Host: Christina Liu
Guest: Analies Ross-Dyjak | Head of Policy | Hydroviv
Category: 🗳️ Policy
Podcast’s Essential Bites:
[0:46] “EPA announced this roadmap for confronting PFAS contamination, not just in water, but in the environment, in air. […] The media is referring to [PFAS] as forever chemicals and that's because they don't break down in the environment and they also accumulate in our blood. So it's a contaminant that is known to cause cancer and other negative health impacts. […] It's been detected in every single state in drinking water in the US.”
[4:07] “[PFAS contamination] is absolutely international. The US probably is more equipped to test for and regulate PFAS [than other countries], so it's really concerning that PFAS aren't regulated yet because of our technology and [resources] that we're able to actually create regulations and remove this.”
[5:29] “The roadmap isn't anything enforceable. So it's basically EPA saying, this is our plan for how we're going to deal with [PFAS] in the Biden administration. The first thing that the roadmap […] laid out […] is actually setting those enforceable standards in drinking water. And so they are only really talking about PFOA and PFOS […], [which] are the most well known [and] most well researched.”
[6:33] “The second thing that's really interesting is actually designating PFAS as a hazardous substance. […] That's really significant, because that means that those polluters, those chemical manufacturing companies […] that are using these on a daily basis, […] could actually be held accountable for their pollution. And so […] [they] would be able to help fund the cleanup. […] They're […] linking that in the Superfund Program.”
[15:24] “98% of Americans already have PFAS in [their] systems. And so with these action steps, […] we can just keep those levels at a point where we're not going to get severe health impacts, hopefully. So not too little too late. These are just really important steps that hopefully will come to fruition.”
[16:30] “The EPA Administrator […] is predicting that we can get […] [the] hazardous substance designation by the summer of 2023. […] The water quality standard he's predicting will come in the fall of 2023.”
Rating: 💧💧
🎙️ Full Episode: Apple
🕰️ 23 min | 🗓️ 10/29/2021
✅ Time saved: 21 min
Additional Links:
Hydroviv Blog
EPA: PFAS Strategic Roadmap
