The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is set to examine “forever chemicals” cleanup and disposal policies, as pressure mounts on Congress to reach consensus on solutions to thorny liability questions.
It’s the first congressional hearing focused on PFAS cleanups since the Trump administration revealed it would keep a Biden-era rule that designated two of the chemical family’s most notorious compounds — PFOA and PFOS — as hazardous under the federal Superfund law.
That designation gives EPA the authority to make polluters pay the costs to remediate contaminated sites — a principle with overwhelming bipartisan support but is complicated in practice.
EPA has signaled it intends to only go after PFAS manufacturers. However, local governments, water utilities, farmers, landfill operators and other entities that don’t create the chemicals but must deal with the contamination — known as “passive receivers” — could still get dragged into years of expensive legal battles by polluting companies looking to share the blame.
