Approved Toxic Chemicals for Fracking a Decade Ago, New Files Show - The EPA in 2011 approved the use of PFAS to ease the flow of oil from the ground despite the agency’s own grave concerns about their toxicity, according to the documents reviewed by The New York Times. Delaware County is pursuing legal action against more than two dozen companies it accuses of polluting its groundwater through the use of its products containing PFAS. Pennsylvania Record: Delaware County’s Hired Guns Will Receive 25% of Recovery in PFAS Case - According to records obtained by the Pennsylvania Record through an Open Public Records Act request, private counsel representing the County will receive a 25 percent contingency fee from any damages recovered in the case. The companies will pay for environmental restoration, improvement, sampling and analysis, community environmental justice and equity grants, and other natural resource needs, the department said. The San Diego Tribune: DuPont, Spinoffs to Pay $50M for ‘Forever Chemical’ Cleanup - The settlement is the result of an investigation led by the attorney general’s office into the environmental impacts of legacy industrial activities in Delaware. Whether such a designation comes earlier or later, it is clear that such designation could bring on an array of EPA actions and additional costs. This content provided by the PFAS Project.JD Supra: CERCLA – One Potential Landing Spot for Regulation of PFAS - The PFAS Action Act of 2021 has the potential to greatly expand the scope of investigation and remediation under CERCLA by imposing an aggressive one-year schedule to designate PFOA and PFOS as “hazardous substances” and a five-year schedule to review all PFAS chemicals for potential designation. identified serious health risks associated with chemicals proposed for use in oil and gas extraction, and yet allowed those chemicals to be used commercially with very lax regulation,’ said Dusty Horwitt, researcher at Physicians for Social Responsibility.”… Those tests were not mandatory and there is no indication that they were carried out. scientists recommended additional testing. scientists pointed to preliminary evidence that, under some conditions, the chemicals could “degrade in the environment” into substances akin to PFOA, a kind of PFAS chemical, and could “persist in the environment” and “be toxic to people, wild mammals, and birds.” The E.P.A. In a consent order issued for the three chemicals on Oct. The records, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by a nonprofit group, Physicians for Social Responsibility, are among the first public indications that PFAS, long-lasting compounds also known as “forever chemicals,” may be present in the fluids used during drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The E.P.A.’s approval of the three chemicals wasn’t previously publicly known. in 2011 approved the use of these chemicals, used to ease the flow of oil from the ground, despite the agency’s own grave concerns about their toxicity, according to the documents, which were reviewed by The New York Times. “For much of the past decade, oil companies engaged in drilling and fracking have been allowed to pump into the ground chemicals that, over time, can break down into toxic substances known as PFAS - a class of long-lasting compounds known to pose a threat to people and wildlife - according to internal documents from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Read the full article here by Hiroko Tabuchi (The New York Times)