State Legislatures Kick-Off 2022 With PFAS Legislation

Statehouses around the country have introduced over two dozen new laws related to PFAS since reconvening this year. This is representative of the continued focus that PFAS legislation has on a state-level, coinciding with increased federal efforts to curtail PFAS through EPA action. Several of these proposed laws could directly impact ILTA members if passed, including:

• Florida – Proposed prohibition of use or discharge of Class B firefighting foams containing PFAS (with exceptions for firefighting emergencies and fire prevention)
• Maryland – Proposed prohibition of use, manufacture, sale, or distribution of Class B firefighting foams containing PFAS beginning January 1, 2023

The proposed state-level legislation includes a diverse array of provisions, several of which are listed below:

• Florida – Requires statewide rules of cleanup target levels for PFAS in soil and groundwater
• Illinois – Creates a new Municipal Water and Wastewater Funding Study Committee which provides funding for emerging contaminants (including PFAS)
• Indiana – Establishes a PFAS chemical blood-testing program to study the health effects of PFAS
• Kentucky – Sets maximum PFAS chemical limits and monitoring requirements
• New Hampshire – Sets maximum contaminant levels for perfluorochemicals in the soil
• Virginia – Requires the Commissioner of Health to create a work group to study the occurrence of PFAS in Virginia’s water

There has also been new action on many PFAS bills that were proposed in 2021. The status of these bills will continue to be tracked in the ILTA’s PFAS legislation tracker, and major updates from legislation will be updated within the tracker.

In national news, the EPA added four PFAS to the Toxics Release Inventory list. The Toxics Release Inventory list as recently come under fire, and several advocacy groups are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to close loopholes on two reporting rules that have limited data accessibility on PFAS releases from industry and federal facilities.