JD Supra: CERCLA – One Potential Landing Spot for Regulation of PFAS — The PFAS Action Act of 2021 has the potential to greatly expand the scope of investigation and remediation under CERCLA by imposing an aggressive one-year schedule to designate PFOA and PFOS as “hazardous substances” and a five-year schedule to review all PFAS chemicals for potential designation. Whether such a designation comes earlier or later, it is clear that such designation could bring on an array of EPA actions and additional costs.

The San Diego Tribune: DuPont, Spinoffs to Pay $50M for ‘Forever Chemical’ Cleanup — The settlement is the result of an investigation led by the attorney general’s office into the environmental impacts of legacy industrial activities in Delaware. The companies will pay for environmental restoration, improvement, sampling and analysis, community environmental justice and equity grants, and other natural resource needs, the department said.

Pennsylvania Record: Delaware County’s Hired Guns Will Receive 25% of Recovery in PFAS Case — According to records obtained by the Pennsylvania Record through an Open Public Records Act request, private counsel representing the County will receive a 25 percent contingency fee from any damages recovered in the case. Delaware County is pursuing legal action against more than two dozen companies it accuses of polluting its groundwater through the use of its products containing PFAS.

The New York Times: E.P.A. Approved Toxic Chemicals for Fracking a Decade Ago, New Files Show — The EPA in 2011 approved the use of PFAS to ease the flow of oil from the ground despite the agency’s own grave concerns about their toxicity, according to the documents reviewed by The New York Times. The documents are heavily redacted because the agency allows companies to invoke trade-secret claims to keep basic information on new chemicals from public release.

Yahoo News: EPA Considers Placing Limits on ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water — The Environmental Protection Agency announced this week that it’s considering drinking water limits for the entire class of PFAS compounds. A timeline on when new limits could be put in place is unclear. It has taken the EPA up to five years to determine if it’s going to regulate contaminants under the Safe Drinking Water Act, and additional time on top of that to develop the limits.