The EPA is continuing to reevaluate whether to change its position regarding the Biden administration’s 2024 listing of PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under CERCLA.
As reported in our March 15 update (available here), on February 24, 2025, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals granted EPA’s unopposed request for a stay of pending legal challenges to the former administration’s action. EPA’s rationale for the stay was that new agency leadership needed time to familiarize themselves with the issues and determine how to proceed, including potentially by taking actions that could obviate the need for judicial resolution of the pending challenges. The court granted the motion and ordered the case held in abeyance for 60 days. On April 30, 2025, the court granted an EPA motion to continue the stay for another 30 days, until May 30, 2025.
On May 30, 2025, EPA filed a new motion (available here) requesting that the stay continue in place, and stating in part that “EPA’s new leadership is currently still in the process of reviewing the issues presented in this case, evaluating the [CERCLA listing] within the broader context of EPA’s comprehensive strategy to address PFOA and PFOS, and developing EPA’s position on how to proceed in this litigation.” The agency noted that it was still possible that it would take further action that would resolve the litigation. On June 2, 2025, the court granted the motion and ordered that the case continue to remain stayed, until July 2, 2025.
Given recent decisions by new EPA leadership to reverse major regulatory actions taken by prior administrations—including its partial reversal of the Biden administration’s regulation setting drinking water standards for certain PFAS compounds—it is likely that the EPA will rescind or formally reopen the CERCLA listings of PFOA and PFOS, and defer any such listings to an unspecified future date.
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