EPA To Require PFAS Cleanups At RCRA Sites

EPA this week took steps to require PFAS to be cleaned up at the nation's more than 1,700 facilities that treat, store, or dispose of hazardous wastes ("TSDFs"). The proposed regulations are another in a progression of federal rules aimed at managing and cleaning up PFAS, including proposed or final rules under the Safe Drinking Water Act,¹ CERCLA,² and the Toxic Substances Control Act.³ In a pair of rules proposed this week, EPA is using its authority under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act ("RCRA") to add nine PFAS compounds to the list of "hazardous constituents" to be considered "in RCRA facility assessments and, where necessary, further investigation and cleanup through the RCRA corrective action process" at TSDFs.⁴ EPA also moved to expand the agency's authority to require cleanups of TSDFs even for chemicals that EPA has never formally found to be hazardous⁵—this rule could force TSDFs to account for thousands of other PFAS and other chemicals beyond