Per- and Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Strategic Roadmap - EPA's Commitments to Action 2021 to 2024 - 2022

Environmental Law, Regs, Litigation, State & Federal

Harmful per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are an urgent public health and environmental issue facing communities across the United States. In
April 2021, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael S. Regan created the EPA Council on PFAS and charged it with developing a coordinated strategy to protect human health and the environment from PFAS.

In October 2021, EPA released its PFAS Strategic Roadmap, which highlights concrete actions the Agency will take across a range of environmental media and EPA program offices to protect people and the environment from PFAS contamination. The Roadmap included target dates to achieve each milestone and is guided by three primary goals:

• Research. Investing in research, development, and innovation to increase the understanding of PFAS exposures and toxicities, human health and ecological effects, and effective interventions that incorporate the best-available science.
  
  
• Restrict. Pursuing a comprehensive approach to proactively prevent PFAS from entering air, land, and water at levels that can adversely impact human health and the environment.
  
  
• Remediate. Broadening and accelerating the cleanup of PFAS contamination to protect human health and ecological systems.

In this progress report, EPA summarizes the critical actions the Agency has taken over the past year to advance progress toward these goals. In addition, this document highlights milestones EPA will achieve in the near future. Since the Roadmap’s release in October 2021, EPA has taken a number of key actions:

• Proposed to designate two PFAS as CERCLA hazardous substances. If finalized, this will be a critical step toward increasing transparency around releases of PFAS and holding polluters accountable for cleaning up their contamination.

• Released drinking water health advisories. Acting in accordance with EPA’s mission to protect public health and keep communities and public health authorities informed when new science becomes available, the Agency issued drinking water health advisories for four PFAS.

• Laid the foundation for enhancing data on PFAS. This included an order under EPA’s National PFAS Testing Strategy requiring companies to conduct PFAS testing, and nationwide sampling for 29 PFAS in drinking water starting in 2023.

• Began distributing $10 billion in funding to address emerging contaminants under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).

EPA is making transformational investments in cleaning up PFAS and other emerging contaminants in water, especially in small or disadvantaged communities.