WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month finished new rules for businesses that have manufactured products with chemicals known as PFAS in them.
The changes were made in the Toxic Substances Control Act and require companies that have manufactured PFAS since the start of 2011 to submit detailed reports to the EPA concerning uses, production volumes, byproducts, disposals and exposures.
PFAS are found in firefighting foam and consumer products and have been dubbed "forever chemicals" because of the human body's inability to rid itself of them. Lawyers have jumped on the chance to sue dozens of companies, with some scoring contingency-fee contracts with government officials and others pursuing consumer protection claims.
In a multidistrict litigation proceeding in South Carolina federal court, lawyers for water districts are asking for more than $1 billion in fees from massive settlements with DuPont and 3M.
The federal government is attempting to set a maximum contaminant level for PFAS, even as groups call the move premature. Much of the research regarding their effect on the human body is disputed.
The rules finalized in October by the EPA create "significant compliance obligations for businesses," attorneys at DLA Piper wrote.
And they also ended a lawsuit brought by advocates against the EPA, which was allegedly dragging its feet during the rulemaking progress. The National PFAS Contamination Coalition, the Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists sued the EPA in 2022, claiming harm from a lack of reporting regulations.
"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 during the case.
The case was stayed while the EPA worked its rules out.
"With EPA's final rule, the parties conferred and agreed not to proceed with litigating the... case," a Nov. 2 status report says.