States begin to regulate PFAS in water discharges

By Karen Davis | JD Surpa | August 7, 2020

Read the full article by Karen Davis (JD Surpa)

“According to ITRC, 13 states (Alaska, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont) regulate PFAS in drinking water through an MCL, screening level and/or action level. Some states, including New Jersey and Massachusetts, are now regulating PFAS in water discharges. Regulation of water discharges containing PFAS presents challenges due to the ubiquitous nature of the chemicals and the extremely low regulatory standards that apply to PFAS. While these new monitoring requirements will provide additional data on the presence of PFAS, the data may not shed much light on the source of the PFAS since the PFAS can be present in intake water and/or storm water that enters the site holding the discharge permit. Under the New Jersey program, the permittee is responsible to find the source of the PFAS, even if it is an off-site source, and take measures to prevent the water containing PFAS from entering its discharge.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (‘MassDEP’) is now including a PFAS monitoring requirement in its water discharge permits. The provision requires the permittee to submit an evaluation of whether it uses any products containing PFAS and whether use of those products can be reduced or eliminated. It also requires that within six months after publication of an EPA-approved method for sampling wastewater, or two years from the effective date of the permit, whichever is earlier, the permittee must monitor for six PFAS compounds (PFHxS, PFHpA, PFNA, PFOS, PFOA and PFDA). After one year of monitoring, if four consecutive samples are reported as non-detect for all six PFAS compounds, then the permittee may request to discontinue PFAS monitoring. This condition was included in the recent draft permits for the Shire Human Genetic Therapies Cambridge facility, the Town of Athol Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Harvard University Blackstone Steam Plant and the Genzyme Corporation Allston facility…”

This content provided by the PFAS Project.