Your Guide to Emerging Issues in Environmental Regulation and Litigation.
Do you want to destroy PFAS? But why stop there? Continue on to convert them into high value fluorochemicals, and recover and reuse the phosphate salts. That’s what one new study claims it can do. The authors reacted PFAS with potassium phosphate salts under solvent-free mechanochemical conditions — a mineralization process enabling fluorine recovery as KF …
A high-stakes environmental trial is unfolding in New Jersey, where the state is taking on E.I. DuPont de Nemours and its related entities over widespread PFAS contamination at the former Chamber Works facility in Salem County. The outcome of this case — one of the most closely watched environmental proceedings in the country — could …
As regularly reported by the Environmental Law Monitor, state legislatures have increasingly been taking action independent of federal government regulation to address the significant challenge of eliminating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly referred to as PFAS from their jurisdictions. Shortly after the Environmental Protection Agency finalized its first-ever drinking water standards for six PFAS in …
Another major settlement was announced this week in New Jersey in consolidated cases filed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and other state entities. (You can review the Judicial Consent Order here as well as previously PFAS settlements reported by our firm here and here, including in New Jersey for remediation costs.) Settling plaintiffs, …
The Environmental Protection Agency announced April 28 a list of upcoming agency actions to address Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS). This week’s announcement provides a broad outline of EPA’s plans that centers around three principles: (1) strengthening the scientific understanding of PFAS, (2) fulfilling statutory obligations and enhancing communication, and (3) building partnerships. PFAS are …
Our blog has reported previously on California PFAS regulations, including its watershed laws with novel definitions of PFAS and the noted problems with the total organic fluorine testing method. (Prior CA blog posts on PFAS). We have also written on California’s PFAS ban in many children’s products and in disposable food packaging (here), California’s requirements on …
In March, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) proposed to formally add GenX, PFNA, PFOA, PFOS — all PFAS compounds — and methanol to the list of regulated contaminants under various statutes. This includes the Ground Water Quality Standards (GWQS), Remediation Standards, and Technical Requirements for Site Remediation. The proposed amendments establish a …
The Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF) MDL has taken a significant step forward with the introduction of a new case management program intended to streamline the complex process of product identification. The program’s structured approach is designed to enhance efficiency and accuracy in identifying the sources of contamination, thereby facilitating more effective legal proceedings. The AFFF MDL …
In 2024, the EPA proposed a PFAS rule with a January 17, 2025, comment deadline in response to questions from the industry regarding the effective date of supplier notifications for mixtures or trade name products containing a per- or polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) listed on the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). 90 Fed. Reg. 10043. Stakeholders questioned …
In 2019, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) brought suit against Dupont and 3M seeking clean-up, removal, and costs for what NJ officials claimed was more than 100 years of indiscriminate dumping of thousands of pollutants into the Chambers Works compound in Salem County, NJ. According to the pleadings, among the contaminants released …