Denver Environmental Attorney Joel Johnston for Water Online - Water Industry Reacts To Proposed PFAS Regulations
March 14, 2023
Water Online
Joel Johnston, partner and shareholder at law firm Hall Estill, specializing in environmental and regulatory issues and large infrastructure projects:
“The EPA’s move to regulate PFAS and related chemicals in drinking water is going to have potentially significant impacts. Given these chemicals tend to linger in the environment and build up over time, coupled with their previous widespread use in both industrial and common household applications, it is likely that a significant number of water systems/supplies across the country are impacted, so water utilities and managers of impacted systems will need to implement new technologies to remove the compounds, or change their water source.
“In some parts of the country, such as the arid west, changing water supply may not be an option. We know there are supplies in Colorado that are known or likely to be impacted, which is likely the case in every state, so this is a local issue for everyone.
“In addition, by regulating PFAS in drinking water, these compounds will now need to be addressed by other environmental regulations such as those arising pursuant to RCRA [Resource Conservation and Recovery Act] and CERCLA [Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act]. These new regulations could have a pretty widespread impact across the country.”
