With the reelection of Donald Trump to the White Home, it would seem that latest rules applied by the U.S. EPA on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are on shaky floor. However Trump’s announcement that he needed former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin to steer the EPA, mixed with continued progress on PFAS destruction know-how, has some waste executives seeing as a lot alternative as issue sooner or later PFAS regulatory surroundings.
“We’re on this bizarre area. When you personal an organization, do you handle PFAS, do you keep away from it?” mentioned Bryan Staley, president and CEO of the Environmental Analysis & Training Basis, on the Company Progress Convention in Chicago final week. “The hedge can be, handle it as whether it is extra regarding than not. Then if it finally ends up not being regarding, then you possibly can take care of that at a later time.”
As a Republican consultant from New York, Zeldin supported laws that may have regulated sure PFAS underneath the Nationwide Consuming Water Commonplace. The company in the end set its personal rules for a number of PFAS in a ultimate ruling launched in April.
However underneath a brand new administration, there is a “good likelihood” the EPA can be directed to stroll again its designation of sure PFAS as hazardous underneath the Complete Environmental Response, Compensation, and Legal responsibility Act, mentioned Michael Jensen, senior counsel and director of regulatory affairs for WM. Such a transfer was laid out as a aim in Challenge 2025, the coverage doc launched by the Heritage Basis as a blueprint for a second Trump time period.
The EPA’s CERCLA designation for PFAS was introduced shortly after the consuming water commonplace this spring. It instantly drew considerations from some waste and recycling teams that services that obtain PFAS-containing supplies however don’t manufacture them — like landfills or recycling services — can be held accountable for remediating contamination.
“We predict that CERCLA is the mistaken technique to method regulation, however we’re not against regulation totally,” Jensen mentioned.
The Nationwide Waste & Recycling Affiliation is presently suing the EPA in an try to have the company rethink its CERCLA choice. Jensen mentioned the trade has additionally tried to work with Congress this session to get an exemption for “passive receivers” of PFAS chemical compounds like landfills, however has been stymied in an election 12 months.
With a Republican trifecta set to manage all three branches of the federal authorities, he’s extra optimistic about motion within the coming years. He famous Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., who is anticipated to steer the Senate Surroundings and Public Works committee within the subsequent Congress, has been sympathetic to the trade’s considerations.
“I feel proper now along with her having the gavel and robust help in that committee, we might be able to cross some kind of CERCLA reduction, some kind of exemption for landfills sooner or later, and hopefully that shall be taken up by the remainder of Congress,” Jensen mentioned.
However whereas the waste and recycling trade continues to battle mandates for PFAS remediation, some firms additionally imagine the uncertainty attributable to rules will result in extra enterprise.
Clear Harbors is making progress by itself PFAS destruction know-how, which it is growing in coordination with EPA and the U.S. Division of Protection. The corporate carried out an OTM-50 stack check with PFAS-contaminated materials this month at its Utah incineration facility, and expects to launch the outcomes of that check within the first quarter of subsequent 12 months, Jay Cudmore, government vp of disposal companies, mentioned on the occasion. He mentioned the know-how might cut back contamination by “six nines,” or by 99.9999%.
“We really feel actually assured in the way it’s popping out,” Cudmore mentioned.
Clear Harbors additionally gives a spread of PFAS sampling and remediation applied sciences. Cudmore mentioned that his firm was seeing a good quantity of enterprise from fireplace departments needing to eliminate their aqueous firefighting foam, which may include PFAS chemical compounds. However he famous that prospects are to date agnostic on the therapy kind and degree of remediation they search.
“Your early adopters, they know that the rules are coming, they’re attempting to get forward,” Cudmore mentioned. “So that they’re coming to Clear Harbors, on the lookout for that full suite of companies.”
Different firms like Battelle and Veolia have additionally appeared to money in on the PFAS therapy market. The latter firm launched its personal suite of therapy and compliance companies, dubbed BeyondPFAS, in October.
The executives talking eventually week’s occasion famous that no matter uncertainty surrounding federal rules, states are more likely to proceed pursuing PFAS regulation. New York and Illinois, as an example, have each prohibited thermal destruction of PFAS-containing firefighting foam.
Jensen mentioned he anticipated a “patchwork quilt” of rules to spring up as some states work to get forward of the EPA.
“It is not simply the progressive states both,” Jensen mentioned. “PFAS coverage does not at all times run alongside pink versus blue strains. I would not be shocked to see Oklahoma or a special state pursue that different regulation.”
These rules are more likely to elevate prices on treating PFAS-laden supplies, together with sludges from wastewater therapy crops. Executives on the Company Progress Convention mentioned therapy prices at landfills that obtain such supplies might double, however they might cross these prices onto their prospects.
Mentioned Cudmore: “I feel that the market is evolving, and if rules tighten, clearly the markets get greater.”