Administrator Zeldin's PFAS Strategy

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled a comprehensive plan to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination on April 28, 2025. This strategy maintains several regulatory priorities from the previous administration while introducing new initiatives aimed at enhancing scientific understanding and regulatory frameworks to reduce PFAS contamination. Below is a summary of the main goals EPA has outlined.

Continuity in Regulatory Priorities

Zeldin's approach continues key aspects of the prior administration's PFAS strategy, emphasizing:

• Preventing PFAS from Entering Drinking Water Systems: Developing effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) to stop PFAS from contaminating drinking water sources.

• Holding Polluters Accountable: Engaging with Congress and industry to establish a clear liability framework that ensures polluters are held responsible for contamination while protecting entities that are passive receivers.

New Initiatives and Strategic Shifts

Zeldin's plan also introduces several new initiatives to strengthen the EPA's response to PFAS challenges:

• Advancing Research and Testing: Implementing a PFAS testing strategy under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to gather scientific information based on hazard characteristics and exposure pathways.

• Risk-Based Reviews: Achieving more effective outcomes by prioritizing risk-based reviews of new and existing PFAS chemicals.

• Designation of a PFAS Lead: Appointing an agency lead for PFAS to better align and manage efforts across EPA programs.

• Enhanced Air Emissions Monitoring: Launching efforts to collect and measure PFAS-related air emissions, addressing information gaps where PFAS cannot be measured or controlled.

• Annual Updates to Disposal Guidance: Increasing the frequency of updates to the PFAS Destruction and Disposal Guidance from every three years to annually, ensuring the effectiveness of treatment technologies is continually assessed.

• Review of CERCLA/RCRA Decisions: Determining how to better use the RCRA rules to address releases and potentially changing it’s view on how PFAS substances will be regulated under CERCLA (pending litigation in the D.C. Circuit).

EPA states it will continue to work with states and tribes to assess risks from PFAS contamination.