A new bipartisan bill in the U.S. House aims to shield water utilities from bearing the financial burden of PFAS contamination, emphasizing the ‘polluter pays’ principle and urging responsibilities onto the chemical manufacturers.
In a significant development aimed at addressing the financial implications of environmental contamination, the U.S. House of Representatives has seen the introduction of bipartisan legislation designed to shield water utilities and their ratepayers from the cleanup costs of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). This bill, known as The Water Systems PFAS Liability Act (H.R. 7944), was introduced by Representatives John Curtis (R-UT) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), and corresponds with Senate legislation brought forward last year by Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY).
The proposed legislation targets PFAS, a group of man-made chemicals notorious for their persistence in the environment and potential links to adverse human health effects. These substances are found in a wide range of consumer goods and industrial applications, from non-stick pans to firefighting foams, and have been dubbed “forever chemicals” due to their lengthy degradation period.
Central to this initiative is the protection it offers to water systems under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund. This act facilitates the cleanup of contaminated sites and mandates that the polluters bear the cost of remediation. The upcoming rule by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is set to designate PFAS compounds perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) as hazardous substances, potentially exposing water utilities to significant financial and legal challenges.
According to the American Water Works Association (AWWA), a stalwart in the campaign for these legislative protections, the financial onus for PFAS contamination should not fall on innocent water utilities or their customers, but rather on the manufacturers and users who have benefited from these chemicals. David LaFrance, CEO of AWWA, emphasized the need for legislation that maintains the ‘polluter pays’ principle, which underscores that those who produce pollution should bear the cost of managing it to prevent damage to human health and the environment.
The importance of this legislation was further highlighted in a recent Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing titled “Examining PFAS as Hazardous Substances,” which illustrated the potential repercussions for water systems and their consumers emanating from the CERCLA designation of PFAS. The pervasive nature of these chemicals means that many drinking water and wastewater utilities, which inadvertently receive these substances, might face liability merely for their role in filtering and purifying water.
This proposed act promises not only to provide statutory protection for water utilities but also to ensure their financial sustainability and capacity to continue supplying safe drinking water without the burden of uncontrollable, exogenous clean-up costs.
The American Water Works Association, established in 1881 and now the largest nonprofit, scientific, and educational water management organization with about 50,000 members, has been at the forefront of advocating for solutions that improve public health, protect the environment, and enhance the quality of life. The introduction of The Water Systems PFAS Liability Act represents a crucial step toward aligning national policy with these goals, ensuring that the fight against PFAS contamination does not unjustly penalize public water systems or their customers. As the bill progresses through legislative scrutiny, its outcomes could set a precedent for how environmental liabilities are shared across stakeholders in the context of increasingly complex chemical contaminations.