For Immediate Release | April 19th, 2024
NATIONAL — Today, the National PFAS Contamination celebrates the EPA’s designation of PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under the under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) or Superfund.
Read the EPA press release here.
“This is another needed piece of the puzzle in combating the problem of PFAS contamination in our environment,” shared Sandy Wynn-Stelt, Co-Facilitator of the National PFAS Contamination Coalition and Great Lakes PFAS Action Network. “By designating PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances it provides communities across the country with access to help in both remediating contamination, as well as holding the polluters accountable for their actions. For too long, individuals in my community have paid the price of these chemicals in our air, water and soil. Now the polluters will be required to pay.”
“Until now, polluters have gotten away with poisoning our communities with PFAS,” shared Dana Colihan, Co-Facilitator of the National PFAS Contamination Coalition and Co-Executive Director of Slingshot. “The EPA finally has more legal muscle to make big polluters pay, and we look forward to working with them to leverage this tool to protect communities.”
Reactions from Impacted Community Leaders from Around the Country:
“By designating the 2 most prevalent PFAS as hazardous substances, the EPA has ensured known polluters such as Saint Gobain Performance Plastics in Merrimack, NH will finally be held responsible for site cleanup. This is great news not just in my community, but across the nation where decades of environmental contamination by PFAS polluters have impacted our families health and our natural resources. This long awaited designation and resulting actions will allow PFAS impacted communities to exhale and begin our healing journey. The people have been heard.” – Laurene Allen, Cofounder Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water, NH
“Locally, the DOD has been dragging their feet with regards to clean up. It has been 10 years since discovering PFAS contamination at both the Horsham and former Warminster DOD sites and we still have large uncontained PFAS plumes at both sites threatening our clean water sources, our fish, and our farmland. This hazardous substance designation will allow the EPA to speed up the clean up process and even recover any taxpayer money spent on cleanups from polluters. “- Hope Grosse, Cofounder Buxmont Coalition for Safer Water, PA
“This is long awaited good news! For decades, polluters knew PFAS chemicals were dangerous but hid risks from the public. These “forever chemicals” used for decades at Department of Defense sites across the country continue to pollute our local waterways in Horsham and Warminster, Pennsylvania. They don’t break down, and as a result remain in the environment and people for decades. This historic designation of PFOA and PFOS as a hazardous substance under CERCLA law is an important first step in regulating its clean up and keeping communities safe.” – Joanne Stanton, Co-founder Buxmont Coalition for Safer Water, PA
“This action is especially important for disadvantaged communities and communities of color who, as a consequence of historical environmental injustice, are more likely to live in communities near DoD sites, industrial sites, or waste sites that are highly contaminated with PFOA and PFOS. Although exempting utilities removes the incentive to require pretreatment of waste, this designation will ensure that legacy sites are cleaned up and that other makers and users of PFAS will be good stewards of their PFAS waste.” – Cheryl Cail, Chairperson of SC Idle No More for SC Indian Affairs Commission, SC
“Polluters have gotten away with contaminating our communities for decades, and it appears somewhat tone-deaf when these polluters complain about the potential costs of clean-ups, while overlooking the massive costs associated with not cleaning up—including cancer, thyroid disease, reproductive harms, immune system harms, and more. This designation will enhance the transparency that these communities deserve. Polluters will be required to report certain releases, enabling the EPA and state agencies to take immediate action.” – Ayesha Khan, Co-Founder of Nantucket PFAS Action, MA
“Since learning about extreme levels of PFAS in our tap water we’ve been forced to live with water we don’t feel safe using while also enduring rate hikes to clean up a crisis we didn’t create. Chemical companies like DuPont and Chemours profited off of PFAS for decades at our expense. Finally, the Biden EPA is beginning to hold PFAS polluters accountable. While there is no price tag big enough to bring back all the lives cut short or traumatized by decades of PFAS exposures–this is a step in the right direction. Ultimately, we need PFAS regulated as a class and we will keep fighting until all PFAS are designated as hazardous substances.” – Emily Donovan, Co-Founder of Clean Cape Fear, NC – full statement here.
“For communities like the Town of Peshtigo and Marinette, WI this designation is an enormous step forward in ensuring environmental health for the public while simultaneously holding corporate polluters accountable for their decades long abuse. We petitioned the EPA years ago as a potential safety net against our communities PFAS contamination, this designation was critical to the viability of that petition and today we feel encouraged, validated and again hopeful that our community will get the remediation and safe drinking water that they deserve.” Cindy Boyle of SOH2O, WI – full statement here.
“It’s a real moment of victory. Sometimes it is hard to see a historical moment when you are living in it. But, I am seeing it and feeling it right now. I don’t know if I cry from the joy of it or from the thought that my daughter is saying, “Mom, I love you, and I am so proud of you. I can rest easy now. Thank you for saving the millions of other children who are affected by it, no one else should have to go through the pain and suffering I went through, and the emotional turmoil you guys went through when I died.” Linda Shosie, Co-Founder of the Tucson Environmental Justice Taskforce, AZ
“I applaud the EPA for designating PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under the Superfund law. The Pease community has been highly impacted by PFAS contamination from the use of firefighting foam used by the US Air Force when it was an active Air Force Base. Pease was already a Superfund site when PFAS contamination was first discovered in 2014. The Superfund law has guided the PFAS investigation and remediation that the Pease community has received from the Air Force. By designating PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances, many other PFAS impacted communities across the nation who have currently been left behind due to lack of legal authority to hold polluters accountable can now address PFAS contamination and will now benefit from investigations and cleanup of their communities, too.” Andrea Amico, Testing for Pease, NH – full statement here.
“This is another important step by the EPA to ensuring communities across the nation are protected from toxic exposures and hold polluters accountable. Since the 2016 public disclosure that City of Newburgh residents had been exposed for decades to toxic PFAS chemicals running off the Stewart Air National Guard Base, we have lost autonomy of utilizing our once thriving reservoir, and rely on alternative water sources from different agencies. Eight years later, PFAS pollution continues to run off the base into our surrounding watershed as the Department of Defense ignores the community’s widespread ‘Speed Up the Clean Up’ Campaign to establish effective interim measures and expedite remediation and prevent continued harm to our community and environment. Our community knows firsthand how devastating exposure to these toxic ‘forever chemicals’ can be to the health of loved ones and so any step towards preventing exposure and assisting communities such as ours in the fight for clean water and full remediation is considered an important one.” – Jennifer Rawlison, Newburgh Clean Water Project, NY
National PFAS Contamination Coalition 