EnviroPolitics Blog

Enviro lawyer: Key takeaways from EPA’s landmark PFAS regulation

By Daniel T. McKillop, Scarinci Hollenbeck, April 12,, 2024

Key Takeaways from the EPA’s Landmark PFAS Regulation

On April 10, 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the first federal regulation limiting the amount of certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, found in drinking water. The final National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR) establishes drinking water standards for six PFAS, with compliance phased in over the next several years.

EPA’s Efforts to Address Forever Chemicals

As discussed in greater detail in prior articles, PFAS are a large category of organic chemicals that have been used since the 1940s to repel oil and water and resist heat. While they are a key component in certain products, such as nonstick cookware, stain-resistant clothing, and firefighting foam, there is significant evidence that exposure to certain PFAS over an extended period can cause cancer and other illnesses. Studies have also shown that PFAS exposure during critical life stages, such as pregnancy or early childhood, can lead to adverse health impacts.

While many U.S. manufacturers have stopped using PFAS in favor of safer alternatives, prior discharges have resulted in very high levels of PFAS in many public and private water systems. According to EWG, more than 320 military sites across the U.S. have PFAS contamination, and more than 200 million Americans may be drinking contaminated water.

Over the past several years, the Biden Administration has taken several steps to address PFAS contamination, including the creation of a PFAS Strategic Roadmap. As part of this initiative, the EPA has established methods to better measure PFAS; added seven PFAS to the list of chemicals covered by the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI); enacted a final rule under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to require manufacturers of PFAS and PFAS-containing articles to report information to EPA on PFAS uses, production volumes, disposal, exposures, and hazards; named PFAS as a National Enforcement and Compliance Initiative for 2024-2027; and proposed designating certain PFAS as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

PFAS Water Drinking Standards

Establishing PFAS water drinking standards was a central goal of the EPA’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the EPA has the authority to set enforceable National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWRs) for drinking water contaminants and require monitoring of public water systems.

The new National Primary Drinking Water Regulation establishes legally enforceable levels, known as Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs), for five individual PFAS in drinking water – PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFNA, and HFPO-DA – and for PFAS mixtures containing at least two or more of PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA, and PFBS, the new rule uses a Hazard Index MCL to account for the combined and co-occurring levels of these PFAS in drinking water (a PFAS mixture Hazard Index greater than 1 indicates an exceedance of the health-protective level). Below is a summary:

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) MCL = 4.0 parts per trillion (ppt)

Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) MCL = 4.0 ppt

Perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS) MCL = 10 ppt

Perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) MCL = 10 ppt

Hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA) MCL = 10 ppt

Mixtures containing two or more of PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA, and PFBS = 1 unit

Click to read the full article, including requirements for water systems

If you liked this post, you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed daily with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Please do not take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.

Enviro lawyer: Key takeaways from EPA’s landmark PFAS regulation Read More »

REVISED: NJDEP Office of Environmental Justice Newsletter

Subscribe to EJ Law Notices by County: Did you know that you can receive notices to upcoming EJ Law application hearings in your area? Subscribe online and select the counties in which you’d like to stay up-to-date for hearings near you.

Summary of Important Dates
Upcoming EJ Law Hearings

April 15 Safety-Kleen Solid Waste Modification Expansion- Linden Union County
May 8 Middlesex County Utilities Authority- Sayreville, Middlesex County

Announcements
EPA Announces New Federal Drinking Water Standards on PFAS
On April 10th, the Biden-Harris Administration issued the first-ever national, legally enforceable drinking water standard to protect communities from exposure to harmful per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as ‘forever chemicals.’ Exposure to PFAS has been linked to deadly cancers, impacts to the liver and heart, and immune and developmental damage to infants and children, disproportionately affecting public health in overburdened communities.

EPA has also announced the Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities Grant Program which will provide states and territories with funds to improve public water systems in small or disadvantaged communities and address emerging contaminants, including PFAS.

Murphy Administration Awards $16 Million in Grants to Advance Recycling and Waste Reduction Goals
Over $16 Million in grants have been awarded to communities to NJ counties to fund recycling initiatives. The award amounts for each municipality are based on recycling performance in recent years, incentivizing more sustainable waste management for all municipalities and furthering existing projects. Some municipal project ideas include sponsoring household hazardous waste collection events, providing recycling receptacles in public places, and maintaining leaf composting operations.

Overburdened Communities across the state were able to take advantage of this opportunity including Newark, Camden, Perth Amboy, and Paterson.

Updates on Resilient NJ’s Municipal Assistance Program
Resilient NJ’s Municipal Assistance Program (MAP) provides municipalities with climate change-related hazard vulnerability assessments and resilience action plans, used by municipal governments to advance resilience efforts. The recently completed inaugural round of MAP projects include Ocean Township, Stafford Township, and Upper Township. A second round of projects, expected to launch in 2024, include the Town of Harrison, the City of Lambertville, and Montclair Township.

REVISED: NJDEP Office of Environmental Justice Newsletter Read More »

Nation’s first all-electric tugboat going to work in San Diego Harbor

By Maria Gallucci, Canary Media, April 9, 2024

With their roaring diesel engines, tugboats push, pull, and guide much larger vessels into port and out to sea. They are small but mighty — and incredibly dirty, spewing huge amounts of toxic exhaust and planet-warming emissions every year.

Now, however, the humble harbor craft is going electric.

America’s first fully battery-powered tugboat recently docked at the Port of San Diego, where officials are working to decarbonize tugs, diesel cranes, and trucks. The electric tug was built over three years at an Alabama shipyard and then moved through the Panama Canal before arriving in Southern California earlier this spring.

“We’re ecstatic,” Frank Urtasun, the port’s chairman, told Canary Media. “This electric tugboat is a real game-changer that I think will have ramifications across the country.”

The 82-foot-long vessel is set to begin operating within the coming weeks, as soon as the shoreside charging infrastructure is completed, said Crowley. The Florida-based company owns and operates the electric boat — named “eWolf” in honor of Crowley’s first tug, the 1965 Seawolf — and everything that’s needed to keep it running.

Click to read the full story

Nation’s first all-electric tugboat going to work in San Diego Harbor Read More »

Three greenhouse gases are at all-time, climate-damaging levels

By David Gelles, NY Times Climate Forward, April 9, 2024

The extreme weather. The melting glaciers. The weirdly warm oceans. They’re all the product of global warming, which is being driven by the release of the three most important heat-trapping gases: carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.

And, according to a new study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, emissions of those three greenhouse gases continued to surge last year to historic highs.

Global average carbon dioxide concentrations jumped last year, “extending the highest sustained rate of CO2 increases” in NOAA’s 65 years of record-keeping. Methane and nitrous oxide levels also rose sharply last year. All this despite a wave of global policy measures and economic incentives designed to wean the world off fossil fuels.

These weren’t just one-off anomalies. In each case, the rising emissions continued a long-term trend. By analyzing more than 15,000 air samples from around the world, NOAA found that the upticks in emissions last year “were in line with the steep increases observed during the past decade.”

The result has been a series of profound changes to the planet in a remarkably short amount of time. “The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere today is comparable to where it was around 4.3 million years ago during the mid-Pliocene epoch,” the NOAA report found. That was when the “sea level was about 75 feet higher than today” and “large forests occupied areas of the Arctic that are now tundra.”

Carbon dioxide

Last year, humans spewed some 36.6 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, the most ever. That number may well be higher this year.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is now more than 50 percent higher than it was before the Industrial Revolution.

It’s no secret where all this carbon dioxide is coming from. The burning of oil, coal, and gas is the main source of CO2 emissions, and the use and production of fossil fuels continue to rise around the world, with the United States producing more oil and gas than ever before.

And even as the build-out of renewable energy is speeding up, the appetite for fossil fuels remains strong, in part because overall energy demand is soaring.

Fossil fuels aren’t the only source of carbon dioxide. The extraordinary forest fires that have charred Canada, Europe and Chile over the past year are also adding CO2 into the atmosphere. Yet even there, the vicious cycle of human-caused climate change is easy to see: Many of those fires were made worse because of the warming that has already occurred.

Methane

For a while, it looked like methane emissions were slowing down. After a rapid rise in atmospheric methane concentration during the 1980s, levels stabilized in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Then in 2007, they started rising again, and fast.

Researchers acknowledge they don’t fully understand what accounted for the relative stability of methane output and then its renewed growth. But what is clear is that methane emissions are booming today.

Last year saw the fifth-highest-ever jump in methane concentration since record-keeping began, and methane levels are now more than 160 percent higher than they were before the Industrial Revolution, according to NOAA. Methane is a particularly potent greenhouse gas; while it breaks down faster than carbon dioxide, it is more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

The vast majority of the increased methane emissions can be traced back to humanity’s insatiable appetite. Agriculture is the biggest source of methane emissions, according to the International Energy Agency, followed closely by the burning of fossil fuels.

Nitrous oxide

While carbon dioxide and methane are the two gases most commonly associated with climate change, nitrous oxide is another potent heat-trapping gas, and is also on the rise.

Click to read the full story

Three greenhouse gases are at all-time, climate-damaging levels Read More »

EPA plan for contamination at Superfund site buildings in Brooklyn

Public Meeting to be Held on April 16

NEW YORK (April 5, 2024) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a plan to protect people living and working in residential and commercial buildings at the Meeker Avenue Plume Superfund Site in the Greenpoint/East Williamsburg area of Brooklyn.

Groundwater and soil in the area are contaminated with chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs), which can vaporize into the soil and seep into buildings through their foundations.

“The most immediate threat to people is that the contamination can seep into buildings where people can breathe it in, so EPA is testing under foundation slabs to determine if there is a problem,” said Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia. “I encourage people to comment on this proposed plan, which will help EPA take action to reduce and address the potential risk to people in the area.”

The Meeker Avenue Plume Superfund Site covers over 190 acres across several city blocks in the Greenpoint/East Williamsburg area of Brooklyn. The soil, soil gas and groundwater at the site are contaminated with CVOCs, including toxic tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE), which are classified by EPA as likely to cause cancer. This part of Brooklyn included historical petroleum refining and storage operations along the banks of Newtown Creek. The site was discovered when chemical contamination was found in soil and groundwater outside the historic petroleum spill area.

As of December 2023, EPA sampled underneath and inside of 18 residential structures, 11 public housing buildings, and one public school. EPA has results that show no further action is needed at 15 of the residential properties, the 11 public housing buildings, and the public school. Three of the residential properties will require additional monitoring. In addition, in February and March 2024, EPA sampled 18 properties and will be evaluating the results, and will be conducting additional sampling in the future. Because prior sampling from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation did detect CVOC vapors inside several dozen properties, the State installed specialized systems to handle the vapors. This proposed plan would allow EPA to continue to install these systems, as needed, as it continues to sample.

Under the proposal, EPA would install special systems called sub-slab depressurization systems where needed and take preventative measures such as the sealing of cracks and gaps in the lowest level of a structure, where necessary. Sub-slab depressurization involves connecting a blower (an electric fan) to a small suction pit dug into the slab to vent vapors outdoors. EPA’s plan reflects the estimated costs for 100 structures within the Meeker Ave site study area. The plan estimates that the EPA’s work will be conducted on an ongoing basis for at least 5 years, the approximate time frame needed for the EPA to complete the vapor intrusion sampling necessary.

The EPA will work closely with property owners and area residents to ensure the remediation is done with minimal disruption. The EPA said it would investigate the entire site to determine the full nature and extent of contamination.

EPA will hold a public meeting on April 16, 2024, to explain the cleanup proposal and to take public comments. It will be held at 6:00 p.m. at St. Stanislaus Kostka Lower Church, 607 Humboldt St, Brooklyn, NY. Comments will be accepted until May 10, 2024.

Written comments may be mailed or emailed to Rupika Ketu, Remedial Project Manager, EPA, 290 Broadway, 18^th floor, NY, NY, 10007, ketu.rupika@epa.gov.

EPA’s proposed cleanup proposal will be available at the Meeker Avenue Plume Superfund Site.

EPA plan for contamination at Superfund site buildings in Brooklyn Read More »

California to use federal funds to test solar canopies over canal

The Delta-Mendota Canal (left) and the California Aqueduct east of Tracy, California.

By NATALIE HANSON, Courthouse News Service

LOS BANOS, Calif. (CN) — Canals in California may soon feature a new look — solar panel canopies, designed to stop evaporation and soak up the sun’s rays, created under a new project funded with help from the federal government to boost green energy infrastructure.

Governor Gavin Newsom joined staff from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Thursday to highlight a new “solar-over-canal” project along one of the state’s primary aqueducts. The pilot project proposes placing a solar canopy to “float” over a major waterway as a source of renewable energy that can also prevent the loss of precious water through evaporation.

Adam Nickels, Deputy Regional Director at the Bureau of Reclamation, said that the Biden Inflation Reduction Act helped make it possible to pick a portion of the Delta-Mendota Canal for placement of a solar panel in Merced County.

About $19 million from Biden’s fund is designed to help fund solar projects, with $15 million going toward making “floating solar” research happen.

Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton of the Bureau of Reclamation said that researchers hope to identify the best design for floating solar projects and what will work to pair with existing waterways.

Representative Jim Costa, a Democrat from Fresno, praised Biden for investing in infrastructure while criticizing the former Trump administration for making promises to do so “that never happened.”

Click to read the full story

California to use federal funds to test solar canopies over canal Read More »

Enviro lawyer: Key takeaways from EPA’s landmark PFAS regulation

EPA’s Efforts to Address Forever Chemicals

PFAS Water Drinking Standards

REVISED: NJDEP Office of Environmental Justice Newsletter

Nation’s first all-electric tugboat going to work in San Diego Harbor

Three greenhouse gases are at all-time, climate-damaging levels

Carbon dioxide

Methane

Nitrous oxide

EPA plan for contamination at Superfund site buildings in Brooklyn

Public Meeting to be Held on April 16

California to use federal funds to test solar canopies over canal

Subscribe For Latest Updates