Connecticut, Illinois Lead Push Against Trump Rollbacks on PFAS Reporting Rules
State coalitions pushed back on a number of environmental rollbacks by the Trump administration last year with the latest, led by Connecticut and Illinois, opposing efforts to exempt most manufacturers from reporting certain information on PFAS, the so-called toxic “forever chemicals.”
The states are taking (PFAS short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) seriously as these chemicals are ubiquitous in the environment and touch every state nationwide. Melanie Benesh, Vice President of Government Affairs at the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG), told The Goshen News. “More and more people are aware of PFAS and they’re angry that it’s been released into their communities without their knowledge.”
PFAS are a group of manmade chemicals that have been widely used in consumer products and industry for decades. They are extremely stable and repel oil, grease, water and heat, but these properties also make them persistent, or extremely resistant to break down, in the environment, according to the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP).
They also have been found to accumulate in humans and animals. Certain PFAS have been found to cause adverse health effects including increased risk of some cancers such as prostate, kidney and testicular cancers; decreased immune system function; and increased cholesterol levels, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) website.
In a Dec. 22 letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul led a group of 15 attorney generals in opposing the administration’s efforts to “gut” data reporting and record-keeping requirements for PFAS.
At issue is an EPA proposal announced last November that would narrow the scope of PFAS data reporting regulations under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and call for certain exemptions. The proposal would make the regulations “more practical and implementable and reduce unnecessary, or potentially duplicative, reporting requirements for businesses while maintaining the ability to obtain important use and safety information on PFAS,” the agency said in a statement at the time.
The proposal “is grounded in commonsense and the law, allowing us to collect the information we need to help combat PFAS contamination without placing ridiculous requirements on manufacturers, especially the small businesses that drive our country’s economy,” Zeldin said in the statement.
In their letter, the attorneys general noted that Congress mandated PFAS reporting requirements in 2019 under TSCA, and that EPA promulgated the rules in 2023. Under the requirements, manufacturers and importers of PFAS are asked to report what they know about the chemicals in their products, during a one-time reporting requirement currently scheduled to begin this April.
This information would include the identities and amounts of PFAS chemicals manufactured, any known effects on human health or the environment, and how many workers are exposed to these chemicals.
“This was a rule that was supposed to come out years ago. It was finally proposed by the Biden administration, which further delayed implementing it so they would have time to educate the industry and make sure that they were prepared to comply with the rule,” Benesh said. The Trump administration’s proposal would weaken the rule and create “a critical loss of data on PFAS,” she said.
“If adopted, the Trump Administration proposal would shield from reporting over 98 percent of entities that are expected to have relevant, vital information about PFAS under six new carveouts that had been previously considered and rejected by EPA,” Tong said in a statement. The proposed new exemptions include: (1) a de minimis exemption for articles with PFAS concentrations below 0.1%; (2) an imported articles exemption; (3) an exemption for PFAS manufactured as byproducts; (4) an exemption for PFAS manufactured as impurities; (5) an exemption for PFAS manufactured as non-isolated intermediates; and (6) a research and development exemption.
The letter was submitted as part of a public comment period that ended Dec. 29. California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin joined Tong and Raoul in the comments.
“We expect that our comments will be thoroughly considered by EPA as part of their review, and that these comments, along with many others submitted in opposition, would lead the EPA to abandon this proposal,” a spokesperson for Tong told Goshen News. “Should they adopt the proposal as a final rule, we will evaluate all legal options to protect human health and our environment.”
In addition, Tong has two pending lawsuits against 28 chemical manufacturers, charging that they knowingly contaminated Connecticut water and natural resources and harmed public health with PFAS.
The suits aim to hold the companies responsible for PFAS contamination from two sources— aqueous film forming foam used in firefighting, and chemicals used in manufacturing and added to consumer products, such as food packaging, cookware, carpeting, upholstery, clothing, and cosmetics, to make products resistant to stains, water, and heat.
