On April 28, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) outlined upcoming agency action to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). According to EPA’s much anticipated announcement, “[i]n line with Administrator Zeldin’s Powering the Great American Comeback initiative, EPA’s work in this space will advance Pillar 1: Clean Air, Land, and Water for Every American, and Pillar 3: Permitting Reform, Cooperative Federalism, and Cross-Agency Partnership.”
Below are the actions outlined on April 28, 2025.
Strengthening the Science
- Designate an agency lead for PFAS to align and manage better PFAS efforts across agency programs.
- Implement a PFAS testing strategy under Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Section 4 to seek scientific information informed by hazard characteristics and exposure pathways. More information on EPA’s first, second, third, fourth and fifth test orders for PFAS is available in memoranda.
- Launch additional efforts on air-related PFAS information collection and measurement techniques related to air emissions.
- Identify and address available information gaps where not all PFAS can be measured and controlled.
- Provide more frequent updates to the PFAS Destruction and Disposal Guidance — changing from every three years to annually — as EPA continues to assess the effectiveness of available treatment technologies.
- Ramp up the development of testing methods to improve detection and strategies to address PFAS.
Fulfilling Statutory Obligations and Enhancing Communication
- Develop effluent limitations guidelines (ELG) for PFAS manufacturers and metal finishers and evaluate other ELGs necessary to reduce PFAS discharges.
- Address the most significant compliance challenges and requests from Congress and drinking water systems related to national primary drinking water regulations (NPDWR) for certain PFAS.
- Determine how to use the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) authorities better to address releases from manufacturing operations of both PFAS producers and users.
- Add PFAS to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) in line with congressional direction from the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
- Enforce Clean Water Act (CWA) and TSCA limitations on PFAS use and release to prevent further contamination.
- Use Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) authority to investigate and address immediate endangerment.
- Achieve more effective outcomes by prioritizing risk-based review of new and existing PFAS chemicals.
- Implement TSCA Section 8(a)(7) “to smartly collect necessary information, as Congress envisioned and consistent with TSCA, without overburdening small businesses and article importers.”
- Work with Congress and industry to establish a clear liability framework that operates on the polluter pays and protects passive receivers.
Building Partnerships
- Advance remediation and cleanup efforts where drinking water supplies are impacted by PFAS contamination.
- Work with states to assess risks from PFAS contamination and the development of analytical and risk assessment tools.
- Finish public comment period for biosolids risk assessment and determine a path forward based on comments.
- Provide assistance to states and tribes on enforcement efforts.
- Review and evaluate any pending state air petitions.
- Resource and support investigations into violations to hold polluters accountable.
Discussion
PFAS continues to be a significant issue that drives public concern. EPA is likely to continue to approach PFAS organized via several chemical category bins: medium- and long-chain perfluorocarboxylates and perfluorosulfonates and substances that degrade into them, short-chain PFAS, fluoropolymers, fluorinated gases and other substances. Each bin represents a different potential for risk because of the extraordinary breadth of properties and toxicities between and among PFAS. This is in marked contrast to states that define PFAS so broadly that there are some chemical entities that contain only a single fluorine and include PFAS that are not persistent or bioaccumulative. Some states, like New Mexico, seem to be taking a more measured approach, but it remains to be seen if this is a trend or an exception.
