Chemours Company is the recipient of the U.S. EPA’s first-ever enforcement action for PFAS discharges with the Clean Water Act (CWA). The EPA is ordering Chemours Company to take corrective measures to address pollution from PFAS in stormwater and effluent discharges for a facility near Parkersburg, West Virginia.
The EPA stated that discharge levels of PFAS exceed the levels established in the facility’s CWA permit. In an administrative compliance order on consent (AOC) issued by the agency, “EPA sets forth that the facility exceeded permit effluent limits for PFOA and HFPO Dimer Acid on various dates from September 2018 through March 2023, and that Chemours failed to properly operate and maintain all facilities and systems required for permit compliance. As an initial step in characterizing PFAS in surface water discharges, EPA’s order requires Chemours to implement an EPA-approved sampling plan to analyze PFAS and conduct analysis to further understand the presence of PFAS in stormwater and effluent discharged from the facility. Also, Chemours will submit and implement a plan to treat or minimize the discharge of PFAS to ensure compliance with numeric effluent limits of PFOA and HFPO Dimer Acid.”
According to the EPA, the permit imposes discharge limits and requires monitoring of certain pollutants, including PFAS such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which was used in the past as a processing aid for manufacturing, and HFPO Dimer Acid, also known as GenX -- which replaced PFOA as a processing aid.
Merit Laboratories is a leading national PFAS environmental laboratory, analyzing drinking water, soil, wastewater, groundwater, and other sample matrices, including biosolids and sludge. Analytical methods performed by Merit for PFAS include drinking water by EPA 533, EPA 537.1, and EPA 537 rev. 1.1, biosolids by ASTM D7968-17 with Isotopic Dilution, and soil, wastewater, groundwater, and surface water by ASTM D7979-19 with Isotopic Dilution, ASTM D7968-17, and development of the new EPA 1633 method.