EPA Gives States Explicit Steps to Stop PFAS Pollution at the Source

By: SELC

Jan 23, 2025

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a new “How-To” guide to help states prevent PFAS pollution and protect communities across the country. This guide builds on EPA’s 2022 permitting guidance, which emphasized that states already have the legal authority to stop PFAS pollution at its source. By reinforcing this authority, the EPA ensures that the responsibility of addressing pollution falls on industries rather than the communities affected downstream. This step-by-step roadmap empowers state agencies to take immediate action against industrial sources of toxic PFAS contamination.

The EPA’s guide emphasizes that states should limit PFAS pollution through Clean Water Act discharge permits that require effective treatment technology. It also urges state agencies to demand detailed information from industries during the permitting process, allowing them to establish pollution limits. Additionally, the framework reaffirms that industries must disclose the PFAS and other chemicals they release. Since PFAS, often called “forever chemicals,” persist in the environment and are not removed by conventional water treatment, stopping them at the source is crucial to safeguarding public health and drinking water supplies.

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