Textile Insight

textileinsight.com Winter 2023 ~ Textile Insight • 35 Islands), tribal lands, and some federal facilities. Other states could adopt the EPA's guidance. e EPA memo specifically names textile mills and leather tanning and finishing as industrial direct dischargers and outlines two primary requirements for NPDES permits. e first is quarterly monitoring for 40 PFAS compounds detectable by dra method 1633 and reporting the data in Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMRs). e second is implementing best management practices, "including product substitution, reduction, or elimination for discharges with PFAS." In addition to EPA's actions, more than 50 bills to address PFAS were introduced in Congress between 2021 and 2022, according to policy consulting group Global Counsel. As of May 2022, 20 states had issued widely ranging PFAS standards or regulations for drinking water. More state and federal regulations are expected. PFAS litigation is on the rise, and the payouts stemming from litigation are oen significant. PFAS pollution is also leading to explosive growth in lawsuits. Bloomberg Law reports that more than 6,400 PFAS-related lawsuits were filed in federal courts between July 2005 and March 2022. Michael Blumenthal, an attorney with McGlinchey Stafford, PLLC, told Bloomberg Law that if PFOA and PFOS are classified as hazardous waste, "there will be so much litigation." PFAS Management PFAS management is developing but still falls short of what is needed. e majority of commercially available PFAS testing detects fewer than 100 PFAS compounds and the Microscopic view of the ClaroSafe PFAS media shows the intricacy of the matrix that captures PFAS molecules.

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