REGIONAL

PFAS

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SESSIONS

Regional PFAS Community Engagement Sessions
Background

In October 2021, EPA released its PFAS Strategic Road map, which highlights concrete actions the Agency
will take across a range of environmental media and EPA program offices to protect people and the
environment from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination. In early 2023, EPA held a
series of virtual community engagement sessions for each of its 10 Regions, and an additional session for
Tribes, to share actions taken under the PFAS Strategic Roadmap and to provide an opportunity for
community members to share feedbackwith EPA.

EPA Region 1 Session Summary

Region Ts community engagement session was held on April 11,2023, and 149 people attended the
session. During the session, EPA Region 1 Administrator and EPA PFAS Council Co-chair David Cash spoke
about how PFAS have affected New England communities, some of the first in the nation where the
presence of PFAS was discovered,

Duringthe session, EPA heard from community members, environmental activists, nonprofit
organizations, community organizers, a state senator, and others about how PFAS have impacted their
communities and their lives. Their statements touched on topics including the need for more PFAS
regulation, regulating PFAS as a class, following other agencies' actions, river and drinking water
contamination, a lack of testing and monitoring, prioritizing prevention, cost concerns, the need for
additional grant and funding opportunities, PFAS in pesticides, the effects of PFAS on the atmosphere and
air, and a lack of transparency, accountability, and responsibility.

A common theme throughout the session was encouraging stronger PFAS regulations. Several individuals
said that PFAS should be regulated as a ciass rather than chemical-by-chemicai, voicing concern about the
time it wili take to study each PFAS. A member of the Vermont PFAS Military Poisons Coalition
recommended the EPA follow the European Chemicals Agency and ban the production and import of over
10,000 PFAS chemicals. A speaker from Merrimack, New Hampshire, mentioned that current MCLs do not
account for the conditions in her community, "PFBA, PFPeA, PFHpA, and PFHxA, those four have
consistently appeared in our water at higher levels than the four in your hazard index," she said.

EPA also heard concerns about a lack of PFAS testing and monitoring and their effects on water and the air.
A Westfield resident explained that the city has approved development on a previous chrome plating site
without any PFAS testing. Another individual, a Massachusetts state senator, expressed worry about a local
biosolids gasification facility that burns PFAS materials. Finally, individuals from New Hampshire and
Massachusetts spoke about the Saint-Gobain facility that contaminated the Merrimack River and drinking
water. "You have over 400,000 people, mostly in EJ communities, who are getting their primary drinking
water from that river, and there is not sufficient testing, monitoring, or tracking of what's actually
happeningwithin the river right now, and that's one area that we'd like to see improved," said one
speaker.

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Another concern among individuals was a lack of transparency, accountability, and responsibility from
EPA. One speaker, a weed removal service owner, said that the Vermont Department of Health and Agency
of Agriculture will not share information about PFAS in pesticides which raises concern about the food he
consumes. A speaker from Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water said the progress made in New Hampshire
has been citizen-driven. She asked EPA to do more regarding cleanup and hazardous substance
designation.

A speaker from the Massachusetts Waterworks Association shared concern about the cost of PFAS
cleanup. She called for more funding and an exemption for utilities that did not cause the contamination,
explaining that CERCLA "will place significant costs on local government, particularly water and
wastewater systems, who are treating drinking water and wastewater to protect public health and the
environment, costs that will be borne by ratepayers."

Community members also focused on the need for prevention efforts. A member of Westfield Residents
Advocating for Themselves emphasized the importance of prevention and protection over the continued
use of PFAS and monitoring.

EPA Region 1 is thankful for the feedback provided during this session. Individuals shared valuable stories,
questions, recommendations, concerns, and affirmations about the work that is beingdone. EPAis
committed to continuing to use this feedback to inform future work under the PFAS Strategic Roadmap.

Region 1 Community Feedback and Ongoing EPA Actions

Under the PFAS Strategic Roadmap, EPA is making progress to address priority areas highlighted in the
feedback shared by Region 1 participants, including:

Addressing PFAS As a Class: EPA has continued its work to deepen our understanding of PFAS categories
through the National PFAS Testing Strategy, which EPA released alongside the PFAS Roadmap in October
2021. The Testing Strategy is a major step toward breaking PFAS into distinct categories to direct research,
amplify regulatory action, and accelerate technology and policy solutions to restrict and remediate PFAS.
In the past year, EPA released its second and third test orders under the Testing Strategy to require
manufacturers to test chemicals used to make plastics and to make GenX chemicals, respectively, and
anticipates more orders in the year ahead. As EPA continues to implement the Testing Strategy and as EPA
learns more, the Agency also expects to evolve and refine its approach, and to enhance stakeholder
engagement.

PFAS Testing and Monitoring Methods: Critical to EPA's efforts to restrict discharges to waterways are the
methods needed to detect PFAS and scientific information on the levels at which PFAS are harmful. EPA
and the Department of the Defense are in the final stages of validating EPA Method 1633, a method to test
for 40 PFAS in wastewater, surface water, groundwater, soil, biosolids, sediment, landfill leachate, and fish
tissue.

Preventing New PFAS Contamination: EPA is pursuing a comprehensive approach to proactively prevent
PFAS from entering air, land, and water at levels that can adversely impact human health and the
environment. EPA continues to take action to address PFAS chemical safety and is moving quickly and
strategically to address upstream industrial discharges of PFAS under the Clean Water Act. In January 2023,
EPAreleased its latestplan forsettingtechnology-based standards for industries that discharge PFAS,
known as Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELG). The plan, known as ELG Plan 15, reinforces EPA's existing
rulemaking efforts for PFAS manufacturers and for metal finishers, and announces EPA's plans to proceed
with a new rulemaking for PFAS discharges from landfills.

To learn more about EPA's efforts to address PFAS and to watch a full recording of the community
engagement session, click here.

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