WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Groups wanting the Environmental Protection Agency to make a move regulating chemicals known as PFAS will have their lawsuit against the agency stayed.
The EPA says its completion of a rulemaking process will likely render moot the lawsuit brought by the National PFAS Contamination Coalition, the Sierra Club, Earthjustice and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The plaintiffs argued a stay will harm them because they will continue to lack complete PFAS reporting, but District of Columbia federal judge John Bates on Jan. 3 halted proceedings for seven months.
"There is, of course, always some uncertainty in the rulemaking process," Bates wrote. "But the case presented here is not one where defendants are 'unable to predict a timeframe for completion of the rulemaking process.
"Defendants have provided the proposed timeline and published the draft rule, and the rule as written will fully address the harm identified by plaintiffs...
"(A)lthough staying this case could potentially harm plaintiffs, in light of the case's posture and the progress of ongoing rulemaking, such harm is unlikely."
Dubbed “forever chemicals” because of the human body’s inability to rid itself of them, they have likely made it into the bloodstreams of most Americans through groundwater.
States have set their own maximum contaminant levels (and hired private lawyers to sue companies on contingency fees) but the federal government's only guidance is an advisory level much higher than the states'.
A study funded by the Centers for Disease Control found that evidence linking PFAS chemicals to cancer "remains sparse." Currently, military bases and businesses do not have to report PFAS levels because they are subject to a de minimis exemption and an alternate threshold reporting exemption.
"EPA is depriving Plaintiffs and their members of critical information about the facilities releasing PFAS into their communities and the resulting toxic pollution in the air they breathe and the water they drink," attorneys for Earthjustice wrote in their response to the motion to stay.
"Indeed, EPA itself has recognized that these exemptions significantly limit the data it received for (Toxics Release Inventory)-listed PFAS and that eliminating their applicability to these PFAS would provide it with more complete information regarding the PFAS that are released."
The EPA's motion to stay says its rulemaking should be completed by Nov. 30, 2023, and "if finalized as expected, will obviate Plaintiffs' claims."