On January 14, 2021, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (“NJDEP”) filed suit against the United States to compel the United States to address immediately contamination of New Jersey groundwater with PFOA and PFOS from facilities owned or operated by the United States. The suit, which was brought pursuant to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (“SWDA”) and the New Jersey Safe Drinking Water Act (NJSWDA”), alleges that the use of AFFF at federal…

We’ve discussed in our previous posts the process that EPA will likely use to designate PFOA and PFOS as “hazardous substances,” how that designation will impact responsible parties, and what effects it may have on current EPA-lead investigations and remediations. In this article we discuss how the process may impact states that are also addressing PFAS. Many states have “superfund” laws modelled on CERCLA that allow those states to respond to contamination and…

In two of our previous posts, we discussed the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “Hazardous Substance” Designation Process and the Implications of a Designation on Responsible Parties. Here, in this post, we discuss what a designation of PFOA and PFOS might mean for ongoing investigations and remediations lead by EPA. Current EPA Interim Recommendations for CERCLA and RCRA Sites EPA’s current interim policy, published December 19, 2019, provides guidance for a “risk-based”…

As previously reported, the Biden administrative is expected to make PFAS regulation and enforcement a priority by, among other things: designating PFAS as hazardous substances, setting enforceable limits under the Safe Drinking Water Act, prioritizing substitutes through procurement policies, and accelerating toxicity studies and research. Plan to Secure Environmental Justice and Economic Opportunity. On February 3, 2021, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a public hearing on the nomination of Michael S.…

The Biden Administration has pledged to designate certain PFAS as hazardous substances under federal law. What effect would the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) designation of PFOA and PFOS as “hazardous substances” under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) have on the legal landscape? As you may recall, in a previous post we discussed the regulatory processes through which EPA can designate PFOA and PFOS as “hazardous substances.” Now, in this…

For the past several years, much attention has been focused on the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) legal authority to respond to PFAS contamination. When EPA published its PFAS Action Plan in February 2019, it discussed, among other things, designating PFOS and PFOA as “hazardous substances” through one of the available statutory mechanisms under CERCLA. A year later in its February 2020 update, EPA again noted that it “continued moving forward with the…

The U.S. District Court in the Western District of North Carolina recently held in Colony Insurance Co. v. Buckeye Fire Equipment Co. that an insurance company must defend personal injury claims arising from direct exposure to Aqueous Film Forming Foams (AFFF) under a Commercial General Liability (CGL) Policy despite the policy containing a “Hazardous Materials Exclusion.” That exclusion requires a discharge into the environment and, generally, may not be applied to injuries caused by something…