ASDWA Recommends EPA Refrain from Including Additional PFAS under CERCLA

In comments to EPA on June 13, ASDWA recommends that EPA “refrain from pursuing any rulemaking to add additional PFAS as hazardous substances under [the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund)] until the Agency determines the impacts of that designation for PFOA and PFOS.” The comments are in response to the Agency’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding whether EPA should regulate seven additional PFAS as CERCLA hazardous substances: PFBS, PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA (also known as Gen-X), PFBA, PFHxA, and PFDA. EPA proposed regulating PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under CERCLA last August, and the Agency has not yet finalized that rulemaking. ASDWA argues that waiting for the PFOA and PFOS CERCLA designations to go into place will identify critical issues that could be addressed in subsequent rulemaking. The association stresses that the Agency must ensure these CERCLA designations will not inhibit the goals of addressing PFAS in drinking water, citing concerns over the disposal of spent treatment media contaminated with PFAS. ASDWA notes that EPA “may determine that CERCLA is not the correct statute to deal with additional PFAS and should look to other laws like [Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)] or that other actions, such as increasing the number of disposal sites that can manage CERCLA hazardous substances, should be in place before the CERCLA designation is proposed.”