On January 31, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
announced two proposed rules to amend EPA's Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations in ways that would
expand the EPA's authority to address PFAS contamination. The
proposed rules would apply to hazardous waste treatment, storage,
and disposal facilities with solid waste management units, which
include any units "from which hazardous constituents might
migrate," including tanks, waste piles, incinerators,
underground injection wells, and landfills.
Under the first proposal, EPA would add nine PFAS (per-
or polyfluoroalkyl substances) to the list of "hazardous
constituents" under RCRA, having concluded that these nine
PFAS "have been shown in scientific studies to have toxic,
carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic effects on humans or other
life forms." The express identification of these PFAS as
hazardous constituents would enable EPA to consider the substances
in the RCRA corrective action
