Today the EPA finalized its rule designating PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act), which will grant the agency more power to hold polluters accountable to pay for clean-up costs.

Over the last year, various industries have lobbied for liability waivers to avoid accountability for clean-up costs. This includes the water privatization industry, which spent at least $200,000 in the second half of last year lobbying on PFAS and CERCLA liability exemptions and other matters.

In response, Mary Grant, the Public Water for All Campaign Director at Food & Water Watch said:

“Chemical companies have attempted to hide what they have long known about the dangers of PFAS, creating a widespread public health crisis in the process. These polluters must absolutely be held accountable to pay to clean up their toxic mess. 

“Today’s new rules are a necessary and important step to jump start the cleanup process for two types of PFAS. While we thank the EPA for finalizing these rules, much more is necessary: the EPA must require polluters to pay to clean up the entire class of thousands of toxic PFAS chemicals, and it must ban nonessential uses of PFAS to stop the pollution in the first place. 

“Right now, Congress must reject various legislative proposals to exempt for-profit companies, including the water and sewer privatization industry, from being held accountable to pay to clean up PFAS. It is an outrageous hypocrisy that large for-profit water corporations seek to privatize municipal water and sewer systems by touting themselves as a solution to PFAS contamination, and yet they want to carve themselves out of accountability for cleanup costs. No corporation should have free rein to pollute.”