Congressional representatives from Michigan in the United States House of Representatives are leading the charge in the bipartisan creation of a PFAS Task Force in congress to address the national public health threat posed by PFAS substances. The PFAS task force is being led by Rep. Dan Kildee (MI-Flint).  

“Each week, more PFAS chemical contamination sites are being identified across the country,”  said Rep. Kildee, in his official release announcing the task force creation. “Hundreds of communities are already affected by this growing public health threat, and Congress must do more to address PFAS contamination.”

According to Rep. Kildee the PFAS Task Force will:

• Hold informational events to educate Members of Congress and their staff to increase awareness about PFAS chemicals.

• Craft legislation to address PFAS contamination.

• Meet with congressional leadership, committee chairs and ranking members to ensure PFAS is adequately and more urgently addressed.

• Fight for more robust funding through federal appropriations to clean up PFAS contamination.

Rep. Kildee is joined on the task force by ten other Michigan congressional representatives Fred Upton, Bill Huizenga, Brenda Lawrence, Elissa Slotkin, Debbie Dingell, Haley Stevens, Rashida Tlaib, Tim Walberg, Andy Levin, and Jack Bergman.

PFAS contamination is being discovered at sites throughout the United States. According to the Environmental Working Group, “EPA tests have detected PFAS pollution in public water supplies for 16 million Americans in 33 states, but that is considered a severe underestimate of the scope of the problem. EWG and researchers at Northeastern University have tracked 172 PFAS contamination sites in 40 states, and drawing on unreleased data from the EPA tests, EWG estimates that water supplies for as many as 110 million Americans may be contaminated. “

Merit is Michigan’s PFAS environmental laboratory, analyzing soil, wastewater, groundwater, drinking water, and other sample matrices at our laboratory in East Lansing, Michigan.  Merit is certified for the analysis of PFAS by ISO/IEC 17025. Analytical method certification for PFAS includes drinking water by EPA 537 rev. 1.1 and wastewater | groundwater | surface water by ASTM D7979 with Isotopic Dilution. Please contact Merit Laboratories for assistance on your PFAS testing needs.