On December 29, 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 2617), otherwise known as the 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, into law. The omnibus bill includes 12 separate appropriations bills that fund various federal agencies for the upcoming fiscal year. In total, the bill provides $1.7 trillion in government funding with several provisions targeting PFAS remediation and research activities. The bulk of the PFAS appropriations were for U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) including $200 million for PFAS cleanup efforts at military installations, $30 million for PFAS remediation and disposal technologies, and $20 million for aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) replacement, disposal, and cleanup technologies. Additionally, $5 million was appropriated to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for testing soil, water, and agricultural products for PFAS and to compensate agricultural producers for PFAS-impacted crops and livestock.
On December 22, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of the final IRIS Toxicological Review of Perfluorobutanoic Acid (PFBA) and Related Salts. This review was developed as part of the EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program. The assessment addressed the potential carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic effects of human exposure to perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) and its related salts. The assessment indicated that developmental, thyroid, and liver effects in humans are caused by in utero or adulthood exposure to PFBA. The chronic oral reference dose (RfDo) for increased liver hypertrophy and decreased T4 levels in humans was derived to be 0.001 milligrams per kilogramday (mg/kg-day) at a medium confidence level. For reference, a chronic oral RfDo of 1.5E-9 mg/kg-day for PFOA and 7.9E-9 mg/kg-day for PFOS was used to develop the EPA interim health advisories for drinking water. The IRIS assessment concluded there was inadequate information to assess the cancercausing potential of PFBA either via oral or inhalation exposure routes.
On January 4, 2023, the EPA announced issuance of the second Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) test order on PFAS. This order comes as part of the EPA’s National PFAS Testing Strategy, released in October 2021. This second order, issued to four companies, requires submission of data on trifluoro(trifluoromethyl)oxirane (HFPO, or hexafluoropropylene oxide), a PFAS used in making plastics and in organic chemical manufacturing. More than 1,000,000 pounds of HFPO are produced each year, according to TSCA data. This test order aims to clarify the impact of inhalation of HFPO on developmental and reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity, and other impacts to human health. Prior to issuing the test order, the four involved companies voluntarily submitted existing data related to the impacts of HFPO on human health and the environment. Data volunteered by these companies are publicly available in docket EPA-HQ-OPPT-2021-0910. The order follows a tiered testing process, consistent with TSCA requirements. The first-tier testing results are required by March 2024, after which next steps will be assessed. Further details on the tiered testing process and schedule are provided in the test order.
On January 6, 2023, the EPA announced the automatic addition of nine PFAS to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) chemical list. Data for chemicals on the TRI list, including quantities of chemicals released to the environment, are required to be reported annually by facilities in industries that manufacture, process, or otherwise use chemicals listed in the TRI above certain quantities. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020 established a framework for adding PFAS to the TRI annually and a total of 189 PFAS have been added so far. The following nine PFAS are added to the TRI chemical list for the 2023 TRI Reporting Year:
Data for the 2023 TRI Reporting Year will be due to EPA by July 1, 2024.
On January 20, 2023, the EPA announced the release of an updated Effluent Guidelines Program Plan, which describes how the EPA will “work to protect the nation’s waterways by following the science and the Clean Water Act to develop technology-based pollution limits and studies on wastewater discharges from industrial sources.” The updated plan includes a study on industrial discharges of PFAS to publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) and a study on the use, treatment, and discharge of PFAS at textile mills. Additionally, as described within the updated plan, the EPA has determined that revised effluent limitations guidelines and pretreatment standards (ELGs) are warranted for reducing PFAS in leachate discharges from landfills.
The EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) released PFAS Analytic Tools, an interactive webpage providing consolidated data about PFAS reporting, testing, and occurrence across the U.S. On January 10, 2023, the EPA held a training webinar on the PFAS Analytic Tools website that was recorded and can be viewed online. The training webinar includes a demonstration on how to use the PFAS Analytic Tools website and where to find answers to commonly asked questions.
On January 14, 2023, the state of Pennsylvania announced the establishment of maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) in drinking water. An MCL of 14 parts per trillion (ppt) has been established for PFOA and an MCL of 18 ppt has been established for PFOS. The MCLs apply to all Pennsylvania community, nontransient noncommunity (businesses, schools, and healthcare facilities), bottled, vended, retail, and bulk public water systems.
At the federal level, the EPA released interim health advisories of 0.004 ppt for PFOA and 0.02 ppt for PFOS in June 2022. While the EPA included a plan to propose National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWRs) for PFOA and PFOS by fall 2022 in its PFAS Strategic Roadmap, proposed NPDWRs have not yet been released.
In November 2022, the California State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) released a report titled Monitoring Strategies for Constituents of Emerging Concern (CECs) in California’s Aquatic Ecosystems – Recommendations of a Science Advisory Panel. The State Water Board convened the science advisory panel to “provide unbiased science-based recommendations for monitoring strategies of CECs in oceanic, brackish, and fresh waters across the State that receive discharge of treated municipal wastewater effluent and stormwater.” The science advisory panel makes several recommendations in the report, including that future sampling data be of consistent high quality and that a process be developed to address how and when to transition CECs from a monitoring program to another actionable program. Additionally, the report includes an assessment and visualization of dissolved and total concentrations of PFAS in ambient freshwater, wastewater, estuarine and marine water, tissues, and sediments in California, as well as a screening of CEC concentrations against risk-based thresholds applicable to surface water receptors. PFOA, PFOS, and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) are classified as high priority CECs in freshwater and PFOA is classified as a high priority CEC in estuarine water following application of the preliminary monitoring prioritization framework. The report builds upon a report released in March 2022 titled CECs in California’s Ambient Aquatic Ecosystems: Occurrence and Risk Screening of Key Classes.
The State Water Board has also published a CEC Dashboard, which summarizes CEC sampling data collected from 2001 through 2022 through 32 different programs. The dashboard includes an interactive map and several interactive graphics.
Webinars presented by Geosyntec practitioners covering a broad range of PFAS topics including site investigation, treatment, forensics, stormwater management, and toxicology and risk assessment are available on demand at www.geosyntec.com/pfas-webinars and www.geosyntec.com/webinars/on-demand-webinars. The webinars are free to view and professional development hours are available.