U.S. Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, and Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, recently introduced the bipartisan Water Systems PFAS Liability Protection Act.
The legislation is aimed at ensuring water utilities can continue to focus efforts on maintaining water quality rather than defending themselves when perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) — known as PFAS — polluters seek to dilute their liability, according to a news release from Gluesenkamp Perez. PFAS are also called "forever chemicals."
“PFAS chemicals harm our health and kids’ development — and water utilities are working hard to treat and dispose of these substances,” Gluesenkamp Perez stated in the release. “Our bipartisan bill will prevent water utilities and ratepayers from bearing the brunt of PFAS cleanup costs, which would disproportionately harm small and rural communities — and instead help ensure the companies that produced the chemicals are accountable, not our ratepayers.”
In 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formally announced plans to designate two of the most common PFAS as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA).
This designation could put drinking water utilities at risk of incurring cleanup liability when they take necessary steps to remove and dispose of PFAS deposited into water supplies by upstream polluting industries, according to the release.
In addition, wastewater and stormwater utilities could also be put at risk, as they receive PFAS chemicals through the raw influent that arrives at the treatment plan or through municipal stormwater runoff.
While the EPA has announced an “enforcement discretion” policy that intends to focus on polluters that are responsible for the contamination and have profited from PFAS, such a policy will be insufficient to ensure that drinking water and clean water ratepayers will be permanently protected from CERCLA legal defense costs and cleanup liability for PFAS, according to the news release.
“Our members provide wastewater services to nearly half of Washington state's population, and as providers of an essential public service, wastewater treatment plants cannot avoid decades of pollution caused by both industrial and domestic uses of PFAS,” said Kyle Dorsey, executive director of the Coalition for Clean Water. “As passive receivers of PFAS, we should not be held liable, nor should our ratepayers, for a problem not of our making.”
Gluesenkamp Perez previously introduced the legislation in the 118th Congress.
The congresswoman has helped bring back home more than $12.9 million for water and wastewater projects across Southwest Washington, her office stated in the release.
An interactive map of community investments she has supported can be found at gluesenkampperez.house.gov/invest.
