. (2024). EPA and State Inaction on PFAS Puts Public Health at Risk and Leaves Taxpayers to Foot Cleanup Costs. Earthjustice. https://earthjustice.org/experts/jill-witkowski-heaps/u-s-epa-and-state-inaction-on-pfas-threatens-public-health-and-leaves-taxpayers-responsible-to-clean-up-contaminated-drinking-water

Chicago

Gutiérrez, Nydia. EPA and State Inaction on PFAS Puts Public Health at Risk and Leaves Taxpayers to Foot Cleanup Costs. Earthjustice, 2024. https://earthjustice.org/experts/jill-witkowski-heaps/u-s-epa-and-state-inaction-on-pfas-threatens-public-health-and-leaves-taxpayers-responsible-to-clean-up-contaminated-drinking-water.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Gutiérrez |first1=Nydia |title=EPA and State Inaction on PFAS Puts Public Health at Risk and Leaves Taxpayers to Foot Cleanup Costs |publisher=Earthjustice |date=17 September 2024 |url=https://earthjustice.org/experts/jill-witkowski-heaps/u-s-epa-and-state-inaction-on-pfas-threatens-public-health-and-leaves-taxpayers-responsible-to-clean-up-contaminated-drinking-water |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{gutirrez2024epa, author = {Gutiérrez, Nydia}, title = {{EPA and State Inaction on PFAS Puts Public Health at Risk and Leaves Taxpayers to Foot Cleanup Costs}}, publisher = {Earthjustice}, year = {2024}, month = sep, url = {https://earthjustice.org/experts/jill-witkowski-heaps/u-s-epa-and-state-inaction-on-pfas-threatens-public-health-and-leaves-taxpayers-responsible-to-clean-up-contaminated-drinking-water}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }