Water Coalition Against PFAS: Congress must act to protect consumers after EPA’s CERCLA decision

Congress should heed Trump Administration’s call to pass legislation protecting passive receivers of PFAS

The Water Coalition Against PFAS, a coalition of drinking water and wastewater sector organizations, is calling on Congress to pass legislation protecting passive receivers of PFAS from litigation after Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin called for new statutory authority last week.

The Water Coalition Against PFAS strongly supports efforts to ensure that polluters, not consumers, pay for PFAS cleanups. With last week’s announcement that the EPA will defend the 2024 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) PFAS rule, water systems that are passive receivers of PFAS could face significant legal and environmental remediation costs that ultimately will be borne by consumers.

“Administrator Zeldin made it clear that Congress should take action to provide statutory protection for passive receivers of PFAS. Water systems’ limited resources are best spent on infrastructure improvements and keeping costs low for consumers, not expensive litigation over chemicals that they neither manufactured nor profited from. We echo EPA’s call for ‘a clear liability framework that ensures the polluter pays and passive receivers are protected’. There is already significant bipartisan support to address this issue in Congress, and now with Administration support, there should be a viable path forward. The Coalition calls on Congress to act now and provide a statutory shield for water and wastewater systems under the CERCLA to help ensure that polluters, not the public, pay for PFAS cleanup.”

Background:

In 2024, the Biden Administration finalized a rule to add Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonate Acid (PFOS), two types of PFAS, to the list of hazardous substances under CERCLA. In tandem with the rulemaking, EPA issued an enforcement discretion memo indicating it would not pursue litigation against passive receivers of PFAS. This discretion was a welcome first step, but the agency cannot prevent passive receivers from being named as “potentially responsible parties” in lawsuits that are initiated by third parties— including PFAS manufacturers themselves.

Bipartisan legislation pending in Congress would address this issue by providing statutory liability protection for water systems that responsibly manage and dispose of PFAS chemicals. We thank Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) and Celeste Maloy (R-Utah) for introducing the Water Systems PFAS Liability Protection Act of 2025, which will ensure that the cost of cleaning up PFAS is paid by polluters who profited from the chemicals, not by consumers through higher water bills.

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About the Water Coalition Against PFAS
The Water Coalition Against PFAS includes organizations whose membership represent all facets of clean and safe water delivery – the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), the National Association of Water Companies (NAWC), the National Rural Water Association (NRWA), and the Water Environment Federation (WEF). The Coalition advocates for responsible PFAS policies that will result in a “polluter pays” approach to addressing PFAS contamination.