PFAS opportunities coming as Trump enters office, waste executives say

November 25, 2024

Read the full article by Jacob Wallace (Waste Dive)

"With the reelection of Donald Trump to the White House, it might appear that recent regulations implemented by the U.S. EPA on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are on shaky ground. But Trump’s announcement that he wanted former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin to lead the EPA, combined with continued progress on PFAS destruction technology, has some waste executives seeing as much opportunity as difficulty in the future PFAS regulatory environment.

“We’re in this weird space. If you own a company, do you manage PFAS, do you avoid it?” said Bryan Staley, president and CEO of the Environmental Research & Education Foundation, at the Corporate Growth Conference in Chicago last week. “The hedge would be, manage it as if it is more concerning than not. Then if it ends up not being concerning, then you can deal with that at a later time.”

As a Republican representative from New York, Zeldin supported legislation that would have regulated certain PFAS under the National Drinking Water Standard. The agency ultimately set its own regulations for several PFAS in a final ruling released in April."